WRC Rally Germany: Ogier pulls away from Latvala as VW dominates
Sebastien Ogier increased his Rally Germany lead as he outpaced Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala on four of Saturday morning's five stages
Ogier and Latvala alternated fastest times on the first two stages of the morning, but when the group arrived at the two short Arena Panzerplatte tests, Ogier boosted his lead by 2.7 seconds over just 3.56 miles of competition.
The monster 23.8-mile Panzerplatte Long stage featured a brilliant Ogier time, 6.8s quicker than Latvala - extending the gap to 18.5s overall.
VW is searching for its first home win in Germany but holds a 1-2-3 for the time being, with Andreas Mikkelsen maintaining a steady pace in third.
In the VWs' wake, asphalt specialist Dani Sordo moved up into fourth on the final stage of the morning, at the expense of Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville.
Sordo is 35.6s behind Mikkelsen heading into the afternoon loop.
Neuville struggled with understeer on the Panzerplatte long test, leaving him fifth ahead of Elfyn Evans - who went second quickest on the morning's first stage, Grafschaft.
Ott Tanak has struggled to match Evans's pace on Saturday so far and lies seventh ahead of Mads Ostberg, Hayden Paddon and Stephane Lefebvre.
After a difficult afternoon on Friday, Lefebvre went second quickest on SS12, in what is turning out to be a very strong World Rally Car debut in an extra Citroen.
Jan Kopecky continues to lead WRC2 in his Skoda Fabia R5, although his record of winning every stage so far was ended on SS11 by Esapekka Lappi, who rejoined under Rally2 after crashing out on Friday morning.
Craig Breen continues to hold second in WRC2 in his Peugeot.
AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live coverage from Rally Germany resumes at 2.30pm UK time for the afternoon stages
LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS13:
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