Latvala extends Rally Germany lead

Ogier was already out of contention for the win, having rejoined under Rally 2 in 34th place following his Friday afternoon accident.

His recovery drive started badly when he overshot a corner on Saturday's Stein & Wein opener, but it got much worse early on the following Peterberg stage where he crashed heavily.

The stage had to be abandoned due to barrier damage, and Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia were taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

The incident has the potential to transform the 2014 World Rally Championship title battle, handing Latvala a big chance to reduce Ogier's current 44-point lead.

Latvala went quickest on both the short and long Panzerplatte stages, despite everyone else on soft tyres struggling badly with fading rubber near the end of the 26-mile course.

That brought the Finn's lead over Kris Meeke's Citroen up to 45.8s.

Meeke now has two Hyundais behind him. Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo thrived on hard tyres on Panzerplatte, with Neuville second-fastest to Latvala and jumping both Andreas Mikkelsen and Sordo to go from fifth to third.

The Belgian, whose participation in the rally initially seemed unlikely when he barrel-rolled his i20 on Thursday's shakedown, is now 8.0s behind second-placed Meeke and 1.3s ahead of Sordo.

Mikkelsen lost ground on Panzerplatte as his soft tyres wilted and is now 11s behind Sordo in fifth.

Elfyn Evans has demoted M-Sport team-mate Mikko Hirvonen to seventh, while Mads Ostberg closed in on both in the second Citroen. Just 4.1s now covers sixth to eighth places.

Robert Kubica had a very strong morning, taking the stage win on Stein & Wein and moving back up to 12th overall.