Rally - Latvala leads

The VW team are back at the top of leaderboard after Day 2 in Corsica - but there’s not an Ogier in sight. Jari-Matti Latvala leads with Andreas Mikkelsen third, but there’s a Fiesta filling in the Polo sandwich. Young Elfyn Evans is hanging on in there. And there’s more good news. Kris Meeke is back up to fourth.

As for Ogier he lost 1m 40s on Friday due to a slow puncture, and was later handed a 10 minute penalty as a result of a problem shifting gear on the way to Parc Fermé. This necessitated a change of gearbox after the scheduled service late on Friday evening.

As on Friday, Saturday’s Leg was shortened when the 43.69 kilometre-long SS4 was cancelled, reducing the day’s schedule to just two stages.

At close of play on Saturday Elfyn said: "It's been another really good day for us. Having no previous experience of this event I never imagined that I'd be just two seconds off the lead going into the final day but we must have done something right because here we are! Of course it was disappointing to lose what was quite a lot of time to Jari-Matti  on a single split [through SS5] this morning, but we were really happy with our performance on the second stage [SS6].”

"To set the third fastest time through a fifty kilometre stage is no easy feat and even though we were a bit hesitant in places I was pleased with the potential we were able to show in there. Anything can still happen so we'll be pushing on tomorrow. We don't want to take any unnecessary risks as this is a very high-risk environment, but now that I've got a taste for sitting on the middle seat [on the podium], I want to be sitting there again!”

"Sunday's stages are quite similar to SS6 so hopefully we can keep the pressure on and take the fight to Jari-Matti. But whatever happens, I certainly won't forget my first experience of this legendary event!"

Kris Meeke added: “It was another long day, but again there were only two stages... This rally really is like no other. At least we had a more consistent road surface today, with more grip. We managed to go from eighth to fourth position on today’s leg. The DS 3 WRC worked perfectly throughout the day. The points are very important for the manufacturers’ standings so we need to make sure we finish the job tomorrow.”

Leaderboard after Day 2:

1. Jari-Matti Latvala / Miikka Anttila (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) 1:42:24.8
2. Elfyn Evans / Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +2.0
3. Andreas Mikkelsen / Ola Floene (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) +30.8
4. Kris Meeke / Paul Nagle (DS 3 WRC) +53.6
5. Kevin Abbring / Sebastian Marshall (Hyundai i20 WRC) +1:00.1
6. Mads Østberg / Jonas Andersson (DS 3 WRC) +1:05.7
7. Hayden Paddon / John Keenard (Hyundai i20 WRC) +1:25.5
8. Bryan Bouffier / Thibault de la Haye (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +1:37.2
9. Stéphane Sarrazin / Jacques-Julien Renucci (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +1:51.6
10. Ott Tanak / Raigo Molder (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +1:53.9