Ogier seemed to have the measure of new world champion Rovanpera but did have to stave off a challenge from the third-placed Hyundai of Thierry Neuville.
However, a heavy crash for M-Sport’s Greensmith cancelled the final stage of the loop, leaving Ogier to return to service early with a 9.7s lead over Rovanpera, while Neuville trailed the Frenchman by 14.2s.
Hyundai’s Ott Tanak remained in contention in fourth, 27.2s adrift, while Dani Sordo (1m06.2), Elfyn Evans (1m09.2s), Craig Breen (1m15.4s), Takamoto Katsuta (1m39.6s), Adrien Fourmaux (1m46.1s) and Pierre-Louis Loubet (2m20.9s) completed the top 10.
Dry asphalt roads greeted crews for the start of the Saturday’s morning loop, and it was Neuville that seemingly made the most of the conditions.
The Belgian lit up the timing screens in Stage 9 (13.93km) despite admitting that he was struggling with understeer and a lack of grip.
Neuville emerged 0.9s faster than rally leader Ogier, who claimed he wasn’t pushing to the “absolute maximum”.
“The battle is not over, that’s for sure,” said Neuville, who won last year’s visit to Spain. “I feel like I’m pushing but I don’t feel comfortable.
“Last year I felt much more sure about everything and here it’s a bit on and off. Difficult to feel the grip and I had a lot of understeer, so we’re going to work on that.”
Rovanpera could only clock the third-fastest time, some 1.5s adrift of the pace. The new world champion was left perplexed as to where his rivals found time.
“It’s not the best thing if they are faster! I felt it was a good stage for me – I tried to push quite hard and I don’t know where I left any more time,” said Rovanpera.
After the hybrid issues that hampered his Friday, Tanak declared that his car was working correctly, but the Estonian dropped 2.1s.
Evans was able to claw back some time to Sordo in the battle for fifth overall although the Welshman was left frustrated by his efforts that netted the sixth-fastest stage time. The top 11 Rally1 competitors were split by 6.6s through the stage.
Ogier issued an immediate response to Neuville’s push by winning the next test (Stage 10). The Frenchman produced a blistering run through the 20.19km run to beat Neuville by 2.6s, and take 4.3s out of his nearest rival Rovanpera.
Rovanpera’s run wasn’t straight forward after a “scary moment” at the final corner that required some evasive action to avoid an obstacle.
“For sure, the guys are a bit…
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