Jari-Matti Latvala crashes

Finn Jari-Matti Latvala crashed his Ford Focus RS WRC on Saturday’s opening stage, the 18km Gocbeyli.

The BP Ford Abu Dhabi team driver began the day in sixth place but rolled his car after nudging a bank 1km from the start line on the asphalt part of the mixed surface stage.

Latvala and co-driver Miikka Anttila were unhurt and managed to get going again, but lost nine minutes to the leaders.

Petter Solberg was the stage winner, with rally leader Sebastien Ogier six-tenths slower and Mikko Hirvonen rounding off the top three times.

Further down the order, J-WRC front-runner Thierry Neuville stopped at the 12km point.