SS12: Sordo reclaims first place

Dani Sordo has reclaimed top spot on Rallye de France Alsace by winning the final stage of Saturday morning’s loop for the MINI WRC Team.

Sordo, from Spain, now leads the world championship counter by 0.2s heading to the remote service halt in Colmar.

Petter Solberg was second quickest through the stage but is 40.9s adrift of first place following his puncture on the previous test.

Ogier, who had led after stage 11, said: “It’s a big fight but it’s okay for us. The downhill section was a bit difficult, there was gravel on the road because of the cars [ahead]. Dani is driving very well now, so I have to keep driving like this. The MINI is going well. You can’t do these times without a good car.”

Jari-Matti Latvala has overtaken MINI driver Kris Meeke for fourth place in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC after Meeke suffered a spin. However, the Finn says he remains unhappy with his own performance due to the number of mistakes he is making.

Mads Ostberg picked up a slow puncture in his M-Sport Stobart Fiesta, which has dropped him to 10th behind Dennis Kuipers, Armindo Araujo and Henning Solberg. Kuipers reported problems with the brakes on his FERM Power Tools World Rally Team Fiesta, while Araujo is adopting a cautious approach in his Motorsport Italia MINI after using his only spare tyre changing a puncture on stage 10.