Latvala moves into Rally France lead

The Belgian entered the Hohlandsbourg test with a 13.1s advantage over the rest of the field but came a cropper mid-stage when he hit a large stone, causing his left-rear tyre to fall of its rim and deflate.

He lost 1m20s as a consequence and fell down to fifth overall and, despite winning the third stage of the afternoon in Soultzeren, trails rally leader Latvala by 1m10.4s overnight.

Dani Sordo was in sparkling form today and his third fastest time through Hohlandsbourg gave him the rally lead, which he held until the final test as both Volkswagen drivers turned up the wick along with team-mate Sebastien Loeb.

The Citroen driver's advantage over Latvala was just 0.6s prior to the final stage of the day through the streets of Mulhouse, which became a 0.4s deficit after the Finn posted a time 0.8s quicker.

Ogier is 1.5s behind his team-mate in third, while Loeb's challenge took a slight knock when he experienced understeer through the second of the afternoon's tests - Vallee de Munster - which resulted in him losing 3.7s.

The nine-time world champion starts the final day of his rally swansong five seconds off the lead, but more than minute ahead of fifth place Neuville.

Evgeny Novikov is a similar distance behind his M-Sport team-mate, while Mikko Hirvonen remains in seventh as his relatively lacklustre rally continues to play out.

Robert Kubica is still in charge of WRC 2 and has built a lead of 3m30.1s over Elfyn Evans.