Spain WRC, Day 2: Dominant Ogier goes a minute clear

Three stage wins in the morning saw the Frenchman extend his lead from four seconds to more than 50 as both Jari-Matti Latvala and Ott Tanak hit trouble.

"It's been fun all day, I'm really happy. The car has been perfect," said Ogier after the run.

"With the big gap, I've been able to take it easy when the road has been dirty - but when it's clean I still push."

Fellow VW driver Latvala was in damage control mode, suffering from brake issues during the first two stages and then falling behind Dani Sordo and Andreas Mikkelsen as he cut a corner and damaged his wheel on SS12.

Despite his mistake, it was still Latvala who ended the day in second as he went on to top three stages of the remaining five, with Mikkelsen also edging ahead of local Hyundai driver Sordo.

The Citroen duo of Kris Meeke and Mads Ostberg completed a calm day to round out the top six with the Northern Irishman passing his teammate on the final stage of the day.

Hayden Paddon retained seventh for most of the running but lost around half a minute after a puncture, which allowed Thierry Neuville to close in on and eventually end the day with level with the Kiwi.

It proved a very unfortunate day for M-Sport, with Tanak crashing out of third on SS11, Elfyn Evans retiring in a ditch later on and brake issues costing former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica several minutes during the final couple of stages.

Day 2 overall classification (top 10)