WRC Rally Catalunya: Ogier-led Volkswagen takes control
World rally champion Sebastien Ogier will lead a Volkswagen one-two-three into Sunday at Rally Catalunya, after Dani Sordo fell down the order to fourth on Saturday afternoon
The three VW drivers were in a dominant mood, locking out the top three for all but one of the afternoon stages.
A relaxed Ogier lost a small amount of time to team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala during the loop, but the Frenchman still heads into Sunday with a lead of 54 seconds.
Latvala was as low as fourth during the morning loop thanks to a puncture on SS12 but the Finn battled back to not only leapfrog team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen, but to depose Sordo of second overall.
He did so with some blistering times through SS16 where he was five seconds faster than anyone else, gaining two places in the process, before setting an identical time to Mikkelsen on SS17.
Mikkelsen is now 2.9s behind Latvala in third with Sordo who, despite pushing hard, was unable to handle the pace of the VWs and finished the day a further 4.5s back in fourth.
Kris Meeke was able to leapfrog his Citroen team-mate Mads Ostberg on the final stage of the day, in which Meeke was third fastest and Ostberg was ninth after he stalled.
Hayden Paddon and Thierry Neuville ended the day with identical overall times.
Neuville had been closing in on Paddon for most of the day but wasn't able to capitalise until the final stage.
The Belgian was joint-fastest through SS17 with Ogier and was 2.6s faster than fellow Hyundai driver Paddon, which was enough to see the pair head into Sunday tied for seventh.
Martin Prokop kept it clean throughout to end the day ninth with WRC2 leader Pontus Tidemand rounding out the top 10.
Tidemand needs to win to keep his slim title hopes alive but the gap to Jan Kopecky in second is gradually coming down, and currently stands at 30.1s.
Robert Kubica suffered more woe in the afternoon, stopping on SS16 with a puncture before enduring brake issues for the remainder of the stages and losing the use of his handbrake for SS17.
Follow the conclusion of Rally Catalunya on Autosport Live from 6:50am UK time on Sunday.
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