Tanak protects lead over closing Mikkelsen

Although Citroen driver Mikkelsen went faster than Tanak's M-Sport Ford on both early Sunday stages and declared he wanted to keep the pressure on, he was only able to reduce the gap from 21.4 seconds to 18s.

But Mikkelsen did manage to drop Ogier, extending that gap from 8.2s to 19.3s as the world champion admitted he did not have enough confidence in his car to go flat-out with points at stake.

Ogier's World Rally Championship title rival Thierry Neuville rejoined for leg three under Rally2 following his Saturday morning suspension breakage.

Neuville is focused on salvaging maximum bonus points from the powerstage, but he was only sixth quickest on the first running of the St Wendeler Land stage where the extra score will be awarded later on.

Elfyn Evans overshot a junction on the day's opener, which allowed stage pacesetter Juho Hanninen to move up to fourth.

Evans is now fifth, but coming under pressure from Craig Breen, who is 7.1s behind.

Jari-Matti Latvala and Hayden Paddon remain seventh and eighth, with M-Sport's guest driver Armin Kremer just ahead of his WRC2-leading team-mate Eric Camilli in ninth.

Leading positions