SS22: Ogier and Latvala equal quickest

The close nature of Rallye de France Alsace has been further underlined after Sebastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala both completed the penultimate stage in a time of 5m50.3s.

Ogier’s performance in his Citroen DS3 WRC means he extends his advantage at the top of the leaderboard to 6.7s over MINI John Cooper Works WRC driver Dani Sordo with one stage remaining. For Latvala, his stage time was further confirmation of the pace of Ford’s Fiesta RS WRC on asphalt.

“It was okay, I did the job I needed to,” said Ogier. “Now I need to have a good last stage.”

Sordo was 0.8s off the pace. He said: “It’s normal with the [soft compound] tyres, it’s really hot with the temperatures. At the end of the stage the car is moving a little bit.”

Petter Solberg remains in third overall in his privateer Citroen although Latvala is now 11.5s behind the Norwegian.

Dennis Kuipers continues to hold a career-best sixth overall for the FERM Power Tools World Rally Team with the Dutchman adopting a risk-free strategy in his Fiesta.

Mads Ostberg impressed with the fourth fastest time for the M-Sport Stobart World Rally Team.