Triple world champion Sebastien Ogier will take a 17.1-sec lead into Sunday's final day of the Rally of Sweden after almost falling foul of the country's speed limit rules.

The French Volkswagen driver claimed two of Saturday's five stages to stay ahead of New Zealand's Hayden Paddon in a Hyundai and Norway's Mads Ostberg in a Ford Fiesta, who is 42 seconds off the pace.

But the day started with reports that Ogier had been caught exceeding the speed limit on a public road while driving between stages on Friday.

A police spokesman confirmed to AFP that his VW had been 'flashed' by a speed camera but that no further action was to be taken.

Ogier had started the day with a 27-sec advantage over Paddon but the New Zealander was able to eat into the Frenchman's lead as the world champion, starting first on the snow-deep forest surfaces, ploughed a clean line for the chasing pack.

"I was completely flat out. I took so many risks and couldn't have gone any faster," said Ogier.

Paddon appeared to concede that Ogier was virtually assured of victory on Sunday to add to his win in the opening leg in Monte Carlo last month.

"It's about maintaining my position now. We went into the 16th stage (the penultimate run of the day) 10sec behind Ogier and that's like a minute to anyone else," said the Kiwi driver.

Ogier's VW teammate Jari-Matti Latvala, the championship runner-up in 2015, won two stages on Saturday as he climbed to 27th following his disastrous opening leg.

Sunday's final leg, in a race which was reduced to 13 stages from 21 after rising temperatures led to snow melting on some tracks, is just a single power stage in Karlstad.

Source :AFP