Kalle Rovanperä leads Central European Rally by a comfortable 39.2 seconds following the crash of his Toyota team-mate and World Rally Championship title rival Sébastien Ogier.
Rovanperä and Ogier had been locked in battle all weekend long, but it was Ogier who faltered on Saturday.
Losing the lead to Rovanperä on the day’s opening test to trail by 0.7s, Ogier had been 0.4s up on the 25-year-old until he understeered off and hit a tree, which ripped a wheel off his Toyota.
“It’s not possible!” he shouted as he was forced into retirement, and handed Rovanperä a big lead.
DirtFish however caught up with him at the scene, where Ogier revealed a front-left puncture had caused his off and left him powerless to avoid his fate.
Rovanperä now has a massive opportunity to score a third victory of the season and had no reason to push on SS11, which was won by Takamoto Katsuta.
“Obviously a shame for Séb,” Rovanperä commented, “now we just try to focus on keeping the good lead.”
As things stand Elfyn Evans is set to move back into the lead of the world championship, and is now up to second overall. However he admitted Ogier’s retirement “doesn’t change anything really, so keep at it”.
Ott Tänak is just 1.3s behind Evans overall, with Katsuta another 14.0s in arrears. Adrien Fourmaux has lost touch with Katsuta – trailing by almost half a minute – with Sami Pajari completing the top six.
Alejandro Cachón continues to lead WRC2, but his lead has been clipped to 18.4s over Léo Rossel after a brake issue on SS10.
