Latvala closes on Rally of France win

Latvala saw his advantage over Mikkelsen narrowed by two seconds on SS15, but the Finn responded on the following test by pulling out 2.8s on his Volkswagen team-mate.

That means the Finn will take a buffer of 28.8s over Mikkelsen into the final loop of stages.

Citroen's Kris Meeke remains on course for third position with an advantage of 39.1s over M-Sport Ford driver Robert Kubica, who seized fourth from Dani Sordo on SS15 with his first stage win of the rally.

The Hyundai driver lost further ground on the next stage, and now lags 8.4s behind Kubica. Mikko Hirvonen, who lost time by clipping a ditch on SS16, is a further 13.1s back in sixth.

The position most likely to change hands in the final two stages is seventh, as Mads Ostberg saw his lead over Elfyn Evans reduced to just 0.2s over the course of the morning.

Bryan Bouffier is also likely to lose ninth place to Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville, who is just 4.5s away from the Frenchman.

Despite taking a third stage win of the rally on SS16, points leader Sebastien Ogier's only hope of scoring in his home rally still rest on the powerstage, which takes place later this morning.