Toyota team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans now share the lead of Rallye Monte-Carlo, with Thierry Neuville closing back in on them.
Evans was third fastest on St-Léger-Les-Mèlézes / La Bâtie-Neuve 2, 5.6 seconds slower than Hyundai’s Neuville – who has reduced his deficit to the leader from 16.6s to 11s.
But crucially, Ogier was 4.8s faster than Evans to draw dead level after 11 special stages.
“We have to keep pushing,” Ogier said. “The gaps are extremely close so let’s keep going.”
Evans was philosophical: ““To be honest I was just a bit careful on the ice I think.”
Neuville thought his stage time “was not enough again” but his fourth fastest stage time of the weekend was crucial as it keeps him in touch with the Toyota duo ahead of him.
Esapekka Lappi has turned up the wick on nine-time world champion Sébastien Loeb on the second pass of St-Léger-Les-Mèlézes / La Bâtie-Neuve, closing to within 23.6s of his rival for fourth place.
M-Sport driver Lappi has been unhappy with his performance throughout the weekend but appeared to find a new lease of life at the start of Saturday afternoon’s loop.
Lappi struggled to commit to the alterations made to his pacenotes by his gravel safety crew in the morning but admitted it was now “easier to trust them”.
He also grabbed 14.7s from Kalle Rovanperä to extend his buffer over the sixth-placed man to 42.6s
“Now the notes were fine so it was good,” Lappi said. “[But] still I was too slow on the downhill to be honest, I could’ve been faster but thanks to the safety crew. Big improvement on the morning.”
Loeb, who remains fourth, has had a difficult Saturday.
“Nothing happened, maybe [I was] a bit too cautious in the tricky downhill,” said Loeb. “Lappi is fast, eh? I drove quite well, no big risks.”
WRC3 leader Eric Camilli is valiantly holding onto seventh overall ahead of the Toyota Yaris WRC of Takamoto Katsuta.
Katsuta lost over three minutes on the first pass of St-Léger-Les-Mèlézes / La Bâtie-Neuve in the morning after kissing a snowbank but has used the extra power of his World Rally Car to draw to just 0.6s behind Camilli.
Nicolas Ciamin is ninth overall but just 5.6s ahead of WRC2 leader Mads Ostberg, who completes the top 10.
Teemu Suninen and Gus Greensmith remain on a recovery mission following their retirements earlier this weekend, with Suninen now only just over a minute from a top 10 position.
But because Greensmith missed five whole stages on Friday he is over an hour behind the leader’s time and crucially 10 minutes outside the top 60.
Only the top 60 crews overall can compete on Sunday’s stages due to insufficient space at Monaco’s harbour, which is where the rally is based tonight.
Leading positions after SS11
1= Ogier/Evans (Toyota)
3 Neuville (Hyundai) +11.0s
4 Loeb (Hyundai) +2m07.9s
5 Lappi (M-Sport Ford) +2m31.5s
6 Rovanperä (Toyota) +3m14.1s
7 Camilli (Citroën) +10m07.9s
8 Katsuta (Toyota) +10m08.5s
9 Ciamin (Hyundai) +11m20.1s
10 Ostberg (Citroën) +11m25.7s
