Sébastien Ogier lost the lead of Rally Chile after stopping to change a puncture following a collision with a bank, but Toyota holds a 1-2-3 overall led by Elfyn Evans.
Ogier went fastest by an impressive 9.1 seconds on the opening stage, but he was one of just three drivers to attack the test as it was subsequently cancelled on grounds of spectator safety.
That meant seven drivers were all given Thierry Neuville’s time for SS1, and their true pace had not been shown.
But come SS2, it was Evans who went fastest by a handy 2.3s over team-mate Kalle Rovanperä, with Ogier fourth on the timesheets behind Sami Pajari in what was a Toyota 1-2-3-4.
Ogier still led the rally by 6.6s heading onto the third and final stage of the loop, but early on SS3 he ran wide and smacked a bank with the rear-left of his Toyota.
Soon afterwards he and co-driver Vincent Landais were forced to stop and change a puncture, losing nearly two minutes in the process and falling outside the top 10.
The eight-time world champion was reluctant to explain what had happened, because of the suspended €30,000 fine he was handed by the FIA for stage-end comments he made in Greece.
“Puncture, yeah,” Ogier said. “Nothing more than that.”
Evans meanwhile came within 0.1s of repeating his SS2 stage win on SS3, losing out to Rovanperä who lies 2.2s adrift heading into the afternoon.
“It’s quite tricky to manage because some places for sure it’s cleaning but other times there’s stones on the road,” Evans said, “so it’s quite changeable the grip.”
Despite fighting for the lead, Rovanperä was far from happy: “I don’t feel comfortable at all on these roads,” he confessed.
“When it’s dry like this it just doesn’t suit my natural driving style. I’m fighting my car and my driving all the time. I’m not enjoying at the moment.”
Sami Pajari rounds out the podium places after three stages, 6.6s off the lead on just his second start in a Rally1 car.
But the fight is close, with Grégoire Munster – starting an event with previous Rally1 experience of it for the first time – an encouraging fourth, just 0.3s adrift of Pajari.
Ott Tänak is only 0.4s behind Munster, while Adrien Fourmaux is just another tenth behind meaning third-placed Pajari and sixth-placed Fourmaux are split by less than a second.
Thierry Neuville is 13.8s off the lead in seventh place, 4.5s ahead of team-mate Esapekka Lappi, but as road sweeper is predicting a tough weekend ahead.
“It will be a long weekend for us, that’s for sure,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do at the moment, it’s very challenging.”
Mārtiņš Sesks’ return to Rally1 action hasn’t gone to plan, as he carried way too much speed into a right-hander on SS3 and whacked the rear-left of his non-hybrid Puma against the scenery.
Sesks got out to change a puncture, but it transpired he also had another flat (and just one spare) as he limped the car to the end of the stage – passed by the first two WRC2 cars Oliver Solberg and Yohan Rossel as he dropped over five minutes.
“I got caught in this loose gravel and hit the bank,” Sesks commented. “It’s a double pucnture, we don’t have second spare, so big trouble now.”
Nikolay Gryazin leads WRC2 by 8.0s over Gus Greensmith, with Solberg – who can win the title if he wins the rally – 11.4s shy of the lead.
