Monte Carlo WRC: Ogier's lead grows as Meeke and Latvala retire

The Briton set the pace in the first afternoon test but his car’s undertray was damaged in the subsequent run, with the gearbox failing as a result and forcing the Citroen driver into retirement.

Jari-Matti Latvala, who had been running as best of the rest behind Ogier and Meeke, also exited the rally during the loop.

Despite dipping a wheel into a ditch in SS11 and damaging his suspension, the Finn managed to fix up his car - but failed to make it to the start of the next stage in time and had to call it a day.

Given there is no Rally 2 service before the final leg, neither Meeke, nor Latvala will continue the rally on Sunday.

The day’s final two tests were dominated by Thierry Neuville and Hyundai, the Belgian taking advantage of the team’s correct choice of winter tyres to give the new i20 its first two stage wins.

As a result, Neuville is now only 12.5s behind Andreas Mikkelsen as the duo are set to battle it out for second tomorrow.

Thanks to the two retirements, M-Sport’s Mads Ostberg and the remaining Citroen of Stephane Lefebvre moved into fourth and fifth respectively, Bryan Bouffier dropping out of sixth with broken suspension.

That promoted Ott Tanak and Dani Sordo moved up to sixth and seventh, split by less two seconds, with WRC2 leader Elfyn Evans in eighth.

Standings after SS13:

Pos.	Driver / Co-Driver	Car	Time/Delay
1	Sebastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia	VW	3h19m05.7s
2	Andreas Mikkelsen Anders Jaeger	VW	1m59.7s
3	Thierry Neuville Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai	2m12.2s
4	Mads Ostberg Ola Floene	Ford	4m25.9s
5	Stephane Lefebvre Gabin Moreau	Citroen	7m29.4s
6	Ott Tanak Raigo Molder	Ford	10m42.3s
7	Dani Sordo Marc Marti	Hyundai	10m44.5s
8	Elfyn Evans Craig Parry	Ford	17m14.5s
9	Armin Kremer Pirmin Winklhofer	Skoda	19m26.4s
10	Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm	Skoda	19m38.1s