World rally champion Sebastien Ogier stretched his lead in the season-closing event in Wales on Saturday after his closest rival, Volkswagen teammate Jari-Matta Latvala, found trouble.

Ogier, who was only 6.4 seconds in front of Latvala overnight, is now 58sec clear of Mikko Hirvonen’s Ford Focus, and over a minute clear of Citroen driver Kris Meeke.

Latvala’s hopes of finishing the year with a morale-boosting win are all but over when he slithered into a ditch in stage nine, the Finn finishing the day over three and a half minutes adrift.

Ogier told the sport’s official website wrc.com: “The battle with Jari-Matti was enjoyable and exciting. Now the gap is quite comfortable but in these conditions it’s easy to make a mistake.”