Sébastien Ogier completed a hat-trick of stage wins at Wales Rally GB on Friday morning to lead this final round of the FIA World Rally Championship from Kris Meeke.
Having topped the timesheets in the opening Hafren test, the Frenchman won Sweet Lamb and Myherin in his Volkswagen Polo R to head the Briton by 12.9sec.
His task was eased when second-placed team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala went off under braking 600 metres after the start of Sweet Lamb and retired from the leg. Also out was Thierry Neuville who ripped a wheel from his Hyundai i20 after clipping a tree and Kevin Abbring who stopped with a mechanical problem.
“The conditions were better in Myherin, the grip was better,” said Ogier. “It’s a shame for Jari-Matti as I was looking forward to the fight.”
Meeke was content with his performance in Citroën’s DS 3. “I’ve only driven Myherin once and that was four years ago. It was a different surface to the others, slippery and polished so I had to be careful,” he said.
Andreas Mikkelsen was third in Sweet Lamb and second in Myherin to climb to third overall, 3.9sec behind Meeke. The Norwegian headed fellow countryman Mads Østberg by 5.0sec, Østberg modifying his DS 3’s set-up after Sweet Lamb and coping with a muddy cockpit due to a hole in the floor.
Elfyn Evans struggled for confidence in his Ford Fiesta RS but the Welshman was fifth, with Dani Sordo rounding off the top six in his i20 despite losing 10sec with a spin.
Hayden Paddon struggled with the inconsistent grip in his i20 but sixth fastest in Myherin promoted the Kiwi to seventh. Ott Tänak, Martin Prokop and Stéphane Lefebvre completed the top 10.
Robert Kubica dropped 2min 20sec in Myherin after changing a puncture in his Fiesta RS 5km after the start.