Ott Tänak leads Rally Chile by just 0.4 seconds over Elfyn Evans after Friday, with outgoing world champion Kalle Rovanperä completing the overnight podium.
Sébastien Ogier had been the early pacesetter in his Toyota, but a puncture – caused after Ogier ran wide and clouted a bank – dropped him out of front-running contention to ninth. A loss of hybrid power for the final stage of the day compounded the Frenchman’s troubles.
Team-mate Evans had been the chief beneficiary, moving into the lead and holding it at lunchtime, but the Welshman struggled to find the same confidence in second pass conditions – and Tänak smelt blood.
Clearly feeling content behind the wheel of his Hyundai, Tänak – who has won both previous editions of Rally Chile – moved ahead after Friday’s penultimate stage to lead by 2.5s.
Evans proved he would be no push-over though, responding to beat Tänak by 2.1s on the day’s final test.
“I needed to do something better than the previous effort at least,” Evans said, “but I’m a bit lost with the car at the moment to be honest. At least the commitment was back to the usual level in there.”
“We’ve had a good day and we need to be very happy with that,” was Tänak’s summary.
The gaps are tight among the top five runners, with third-placed Rovanperä – pegged back by a small overshoot into a gate on SS4 – just 7.1s off the lead but equally only 2.2s ahead of Sami Pajari in fourth.
Fifth-placed Grégoire Munster is a mere 1.4s shy of Pajari and 10.7s off the lead.
Rovanperä openly admitted to not enjoying the nature of the Chilean stages on Friday and felt he simply hadn’t been good enough, but it was a superb leg for youngsters Munster and Pajari; Munster starting an event with previous Rally1 experience of it for the first time and Pajari starting just his second event ever in this class.
“Obviously it’s been a really good day, basically without any mistakes,” Pajari, who overhauled Munster on SS6, said. “A lot of things to learn so I really need to be really happy and satisfied.”
Munster added: “We enjoyed a lot in the car, the car was also feeling very good so just a very good day and it’s good to have that level of performance.”
However his final stage was spoiled a touch by his rear-right tire debeading towards the end.
Thierry Neuville is best of the rest in sixth place, struggling in conditions he found particularly slippery as first on the road.
“Tricky day out there for us,” he surmised. “I never really could drive fast – every time we tried to push a bit I lost the car.
“I think we made a mistake in the set-up, but now it’s too late. We had to decide the set-up before any testing or whatever so we have to stick more or less what we have, but maybe we can find something for tomorrow. A better road position tomorrow should definitely help.”
Esapekka Lappi is seventh, losing time with a rear-right delamination on SS4, but ahead of Adrien Fourmaux who had been fourth before an alternator problem before SS5 forced him to start the stage late and incur a one-minute time penalty.
The M-Sport man proved what might have been with a stunning stage win to round out the day.
Mārtiņš Sesks’ third start in a Rally1 car didn’t go to plan on Friday – the Latvian running off and heavily smacking a bank with the right-side of his Ford Puma Rally1.
That punctured two tires, and with just one spare the 25-year-old was forced to retire on the road section back to service in the morning.
Nikolay Gryazin leads WRC2 overnight, despite almost rolling his Citroën on the final stage of the day.
Oliver Solberg is second, 10.2s behind, but there’s a degree of pressure on him to climb up to first as a win would guarantee the Swede of this year’s WRC2 title.
He can still win the championship should he finish where he is, but would be reliant on the performance of others on the final two rallies of the season to do so.
