Sebastien Ogier leads his home round of the World Rally Championship in France after his Citroen teammate Sebastien Loeb suffered an early engine failure.
Loeb had led through the first two stages, but then his car came to a halt on SS3. That allowed Ogier, who had been third on SS1 before taking second from Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala on SS2, to move into the lead. He remained there to the end of the loop, although his advantage is just five seconds over Solberg Citroen driver Petter Solberg.
Though SS3 was a disaster for Loeb, it was not great for Citroen's arch-rival Ford either, as both Loeb's main title rival Mikko Hirvonen and Latvala made mistakes and went off the road. They were able to continue and are now sixth and seventh, with Hirvonen a minute off the lead and Latvala a further 20sec adrift.
That, plus a repeat of the team's impressive asphalt pace from Germany, has allowed Mini to move into third and fourth. Dani Sordo is just 1.6sec behind Solberg, with Kris Meeke 21sec back.
Mads Ostberg completes the top five for Stobart Ford, but his teammates are all struggling outside the top 10, meaning some unusual names are running in the points even at this early stage. Mini privateer Armindo Araujo, FERM Ford's Dennis Kuipers and Monster Ford driver Ken Block currently hold eighth to 10th places.
Kimi Raikkonen is already out, having crashed his Ice 1 Citroen while warming his tires before SS3.
Leading positions after SS4:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Ogier Citroen 41m26.6s
2. Petter Solberg Solberg Citroen + 5.0s
3. Dani Sordo Mini + 6.6s
4. Kris Meeke Mini + 28.0s
5. Mads Ostberg Stobart Ford + 53.5s
6. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 1m00.1s
7. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 1m19.7s
8. Armindo Araujo Italia Mini + 1m20.4s
9. Dennis Kuipers FERM Ford + 1m25.6s
10. Ken Block Monster Ford + 1m53.8s