Rally Australia leader Sebastien Ogier has crashed on SS6, just two stages after his teammate and title rival Sebastien Loeb's accident.
Ogier had looked set to blow the championship race wide open in Australia following Loeb's roll this morning, which left Citroen's younger Frenchman – who trails Loeb by 25 points in the standings – in the rally lead. But Ogier was also caught out by the extremely slippery wet and muddy conditions on the second run through the Shipmans stage, with his car hitting a tree and stopping. He had been holding a nine-second lead over Ford's Mikko Hirvonen at the time.
Ogier's exit leaves Ford running first and second, with Hirvonen 5.4sec ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala.