Intro:

Juho Hänninen's (Hyundai) World Rally Championship Rally Italia Sardegna race was ended on Friday after a bad crash. On Saturday, Jari-Matti Latvala (Volkswagen) held on to first place overall but had his 22.4 second advantage at the start of the day cut to 17.7 seconds.

Script:

Juho Hänninen suffered a bad crash towards the end of the fifth stage of the Rally Italia Sardegna on Friday.

The Finn's Hyundai i20 WRC launched into a series of violent rolls and struck trees at the side of the road before coming to rest.

The accident was allegedly caused by missing information from the pace notes but fortunately neither Hänninen or his co-driver Tomi Tuominen were seriously hurt, although their race was over.

There was no such drama in Saturday's second stage but race leader Jari-Matti Latvala did suffer a scare of another kind.

The 29-year-old began the day 22.4 seconds ahead of nearest rival Sébastien Ogier. Despite losing valuable time when his Polo R WRC went into road mode, the Finn finished the loop 17.7 seconds up on Ogier.

In third place was Citroën's Mads Østberg, who slipped to 1 minute 10.08 seconds behind Latvala.