Sordo takes Rally of Spain lead from Ogier

The Spaniard made the most of a favourable road position to lead VW driver Ogier by 17s by the end of the day, praising the performance of the i20 WRC.

Ogier's team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen jumped from fifth to third over the trio of stages through the afternoon loop, but couldn't live with the pace of Ogier, who only needs second on the rally to seal the 2016 title.

The third VW, of Jari-Matti Latvala, retired on SS5 with damage to his Polo WRC.

Thierry Neuville had a spin in SS5 after hooking the inside of a corner, resulting in front-end damage. The Corsica runner-up was concerned about his radiator and brought the Hyundai conservatively to the end of the day's action, 46.3s down on Sordo overall.

Neuville's team-mate Hayden Paddon made the best of his afternoon despite anti-lag system problems, holding fifth after dropping behind Neuville on the final stage of the day.

M-Sport's Mads Ostberg sits just outside the top five heading into Saturday in one of his most competitive days of the WRC season.

Despite a transmission problem pulling the car sideways under braking and acceleration, he's only 54.3s down on Sordo.

Kris Meeke holds seventh after a roll this morning resulted in time loss and a penalty for leaving service late. But a fastest time on SS7 means he reduces the gap to the leader to 1m06.3s, just over 10s behind Ostberg.

Meeke's team-mate Craig Breen, Ott Tanak (DMACK Fiesta) and M-Sport's Eric Camilli rounded out the top 10.