Sebastien Ogier enjoyed a dominant afternoon to pull clear of Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala at the Rally Germany.

Latvala was leading Ogier by a mere 0.1 seconds after the first four stages in the morning of Friday's racing.

However, set-up changes to Ogier's car saw the World Rally champion take control later in the day and he heads into Saturday's stages with a 9.5-secs advantage Latvala.

Ogier - who could mathematically defend the title this weekend - posted the best time on stages five-eight, with Latvala unable to match his pace.

A podium sweep of Volkswagen cars appears likely after Citroen's Kris Meeke made an error in judgment on stage six and veered off into a field - seeing him lose almost two minutes and slip to 11th overall.

Hyundai duo Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville were subsequently bumped up to fourth and fifth behind Mikkelsen.

Further down the order, Tom Cave and co-driver Craig Parry were unharmed after a big crash on stage five, while Robert Kubica had to smash his windscreen on stage seven to see where he was going after going off road into a vineyard.