Thierry Neuville took the lead from Elfyn Evans after a closely fought battle throughout the day. The Belgian gapped the Welshman by 4s at the close of proceedings followed by outgoing Hyundai teammate, Ott Tanak although the Estonian is nearly 40s behind.
The day started with Evans holding a slender 3s lead over Neuville and the Toyota driver promptly got down to business and added a further 2.9s over the first three stages of the day. Unfortunately, the afternoon would not be as fruitful due to Evans losing his rhythm which meant that Neuville could snatch at the opportunity.
The Belgian started by pulling back 2.6s through Nukata Forest then really drove his pace home by gaining 5.9s on Evans through Lake Mikawako. Neuville complained of some differential slip but did not let the issue affect his pace in a negative way and he subsequently assumed the lead with a 4s to his closest challenger.
“The day has been good for us, but it has been a challenging one.” commented Neuville. “We have been struggling a bit with the balance throughout the day but we got it better for the afternoon. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
Evans was perplexed at the turn around in pace from his car. Despite making no changes at the service, he complained that he’d lost the feeling with the front end of his car. Fortunately, unless Evans hits a major mishap, it will be a straight two-way fight for the lead due to Tanak being 35.9s back from the Toyota.
Tanak climbed to third after Kalle Rovanpera suffered a puncture, but he would spend the rest of the day tinkering with his set-up trying to unlock more pace. Although he was out of touch with the front runners, Tanak extended his lead over Takamoto Katsuta in fourth.
Sebastien Ogier made the most progress through the day, the Frenchman went from tenth to fifth and leap frogged Gus Greensmith in doing so. Ogier took three stage wins and was left wondering what might have been if he didn’t suffer his puncture on Friday.
Greensmith’s rally hit more problems as the Ford Puma developed a powersteering fault in the afternoon leg. This left the Briton 3min 25.4s back from leader Neuville.
Top six after Saturday
- Neuville 1hr 51min 28.3s
- Evans +4s
- Tanak +39.9s
- Katsuta +1min 4.5s
- Ogier +2min 46.7s
- Greensmith +3min 25.4s
