Ogier meanwhile had Neuville’s Hyundai to contend with, but had the Belgian covered. Although gaps remained tight, Ogier won three of the afternoon’s four stages to take a 3.7s lead into Saturday.
But does that count for much with heavy rain expected on Saturday?
“Tomorrow is the start of a new rally,” said Ogier. “At the moment I think we can be happy with what we did this afternoon – the beginning of the rally was a bit more tricky but we can be happy we found better pace.”
A spin at a hairpin and a broken windshield compromised Sami Pajari’s afternoon; the Finn climbing as high as second in the morning after back-to-back stage wins.
But he holds a podium position overnight, 1.1s ahead of Solberg who rued a “silly day” after an error at the same corner as Fourmaux on SS8.
Pajari and Solberg are respectively 15.2s and 16.4s off Ogier’s lead.
Evans had a clean day driving wise but caught a recovery truck on the second pass of Argnail, much to his and co-driver Scott Martin’s dismay. He was later handed a notional time, giving him 4.4s back.
Takamoto Katsuta is a lonely seventh overall, 50.1s off the lead after struggling to find the right feeling throughout the day – posting just two top-five stage times.
“For sure better than the morning but I was really struggling,” said Katsuta. “For tomorrow we know how we can improve so I just try to find the best feeling. The condition will be quite tricky tomorrow but actually that’s what I’m hoping for.”