Kalle Rovanperä has moved ahead of Elfyn Evans and into the lead of Rally Chile after an extremely foggy SS11.
Evans had looked to be stamping his authority on round 11 of the World Rally Championship, leading the event by 13.6s after another stage win to open the afternoon.
But extreme fog on the Lota stage – the middle test of the loop – flipped the leaderboard on its head.
Rovanperä was flabbergasted by the conditions he faced: “That fog is the worst I’ve ever driven,” he told DirtFish.
“Its not anymore pacenotes, you just try to see a bit the lines of the roads. Even in a straight line it feels like you don’t know where to go. You just try to see some marks somewhere and survive.”
But his performance was strong as he went second quickest, five seconds slower than Thierry Neuville who suddenly closed to just 14.2s behind team-mate Ott Tänak.
However Evans was the biggest loser from the weather front, as he leaked 19.1s to Rovanperä which cost him the rally lead – the Welshman now trailing his team-mate by 5.5s.
“I couldn’t see beyond the bonnet, so I don’t know how you’re meant to rally in those conditions really,” Evans said. “It’s crazy, but OK.”
Sami Pajari meanwhile lost position to both the M-Sport Fords of Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster as the Finn opted to back off in the extreme conditions.
Fourmaux is 3.3s ahead of Munster, who in turn is 4.6s clear of Pajari.
Esapekka Lappi had already been floating in no man’s land on the leaderboard down in eighth, but checking in two minutes early to SS11 consigned his fate.
Given the two-minute penalty that brought, Lappi backed right off in order to preserve the car and his rubber.
Oliver Solberg meanwhile lost the lead of WRC2 after he dropped one minute a half to his rivals after a puncture change.
“Slow puncture after a few kilometres. I don’t know [why],” Solberg told DirtFish. “There was a lot of fog and I pushed f***ing hard after it, so hopefully I didn’t lose too much time.
“It’s Portugal Sunday all over again now,” he added, referring to last year’s rally where he attempted to make up for a one-minute penalty with four stages remaining and came only 1.2s shy of victory.
A WRC2 win would have sealed the title for Solberg – but failing to do so opens the door for Pajari to seal the crown in Japan instead.
The fog which descended over the stage worsened sufficiently for officials to deploy a red flag midway through the WRC2 runners. Kajetan Kajetanowicz was the last car to pass through, with the remaining 18 cars assigned notional times.
