Ott Tänak leads Adrien Fourmaux by just three seconds at the end of a punishing day of Acropolis Rally Greece.
Sébastien Ogier however is lurking dangerously, just 16.9s adrift despite starting second on the road.
Ogier and Tänak came into Friday sharing the rally lead, and both took turns at the head of the pack. But with the cleaning effect coming on stronger in the afternoon, Tänak began to streak clear of Ogier – and Fourmaux began taking time out of Tänak.
In the end the two Hyundais ended the leg split by just three seconds – but Fourmaux feels he should end up leading as he lost time in the dust behind Takamoto Katsuta (who had stopped to change a wheel) on SS2.
“I’m really, really happy with the strategy we had today with the team and us, it was paying off,” Fourmaux said.
Ogier was equally pleased with his day: “I would have signed for this with both hands because the gap is much smaller than it should be,” he declared.
“So we must be pleased with this day. I think we did the best today. I have nothing to lose [tomorrow].”
Elfyn Evans finds himself in no man’s land – over a minute off the lead but content to be fourth considering his road sweeping duties.
M-Sport’s Grégoire Munster is 21.8s behind after deliberately being cautious: “You feel in the car you can push more but it’s a gamble we are taking, so we see how we go on. We stick to the plan,” he said.
Outside the top five are a gaggle of Rally1 drivers who all had to stop to change punctures – and three of them are covered by just four seconds.
Katsuta heads the trio ahead of Kalle Rovanperä who punctured on SS6, and world champion Thierry Neuville who led the rally on Friday morning but two flats wrecked his weekend.
He also didn’t manage to eat during the remote service at lunchtime, making this a demanding day.
Josh McErlean was another to puncture, but he’s over a minute adrift of Neuville.
Sami Pajari was having a strong day before he retired from fifth place with a technical problem.
And Mãrtiņš Sesks had been ninth overall but was forced to retire one stage from the end of the day with a fuel supply system issue aboard his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1.
Sesks’ day was complicated from the outset with a puncture on the opening stage.
In WRC2, Oliver Solberg holds a dominant lead of almost a minute over Kajetan Kajetanowicz.
