Summary Sebastien Ogier survived a spin into a ditch as well as illness to maintain Monte Carlo lead.
GAP (AFP) - Five-time world champion Sebastien Ogier survived a spin into a ditch as well as illness to maintain his lead in the season-opening Rally of Monte Carlo on Friday.
The French driver, behind the wheel of an M-Sport Ford, had led by almost 34 seconds going into the day s penultimate stage.
But a spin, his second of the race after a similar error on Thursday night, saw his overall advantage cut to 14.9 sec.
Ogier, 34, leads from former teammate Ott Tanak, in a Toyota, with Hyundai s Dani Sordo filling out the top three even though the Spaniard is 59.7 sec off the lead.
Ogier, who said he was suffering a "little illness" and "fatigue" admitted he had only himself to blame for the mistake.
"It was a stupid error," said the world champion. "Without that, we would have had a comfortable advantage this evening.
"We will have to be very good tomorrow because we have just a lead of under 15 seconds and this is nothing great.
"It s not the moment to take risks but we will have to drive better than we did this afternoon."
Norway s Andreas Mikkelsen, placed second overnight, was forced to pull out after his Hyundai broke down at the start of stage four on Friday.
Thierry Neuville, last season s world championship runner-up who lost over four minutes on Thursday night when his Hyundai hit a snow bank, was ninth at the end of the day.
