Ott Tänak remains out front in Ypres Rally Belgium, but Elfyn Evans has continued to chip away as he stole 0.4 seconds away on SS18 of 20.
Kemmelberg is a classic Ypres test – famed for its cobbled sections, and that’s perhaps where the stage win got away from the rally leader.
Tänak was as much as 1.2s up in the early splits but a wide slide as the stage transitioned onto cobbles pegged him back and in the end he lost ground to Evans.
But that won’t cause Tänak too much concern as his advantage out front still stands at 6.7s – so the pressure is on Evans to take it away from him.
“I had a smoother run than the previous stage. In the end some brakings were a bit slippy so I went wide in a few places,” Tänak said. “Second loop should be more consistent.
“I was a bit conservative just in a few tricky places,” Evans explained. “It was a clean run, but maybe didn’t chance enough.”
Adrien Fourmaux nibbled more time out of Oliver Solberg in their battle for fourth place, but only managed to take 0.2s out of his rival.
Solberg had actually been quicker than the Puma through the early splits but dropped back towards the end, maintaining a 10.1s advantage.
Plenty is on the line as fourth place would be the best result of both Fourmaux and Solberg’s careers.
“It was a terrible stage, to be honest; very, very tricky and easy to do a mistake,” said Solberg.
“If I just lose a few seconds on the next two it’s not a problem, so I’m just playing it safe.”
Fourmaux added: “It’s a nice fight for sure but there is still two stages to do.”
The youngsters’ squabble is an isolated battle as third-placed Esapekka Lappi is 1m33.4s up the road, and Takamoto Katsuta is 2m40s behind.
Kalle Rovanperä went against the grain and took two soft tires instead of a full house of hards on the morning loop – a decision likely made to save some hard compounds for the powerstage.
Asked if he felt his strategy for the loop had worked, Rovanperä teased: “It doesn’t matter about this morning, let’s see what we do in the afternoon.”
The championship leader will face a strong challenge for maximum powerstage points from fellow erstwhile Ypres leader Thierry Neuville though.
Neuville was 2.9s quicker on the dress rehearsal, setting the third fastest time behind the two at the front.
“There are a few corners we can do better but it’s only the first pass through. But I enjoyed it,” said Neuville.
“After yesterday I think it’s at least good to have a bit of a smile when you’re driving.”
Craig Breen was competitive on SS18, setting the fifth best time.
“We have a little bit of speed in the car which is nice,” he said. “OK we’re first on the road which for sure is an advantage, but we’re just trying to enjoy the day.”
Team-mate Gus Greensmith was less so though, slowest of the Rally1 cars.
“The pacenotes were so slow compared to the rest of the weekend, don’t know why,” he said. “Crap.”
Like Rovanperä and Neuville, both Breen and Greensmith are well outside the points.
