WRC Australia: Sebastien Ogier continues to pull away
The relentless Sebastien Ogier stretched his Rally Australia lead to nearly half a minute on Saturday morning
Two more stage wins on the 50 kilometres of Nambucca and the shorter Valla test brought the Volkswagen driver's advantage up to 27 seconds over Mikko Hirvonen.
Citroen's Finn continued to do his utmost to keep in touch with Ogier, although a mistake near the end of Nambucca cost Hirvonen several seconds.
Thierry Neuville remains third for M-Sport, holding an eight-second cushion over Hirvonen's team-mate Kris Meeke.
Jari-Matti Latvala closed on Meeke's fourth place with a quick time on Nambucca, only to clip a bank and pick up a puncture on Valla.
That dropped Latvala behind Mads Ostberg into sixth, just ahead of his VW team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen.
Leading positions after SS12: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Ogier VW 1h35m53.6s 2. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen +27.6s 3. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford +59.6s 4. Kris Meeke Citroen +1m07.6s 5. Mads Ostberg M-Sport Ford +1m28.6s 6. Jari-Matti Latvala VW +1m32.5s 7. Andreas Mikkelsen VW +1m43.7s 8. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford +2m17.3s 9. Nathan Quinn Italia Mini +6m48.9s 10. Khalid Al Qassimi Citroen +7m46.9s
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