Latvala crashes in SS9

Volkswagen's Jari-Matti Latvala has lost over three minutes on Wales Rally GB after going off in Saturday morning's opening test and getting stuck in a ditch.

Latvala finished the first leg 6.6 seconds off rally leader Sebastien Ogier and was pushing hard to close the gap to his team-mate when he made an error near the end of the 8.25 km Clocaenog East 1 test and went off. He was helped back onto the test by some spectators, although he lost the rear spoiler in the incident.

"It was a very good stage up to that point where we went off!" Latvala said. "I was doing really well, but then it was very slippery coming into a corner and I was a little late on the braking and stalled the engine.

"I tried to turn into the bend but the car wouldn't restart and we went backwards and slipped off into a ditch and got stuck."

Latvala now drops to tenth place overall, leaving Ogier with a 1 minute 13.8 seconds cushion over Mikko Hirvonen in second.

Kris Meeke is third, just 4.8 seconds back, with Mads Ostberg also in the battle for the runners-up spot, 1.3 seconds further adrift.