Ogier leads in Sweden

9 February 2013 17:44

Sebastien Ogier edged closer to the eighth WRC rally victory of his career after holding off Sebastien Loeb on day two of Rally Sweden.

Loeb ate into Ogier's 31.4-second overnight lead in the morning, but the 29-year-old Volkswagen driver fought back in the afternoon, sharing a win on the Sagen 2 stage with his rival before winning the next two stages.

Nine-time world champion Loeb outpaced Ogier on the short Hagfors Sprint to close the gap on his rival to 26.9 seconds with six stages to go and the French duo well ahead of the rest of the field.

Finland's Jari-Matta Latvala struggled with his Volkswagen throughout the day and lost third place to Mads Ostberg, who now sits 6.1 seconds in front of Latvala but trails Ogier by 57.7 seconds.

Evgeny Novikov sits comfortably in fifth place with fellow Qatar M-Sport Ford driver Thierry Neuville more than two-and-a-half minutes behind him in sixth.

The rest of the field is well off the pace with Juho Hanninen, Henning Solberg, Martin Prokop and Danie Sordo rounding out the top 10.