Latvala leading after SS12

Jari-Matti Latvala has extended his Wales Rally GB lead to 21.7s over Petter Solberg.

The afternoon running was about tyres. The drying conditions made tyre choice a difficult call, but the Ford boys came out on top. Petter Solberg set best time on SS10, Latvala came back on SS11 and Solberg took another on SS12. Meanwhile, the Fords of Mads Ostberg, Ott Tanak and Evgeny Novikov were for the most part quicker than the struggling Mikko Hirvonen in the Citroen.

Sébastien Loeb tried his best but general consensus is the Fiesta is easier on soft and hard tyres than the DS3. Loeb admitted there is nothing he can do to catch leader Latvala as well as confessing that reeling in Solberg would be a tall order.

Ostberg is a comfortable fourth place, 31 seconds ahead of Hirvonen. Tanak seems to have the upper hand over Novikov in the fight for sixth. Thierry Neuville is next in eighth place ahead of Matthew Wilson and Martin Prokop.

SS12
1 Solberg
2 Latvala + 0.4s
3 Loeb +0.6s
4 Tanak +1.4s
5 Novikov +3.4s
6 Hirvonen +3.5s
7 Ostberg +5.2s
8 Neuville +8.4s
9 Wilson +10.7s
10 Prokop+18.8s

AFTER SS12
1 Latvala
2 Solberg 21.7s
3 Loeb +29.0s
4 Ostberg +45.6s
5 Hirvonen + 1:16.8s
6 Tanak +1:29.3s
7 Novikov +1:48.6s
8 Neuville + 3:22.1s
9 Wilson + 4:30.6s
10 Prokop + 5:21.4s