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WRC Italy: Jari-Matti Latvala still leads despite engine scare

Jari-Matti Latvala continues to lead Rally Italy despite fearing he would have to retire on Saturday's second stage

The Volkswagen driver had begun the day by extending his advantage over team-mate Sebastien Ogier to nearly half a minute with a win on the Monte Olia stage.

But on the following 59-kilometre long Monte Lerno, Latvala's engine temperatures shot up to dangerous levels and he began to prepare to retire, switching the car into road mode and slowing down.

Then the problem appeared to clear and as the engine cooled, Latvala got back on the pace and came through the stage having lost 11 seconds to Ogier, leaving his lead at 17.7s.

Ogier felt he could have taken more time out of Latvala had he not eased off when told over the radio that his team-mate was retiring, only to then learn that this would not be the case.

VW looked set to swiftly move into a top-three sweep when Saturday's stages began, with Andreas Mikkelsen ending day one right on the tail of Mads Ostberg's Citroen for third.

But Ostberg responded in the morning and beat Mikkelsen on both stages, re-establishing a 9.4s cushion.

Robert Kubica remains fifth and has pulled away from M-Sport team-mate Elfyn Evans.

Leading positions after SS11:                
                                                  
Pos  Driver              Team/Car        Time/Gap 
 1.  Jari-Matti Latvala  VW            2h40m07.9s 
 2.  Sebastien Ogier     VW                +17.7s 
 3.  Mads Ostberg        Citroen         +1m10.8s 
 4.  Andreas Mikkelsen   VW              +1m20.2s 
 5.  Robert Kubica       M-Sport Ford    +2m21.4s 
 6.  Elfyn Evans         M-Sport Ford    +3m03.4s 
 7.  Martin Prokop       Czech Ford      +3m25.6s 
 8.  Henning Solberg     Solberg Ford    +4m07.0s 
 9.  Hayden Paddon       Hyundai         +8m23.9s 
10.  Nasser Al-Attiyah   M-Sport Ford    +9m44.3s*
                                                  
* WRC2                                            

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