Thrilling lead battle rages on through Nikara

The nip and tuck battle for the lead of Rally Japan continued on the 17km Nikara stage, where the four quickest drivers were covered by just 1.3 seconds.

After losing the rally lead following a jump start on SS13, a fired-up Petter Solberg attacked hard to take the stage win. However with Jari-Matti Latvala just three-tenths slower, and Sebastien Ogier only one second further back, the Norwegian remained third overall.

But while the top four drivers remained closely bunched in the overall standings (split by 6.2sec) fifth placed Dani Sordo slipped back by eight seconds. The Spaniard reported no specific problem, but said he had found it hard to keep his Citroen C4 on the racing line on the soft, rutted road surface.