Kalle Rovanperä has claimed his first stage win of Rally New Zealand to close in on the leaders on a rain-affected SS6, as Sébastien Ogier lost his rear wing.
Rain has been an ever-present threat on the first full day of action, affecting the opening phases of Friday before wearing off.
But it arrived just in time to greatly affect the penultimate stage of the day, Te Akau South 2. The showers were particularly strong in the middle of the stage, and intensified after the stage had begun.
That meant that first on the road was the place to be, and Rovanperä made that count. Fastest by 5.6 seconds, Rovanperä jumped up to fourth place – at the expense of Gus Greensmith – and closed his deficit from 18.2s to 6.1s.
“Lucky Kalle,” quipped Greensmith.
Ogier was a lucky boy too. His rally lead is now up to 5.6s over team-mate Evans with Ott Tänak another second back, but it was a moment towards the end of the stage that was particularly fortunate.
Running a bit wide on a sweeping left-hander, the rear of his Toyota clipped the undergrowth and snapped the rear wing clean off. Not that Ogier even noticed.
“What are you talking about?” Ogier asked the stage-end reporter, before it was re-affirmed to him that he’d lost the spoiler.
“Ah, then that’s not optimal,” Ogier replied.
Evans’ Toyota was sporting a little bit of damage too. “I was just saying hello to the gatepost,” he explained.
Describing the conditions, he added: “I couldn’t see anything at some points. I knew it was a 200 [meter] straight but I couldn’t see the road in front of me. The conditions were very bad, a lot of aquaplaning.”
The top four are now comfortably clear of the rest with fifth placed Greensmith cut 22.2s adrift of fourth placed Rovanperä.
Despite rear tires that were “dead” Thierry Neuville is 15.7s behind Greensmith in sixth, while his Hyundai team-mate Oliver Solberg made more ground on a cautious Takamoto Katsuta to cement seventh.
When it was put to him he was unfortunate with the conditions, Solberg said: “Quite unlucky, f****** hell it’s raining every single time I go out on stage.
“The tires were going, it was like full rear-wheel-drive.”
