After a fascinating opening day of competition in Rally de España, Sébastien Ogier has inched back into the lead by just four seconds, recovering from sixth position to head the penultimate round of the FIA World Rally Championship. The Frenchman, running first on the road on today’s gravel stages, is ahead of team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala and M-Sport driver Ott Tanak, both his rivals having set a hot pace throughout a day that has seen six different drivers win stages.

Rally de España is the only mixed surface event of the season and crews will compete on both gravel and Tarmac stages over the course of three full days of competition. Last night the event kicked off with a spectacular asphalt super special stage in the centre of Barcelona, which Ogier won, but today crews headed into the hills for eight loose surface stages, the longest at 35.68 competitive kilometres having the added challenge of a section of tarmac.

Ogier managed to maintain his lead after today’s opener but by the fourth stage the Frenchman was down in sixth position. In the long mixed surface stage however, his tyre preservation tactics paid off and he bounced back into the lead after a morning that saw four different drivers win stages. This afternoon the story was the same; Ogier lost the advantage over the first three repeated stages preserving tyres but again powered into the lead on the second run through the long stage to head the field by four seconds. Latvala had a slow start but changes to the set-up mid-morning saw the Finn power back into contention from 10th overall. He took the lead after stage six but in the final run through the long stage a string of small mistakes saw him drop back behind Ogier. Tanak has enjoyed a great day and three stage wins have kept him in contention, although switching to asphalt tomorrow will not prove to be the Estonian’s strongest surface.

Behind the leading trio, Dani Sordo heads Hyundai’s challenge and the local hero is fourth overnight but in the thick of a fight with Mads Østberg. The Norwegian set a blistering pace this morning but a slow puncture in the fifth stage dropped him from second to fifth. He has continued to fight hard but a broken suspension strut in the final stage lost him yet more time. He is however only 2.8 seconds adrift of Sordo. Andreas Mikkelsen has not been entirely happy with his driving and the Norwegian also struggled with a brake problem. He is sixth but less than a second ahead of Hayden Paddon. The Kiwi driver, who has just signed a new three-year contract with Hyundai, is another to have set a fastest stage time and enjoyed a trouble-free day. Kris Meeke’s lack of experience on this event has hampered his charge and he overnights eighth nearly a minute adrift of Ogier. Thierry Neuville has had an up and down day; the Belgian hasn’t been entirely happy with the set-up, he stalled twice and then had a minor engine problem this afternoon. Elfyn Evans rounds off the top 10 and will undoubtedly be happier once the event moves to Tarmac on Saturday. Robert Kubica started the day fantastically and led the event after the third stage, however a double puncture saw him drop right back. The main retirement of the day was Lorenzo Bertelli, who rolled in the opening stage.

In the FIA WRC 2 Championship, Skoda drivers hold the top three positions with Pontus Tidemand leading the challenge ahead of Jan Kopecky and Esapekka Lappi. Nasser Al-Attiyah, who needs to win this event to win the category title, is fourth, over a minute adrift after a puncture. In the FIA Junior WRC Championship, Quentin Gilbert continues his domination of the category and leads overnight, ahead of Simone Tempestini.

Rally de España – Unofficial Results after Section 4