Tanak closes in on Germany victory as puncture hampers Ogier

Classification after SS15 at Rallye Deutschland

Ott Tanak looks set to secure back-to-back wins for the first time in his World Rally Championship career with a dominant lead going into the final day at Rallye Deutschland while Sebastien Ogier dropped out of contention with a puncture.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver has led in Germany for all but one stage and took full control when Ogier was hit by a tyre puncture on SS13 and lost over 90 seconds to drop from second to ninth.

With Tanak holding station at the top, Hyundai’s Dani Sordo has moved into second place but is a distant 43.7s off the Estonian driver with three stages remaining.

Tanak’s Toyota teammate Jari-Matti Latvala produced a strong end to Saturday’s action with victory on SS15 to move within one second of Sordo while pulling out an eight-second advantage on WRC championship leader Thierry Neuville who holds fourth place.

Esapekka Lappi also remains in the hunt for a podium place for Toyota in fifth place with a 6.3s gap splitting him to Neuville.

Andreas Mikkelsen holds sixth place in the final Hyundai but is under pressure from a resurgent Ogier who ends SS15 just half a second off the Norwegian driver.

With Ogier in seventh, his M-Sport Ford teammate Teemu Suninen is eighth with a comfortable margin to Citroen duo Mads Ostberg and Craig Breen who complete the top ten. Elfyn Evans has dropped out of contention for M-Sport Ford after sustaining damage on SS10.

In WRC2, Kalle Rovanpera heads up an intensely competitive field with just 7.8s splitting the top four.

Fabio Andolfi currently holds second place 2.9s off Rovanpera with Jan Kopecky completing a provisional Skoda podium lockout in third three seconds further back. Former class leader Kajetan Kajetanowicz is fourth for Ford less than two seconds behind Kopecky.