Neuville snatches slender lead from Ogier on Friday morning

Neuville snatched the rally lead from eight-time world champion Ogier after winning the fourth and final test of the morning loop. 

The Belgian became the third leader across the four stages, following a bright start from newly-crowned world champion Kalle Rovanpera, who won the opening two tests.

Rovanpera ended the the loop in third, 4.2s adrift, while Ott Tanak was fourth, a further 1.8s in arrears, but ahead of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans.

The top 10 was completed by Hyundai’s Dani Sordo, Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, followed by the M-Sport contingent of Craig Breen, the returning Adrien Fourmaux and Gus Greensmith.    

Overnight rain presented damp stages to kick off the the morning loop that began with two brand new tests.

The damp conditions coupled with the cuts ensured road conditions would become increasingly worse as mud was dragged onto the sinuous asphalt roads. 

That handed the advantage to new champion Rovanpera as he made the most of his road position to win the first stage by 1.2s from Neuville.

Rovanpera admitted it was not a “perfect stage” from himself but it was enough to take the win as his rivals battled the worsening road conditions.

Tanak was third-fastest, 0.3s behind his teammate Neuville, but the Estonian was struggling for rhythm.

Ogier was only a tenth back in fourth ahead of Evans, Sordo and Breen, who led the quintet of M-Sport Ford Pumas. 

Rovanpera struck again in Stage 2, held in similar conditions. The Finn marched to another stage win as he pipped Neuville by 2.1s, with Evans, 0.9s further back. Ogier remained in contention just a tenth adrift of Evans.

However, Tanak lost 7.3s in the test after suffering a problem with the hybrid unit on his i20 N.

The dirtier roads and later road position hampered the M-Sport runners as Breen, Loubet, Greensmith and Fourmaux dropped away from the lead group. 

Rovanpera’s perfect start came to end on the drier Stage 3 when an inspired Ogier clocked the fastest time to not only win the stage – the longest of the morning – but move into the rally lead overall. 

The Frenchman was 3.3s quicker than Neuville, who moved to second overall, while Rovanpera battled understeer and dropped to third overall after setting the fourth-quickest time, some 8.2s adrift of the pace.

“This one was a bit trickier compared to the first two,” said Rovanpera. “I felt I didn’t have so much grip in the beginning and at the end I was having some understeer. 

“I think…