Thierry Neuville has reclaimed second position from his Hyundai team-mate Ott Tänak on the seventh stage of Croatia Rally.
Neuville had fallen 3.2 seconds behind Tänak on the sixth stage of the day, but he re-discovered his rhythm on the 6.9-mile Krašić – Vrškova test to move back into second position.
Tänak appeared to struggle for pace, losing 18.1s in the final split to leave him 15.7s behind Neuville on the rally.
Still ahead of them both though is Kalle Rovanperä, who has extended his overall lead even further. Once again, running first on the road appears to have paid dividends and he is now 1m06.8s ahead of the Hyundai drivers.
In stark comparison to some of the day’s previous stages, the majority of drivers made it through without any major issue consolidating their overall positions in the pecking order.
However, the biggest improver was Craig Breen. He is still fourth overall, but Tänak’s issues means the M-Sport driver is now only 3.3s away from the podium.
Oliver Solberg was one driver to impress on SS7. He set the fourth fastest time, 6.6s shy of Rovanperä’s efforts, enabling him to remain in fifth and extend his advantage to Elfyn Evans by a half a second.
Takamoto Katsuta is also beginning to grow in confidence now the rain has stopped and the roads have begun to dry out.
He was fifth fastest, and he’s pulled clear of Gus Greensmith, who is now just under 15s adrift of the Toyota driver in the battle for seventh.
WRC2’s leading driver Yohan Rossel is now five minutes down on the overall lead, but once again, he kept things tidy.
Both he and Nikolay Gryazin set identical times to keep the overall gap between the pair at 40.2s, but it was Eric Camilli who was the fastest WRC2 driver on the stage, edging his two rivals by just two tenths of a second.
SS7 times
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) 6m10.5s
2 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +1.3s
3 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Hyundai) +6.6s
4 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +7.1s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +7.1s
6 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (M-Sport Ford) +7.8s
7 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +9.7s
8 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +20.2s
9 Eric Camilli/Thibault De La Haye (Citroën) +24.1s
10 Yohan Rossel/Valentin Sarreaud (Citroën) +24.9s
Leading positions after SS7
1 Rovanperä/Halttunen (Toyota) 1h10m04.8s
2 Neuville/Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +1m06.8s
3 Tänak/Järveoja (Hyundai) +1m22.5s
4 Breen/Nagle (M-Sport Ford) +1m25.8s
5 Solberg/Edmondson (Hyundai) +2m36.7s
6 Evans/Martin (Toyota) +2m44.3s
7 Katsuta/Johnston (Toyota) +3m02.0s
8 Greensmith/Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +3m16.9s
9 Rossel/Sarreaud (Citroën) +4m49.5s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda) +5m29.7s
