Xavier Pons and Ford privateer, Andreas Mikkelsen complete the top ten, followed by Jan Kopecky, Mads Ostberg and Guy Wilks.
Wilks, who is entered as a wild-card in the
FIA Production Car World Rally Championship category, seized the lead from Mark Higgins on the repeat loop this afternoon.
Higgins dropped back in SS4 and SS5 and then lost out to both Gwyndaf Evans and Juho Hanninen in SS6 dropping to P4.
Gabriel Pozzo, who could take the Production title, had a bad day and went out in SS5. He had been running sixth. Assuming he re-starts on Saturday, he will do so from 17th in class and more than 10 minutes off the lead. He has to take the maximum ten points this weekend though to deprive Toshi Arai of his second crown – and that now doesn't look very likely.
In terms of retirees, in addition to Latvala and Pozzo -
Henning Solberg and Sebastian Lindholm both had problems and were sidelined.
Lindholm was withdrawn after SS2 after a loose stone thrown up on the first stage damaged a brake pipe on his
Suzuki SX4 WRC. Henning, who lost time with a puncture on SS1, went out in the final stage, due to visibility related problems.
The action now continues on Saturday, six 'proper' stages lay in wait, in addition to super special stage at Cardiff's Millennium stadium. SS7, the 19.56 kilometre-run through Crychan 1 gets underway at 09.38 hours local time.
