Intro:

Briton Kris Meeke rolls his Citroen DS3 in the Rally Poland pre-event shakedown stage on his 36th birthday. Ott Tänak is the overall leader after stage five.

Script:

Briton's Kris Meeke rolled his Citroen DS3 in Rally Poland practice.

The car was eventually repaired and the Northern Irishman went on to occupy fifth spot after the first five shakedown stages.

In stage five, Ott Tänak defied worries over his Ford M-Sport's brakes to hold a 9.3-second overall lead.

The Estonian recording the fastest time on three of the four stages on Friday morning.

Volkswagen's Andreas Mikkelsen occupies second place, 7.4 seconds ahead of team-mate Sébastien Ogier.

Pole Robert Kubica is also in contention.

The ex-Formula 1 driver started the day in second after the superspecial stage but fell to eighth.

The morning was characterised by a blistering pace on the sandy gravel roads.

The sixth and seven stages continue later on Friday.