Ogier retakes lead of Rally Australia
Sebastien Ogier overhauled Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala to retake the lead of Rally Australia as the prospect of rain presented all the WRC frontrunners in the World Rally with a conundrum over the choice of tyres - hard or soft? Latvala had chosen softs all round whilst Ogier used a mixture of hards and softs which proved far better than his VW team-mate, moving Ogier into a 10.3s lead heading to the evening's super specials.
Kris Meeke's Citroen managed to disrupt VW's domination again when he reclaimed third from Andreas Mikkelsen following a minor error by the Polo driver on Valla. Meeke is now 1.3s ahead. Mikko Hirvonen is fifth and Mads Ostberg in sixth-place after he'd overhauled Hayden Paddon's Hyundai.
Thierry Neuville's comeback drive has now brought him back up to eighth, despite an impact with a post on Valla that caused some damage to his Hyundai, outpacing Elfyn Evans throughout the afternoon and then benefiting from Robert Kubica losing a minute with a trip off the road, also on Valla stage.
Leading positions after SS12:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Ogier VW 2h00m34.8s
2. Jari-Matti Latvala VW +10.3s
3. Kris Meeke Citroen +23.9s
4. Andreas Mikkelsen VW +25.2s
5. Mikko Hirvonen M-Sport Ford +1m21.4s
6. Mads Ostberg Citroen +2m01.0s
7. Hayden Paddon Hyundai +2m08.8s
8. Thierry Neuville Hyundai +3m48.1s
9. Elfyn Evans M-Sport Ford +3m55.3s
10. Robert Kubica M-Sport Ford +4m30.9s
13th September, 2014