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WRC Poland: Andreas Mikkelsen leads after incident-packed loop

Andreas Mikkelsen holds a temporary lead over Sebastien Ogier on Rally Poland, but organisers are likely to amend times following a series of incidents

Ogier had begun to pull clear of Volkswagen team-mate Mikkelsen in their frantic victory battle early on Saturday morning.

Both were among the many drivers to outbrake themselves and have a minor trip off the road on the Stare Juchy stage, and Mikkelsen's error was more costly as he had to stop and reverse, handing Ogier a 10s lead.

The world champion then extended that to 14s by winning the Babki stage, but on the subsequent Goldap test, Ogier had to stop after Mads Ostberg rolled his Citroen out of third place and blocked the road.

Mikkelsen was less hindered and came through 18s faster, ostensibly giving him a 4.3s lead, although Ogier is sure to request a notional time having been delayed by Ostberg's incident.

The 35km Goldap, the rally's longest stage, produced chaos throughout the World Rally Car field.

Both works Citroens went off, with Kris Meeke initially convinced he had smashed his suspension in his incident, although it turned out to just be a puncture.

He still lost nearly three minutes limping through the stage, dropping him from fifth to 11th.

Jari-Matti Latvala, who had been chasing Ostberg for third before the Norwergian crashed, was delayed coming across Meeke's slow car on the stage, and then had an incident of his own when he hit a big rock and sent one his VW's dampers through the bonnet.

That happened close enough to the stage finish that Latvala only lost half a minute and is now provisionally third overall.

Elfyn Evans had begun the mayhem when he broke his M-Sport Ford's suspension on a rock at the same spot that would later catch Ostberg out.

Thierry Neuville, Robert Kubica, Mikko Hirvonen and Juho Hanninen also reported that they had been slowed by a marshal standing on the road a full kilometre before where Evans was parked - and that the Welshman had managed to pull right off the road anyway.

Kubica also picked up a puncture, his second of the day.

For now, Hanninen is up to fourth ahead of Hirvonen, Neuville, Kubica and Hayden Paddon, but with the officials facing a tough task working out who should be awarded what times for SS14.

Leading positions after SS14:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car        Time/Gap
 1.  Andreas Mikkelsen   VW            1h23m41.0s
 2.  Sebastien Ogier     VW                 +4.3s
 3.  Jari-Matti Latvala  VW                +59.8s
 4.  Juho Hanninen       Hyundai         +1m29.3s
 5.  Mikko Hirvonen      M-Sport Ford    +1m43.6s
 6.  Thierry Neuville    Hyundai         +1m51.9s
 7.  Robert Kubica       M-Sport Ford    +2m01.3s
 8.  Hayden Paddon       Hyundai         +2m35.2s
 9.  Henning Solberg     M-Sport Ford    +2m59.4s
10.  Martin Prokop       Czech Ford      +3m12.0s

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