Spain’s Dani Sordo continues to top the leaderboard of Rally de España but Sébastien Ogier - who is bidding for a fourth consecutive FIA world title - has closed on the Hyundai driver and the pair are split by 7.7 seconds after the morning loop of Saturday’s stages. Andreas Mikkelsen retains third but the Norwegian has slipped back in the battle for the win.

Today’s route is the longest of the event and, after the mud and rain of Friday’s gravel stages, clear skies and sunshine greeted the crews this morning for the first of two days on Tarmac. Rally leader, Sordo, has been struggling with understeer and has dropped time to Ogier over the 71.61 kilometres run during the four stages of the morning. The Spaniard also felt some stages benefitted his rival, mud dragged out on to the roads making conditions trickier with the on-going passage of cars. Mikkelsen started the day a little cautiously and has generally struggled to get a good feeling with the car; he is now 37.4 seconds adrift of Ogier.

The Hyundais of Thierry Neuville and Haydon Paddon continue to hold fourth and fifth respectively. Like Sordo, Neuville has had understeer in tight corners and a wrong pace note in the final stage unsettled the Belgian. Paddon is trying to find better grip and confidence and the third Hyundai driver has also complained about understeer issues, something the team will doubtless look at on all three cars during the midday service. Kris Meeke has overhauled Mads Østberg for sixth position, despite a puncture in the second stage. Ott Tanak continues to struggle in eighth and Eric Camilli and Kevin Abbring round off the top 10. Starting under Rally 2 regulations this morning, Jari-Matti Latvala has managed to make some inroads, two fastest stage times aiding his charge.

In the FIA WRC 2 Championship, Jan Kopecky has retaken the lead from Pontus Tidemand, the Czech Skoda driver fastest in all four stages. He is 17.5 seconds ahead of his Swedish team-mate, and in the WRC 3 Championship category Fabio Andolfi continues to set a dominant pace in his Peugeot 208 R2.