Volkswagen driver Jari-Matti Latvala continues to lead Neste Oil Rally Finland after an intense day of competition in the forests. The flying Finn now has 19.7 seconds in hand to Kris Meeke who overhauled defending FIA World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier this afternoon.

[caption id="attachment_3254" align="alignright" width="300"] Seb Ogier takes a big jump even as teammate Latvala takes the lead. Ogier, the reigning champ, is in third. A VW image[/caption]

Today’s route took in two identical loops of four stages before returning to Jyväskylä for the second run over the famous Harju stage. In contrast to yesterday, blue skies and sunshine added to the spectacular backdrop of one of the most challenging and blisteringly fast events on the World Rally Championship calendar. On a high, Latvala has barely put a foot wrong and powered the Polo R WRC to five stage victories, also notching up the car’s 250th stage win since its launch at the beginning of 2013. He drifted into a ditch in the opening stage but has otherwise had a trouble-free run on his home round of the series. Team-mate Sébastien Ogier was once again running first on the road and while the road cleaning effect appeared less obvious this morning, the Frenchman lost time this afternoon and was ultimately overhauled by Kris Meeke in stage 11, the Northern Irish driver surprised to have moved ahead of his rival, albeit with just 1.6 seconds in hand. He and Ogier were the only other drivers to claim stage wins, Meeke with one and Ogier with three.

Behind the battling trio at the head of the leaderboard, the fight for fourth position is even more intense with Andreas Mikkelsen, Mads Østberg and Mikko Hirvonen split by just 3.1 seconds this evening. Mikkelsen has run without problems and while overnight set-up changes benefitted Østberg, the Norwegian took the first few stages to get into the groove and back into the fight. Hirvonen had a spin this afternoon but the rivals look set to provide another titanic battle for honours tomorrow. From an overnight 10th, Hayden Paddon is now seventh in the lead Hyundai i20 WRC after team-mate Juho Hänninen rolled out of fourth position in the second stage. The Finn was able to continue but was forced to remove the windscreen for the following two stages, resulting in an incredibly windy ride for him, the co-driver and pace note book! He is ninth behind Fiesta RS WRC driver Elfyn Evans after failing to make further progress due to a power steering problem this afternoon. Thierry Neuville was forced into retirement after the lunchtime service with damage to the roll cage after he clouted the back-end of the car this morning. Robert Kubica is also on the retirement list, the Pole ending up in a ditch with an over-optimistic pace note, although he will re-join tomorrow under Rally 2 regulations. Martin Prokop also went off the road.

Neste Oil Rally Finland – Unofficial Results after Section 4

1.   Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
1hr 34min 42.4sec

2.   Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle
Citroën DS3 WRC
1hr 35min 02.1sec

3.   Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
1hr 35min 03.7sec

4.   Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
1hr 35min 46.6sec

5.   Mads Østberg/Jonas Andersson
Citroën DS3 WRC
1hr 35min 47.8sec

6.   Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
1hr 35min 49.7sec

7.   Hayden Paddon/John Kennard
Hyundai i20 WRC
1hr 36min 54.0sec

8.   Elfyn Evans/Daniel Barritt
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
1hr 37min 21.8sec

9.   Juho Hänninen/Tomi Tuominen
Hyundai i20 WRC
1hr 37min 33.5sec

10. Craig Breen/Scott Martin
    Ford Fiesta RS WRC
    1hr 40min 01.5sec