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Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville remain extremely closely matched at the head of the Rally Germany order at the end of Friday's stages.

Their afternoon battle replicated their morning form - Neuville quickest on the opening stage then World Rally Championship leader Tanak fighting back on the next two.

Hyundai driver Neuville managed to halve Tanak's previous 3.2 second lead on the Stein und Wein stage, but Tanak inched the gap back up to 2.8s by the day's conclusion.

Blighted by understeer in his Citroen all morning, Sebastien Ogier began the afternoon sounding slightly more optimistic only to lose more ground to the top two as the loop went on.

Running wide onto the grass on the concluding Wadern-Weiskirchen stage didn't help his cause and he finished the day 22.1s from the lead.

Ogier may well have lost third but for a disaster for Dani Sordo on the final stage.

The Hyundai had closed to within 2.8s of Ogier with a quick time on Mittelmosel and grabbed fourth from Kris Meeke's Toyota in the process.

But a gearbox problem left Sordo limping frustratedly through Wadern-Weiskirchen and he tumbled to ninth behind sole remaining M-Sport WRC runner Gus Greensmith.

Meeke is still within 3.5s of Ogier in fourth and just ahead of Toyota team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala.

Andreas Mikkelsen is now relatively comfortable in sixth as seventh-placed Esapekka Lappi lost time with a spin.

Leading positions after SS6

Pos Driver Team Car Gap 1 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota 54m07.1s 2 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai 2.6s 3 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia Citroen Total WRT Citroen 17.9s 4 Dani Sordo, C.del Barrio Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai 20.7s 5 Kris Meeke, S.Marshall Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota 20.8s 6 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota 23.2s 7 Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai 37.8s 8 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Citroen Total WRT Citroen 50.5s 9 Gus Greensmith, E.Edmondson M-Sport Ford WRT Ford 1m01.3s 10 Kalle Rovanpera, J.Halttunen Skoda Motorsport Skoda 2m39.9s