Ott Tänak leads Rally New Zealand by just 0.2 seconds overnight from Elfyn Evans as Sébastien Ogier dropped to third as he lost time without his rear wing.
Ogier had moved into the lead on the first stage of the afternoon loop and extended that advantage to 5.6 seconds after Te Akau South. But a wide slide on a sweeping left-hander ripped the spoiler clean off Ogier’s Toyota.
That put him at an immediate disadvantage on the final stage of the day, Te Akau North. And so it proved – Ogier losing 13.3s to stage winner Tänak to plummet to third, just half a second up on team-mate Kalle Rovanperä.
“Without wings on such a fast stage I did what I could, but it’s not the same,” Ogier commented.
Just 7.2s splits the top four after what was longest day of the World Rally Championship season so far.
“It has been so far quite good, no mistakes, we did everything we could,” said Rovanperä, who was first on the road on Friday.
“We were always pushing when there was a moment to be push, but here the tire was so done. There was no grip for us.”
But while the top four has broken clear, big gaps have emerged behind.
Rovanperä’s Toyota is over half a minute out of sight of Gus Greensmith, although Greensmith has just 1.8s in hand over a recovering Thierry Neuville.
“It’s been not a good day for us to be honest,” said the Hyundai driver.
“I’m still not 100% confident in the car, still some things we need to work on. In Greece I felt comfortable enough to be fast but on all the other rallies it’s been more difficult than it should be.”
Oliver Solberg ended the day 42.7s behind his team-mate but 13.7s up on Toyota Next Generation pilot Takamoto Katsuta.
Hayden Paddon leads WRC2 and is ninth overall ahead of Lorenzo Bertelli who completes the top 10 on his Rally1 debut.
