Tire choice had a big influence on SS11 as the rain poured down as the test got underway, and Ott Tänak flourished to win the stage in emphatic style, while Kalle Rovanperä had nearly a minute taken out of his lead.
It seemed like Tänak and Rovanperä had made a questionable decision starting the day on wet compound tires, but that paid off in brilliant fashion for Tänak on the second full stage of the day, with the rain getting worse as time went on.
Esapekka Lappi set the early benchmark time, despite a half-spin early on which cost him the best part of 10s, but Neuville – who used a mix of wet and dry compounds – was the first to go faster, completing the 9.85-mile test 7.8s quicker.
Neuville’s time looked impressive enough, but then Tänak made it look ordinary, with the wet tires giving him so much more grip and confidence he completed the stage 18.6s faster than his team-mate.
But despite the fact he was so much faster than anyone else, the Hyundai driver claimed the stopwatch was not on his mind as he completed the stage.
“In these conditions you don’t care about the time, you are just happy to get through,” he said.
“The visibility is just to the bonnet, so it’s tough.”
Rovanperä was just behind Tänak on the road, and after the Hyundai driver’s incredible time, all eyes were on the 21-year-old to see if he could match the pace.
But everything fell apart for the rally leader when he picked up a puncture, and he subsequently lost 54.5s, meaning his overall rally lead to Tänak has been cut to just 18.2s.
Craig Breen set an impressive time, going just 0.6s slower than Neuville, despite being on full dry tires, and he felt the conditions were the hardest he’s ever tackled in a rally car.
“I’m happy just to get to the end of that,” said the M-Sport driver.
“They were the worst conditions I’ve seen in my life and I could see absolutely nothing.”
He is in third position on the rally, 37.8s ahead of the penalized Thierry Neuville, while Elfyn Evans is a further half a minute behind in fifth.
Takamoto Katsuta really struggled for pace on Platak, losing another 1m26.1s and he is now firmly rooted in sixth position, over four minutes off the lead.
WRC2 leader Yohan Rossel is now running seventh overall, 43.8s ahead of Nikolay Gryazin in eighth.
SS11 times
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) 9m57.9s
2 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +18.6s
3 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (M-Sport Ford) +19.2s
4 Esapekka Lappi/Jenne Ferm (Toyota) +26.4s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +27.1s
6 Stéphane Lefebvre/Andy Malfoy (Citroën) +32.2s
7 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +39.8s
8 Jari Huttunen/Mikko Lukka (M-Sport Ford) +43.6s
9 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Vincent Landais (M-Sport Ford) +44.1s
10 Yohan Rossel/Valentin Sarreaud (Citroën) +48.4s
Leading positions after SS11
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) 1h46m18.1s
2 Tänak/Järveoja (Hyundai) +18.2s
3 Breen/Nagle (M-Sport Ford) +50.5s
4 Neuville/Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +1m28.3s
5 Evans/Martin (Toyota) +2m04.7s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +4m13.0s
7 Rossel/Sarreaud (Citroën) +6m08.4s
8 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda) +6m52.2s
9 Eric Camilli/Thibault De La Haye (Citroën) +7m15.5s
10 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Škoda) +7m27.1s
