Latvala charges into lead from Ogier in Spain

Top 15 classification from WRC RallyRACC Catalunya after SS14

Jari-Matti Latvala has taken over from Toyota teammate Ott Tanak for the lead in at RallyRACC Catalunya following the Estonian’s costly puncture, while defending World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier has launched a charge of his own in second place.

The Finnish driver stormed into the lead at the start of the second loop on Saturday, taking over from local favourite Dani Sordo, following Tanak’s puncture on SS10 which dropped him from a comfortable 30-second lead down to a ninth place in the overall classification.

But with Sordo fading for Hyundai, Ogier has surged up to second place for M-Sport Ford and ends SS14 just 4.7s off Toyota’s Latvala to set up an intriguing final day in Spain.

Sebastien Loeb rolled back the years for Citroen by climbing to third place at the end of SS14, winning SS12 outright, to edge out a 1.8s gap on M-Sport Ford’s Elfyn Evans in fourth place.

WRC championship leader Thierry Neuville holds fifth place after a small recovery drive on Saturday, closing up to 12.7s off overall leader Latvala.

With Sordo fading to sixth, the Spanish driver has a comfortable gap to Esapekka Lappi who continues to struggle for Toyota Gazoo with teammate Tanak taking eighth after his earlier puncture.

Craig Breen (Citroen) and Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) round out the top ten ahead of final premier class contender Teemu Suninen for M-Sport Ford, while Kalle Rovanpera has taken control in the WRC2 class for Skoda after Eric Camilli hit technical trouble while leading on Volkswagen’s debut of the Polo GTI R5.