Tanak reclaims lead from Breen despite tyre failure

The pair survived tyre delaminations in consecutive stages across the afternoon loop, which had a significant impact on the fight for the lead.

Tanak ultimately emerged with an 8.6s lead over Breen, which he will take into Sunday’s final three stages. Breen had held a 2.6s lead overnight but lost ground across the afternoon.

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville ended the day in third, 23.7s behind after winning a tense head-to-head with world champion Kalle Rovanpera, who survived an eventful Saturday, 27.5s adrift.

The pair shared the stage-winning spoils as Neuville claimed three fastest times to Rovanpera’s two. They were however elevated into the podium fight after Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi exited third courtesy of tyre delamination on Stage 13.

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans inherited fifth following Lappi’s problems, while M-Sport’s Pierre-Louis Loubet jumped up to sixth.

The second pass of the morning stages featured gravel rising up to the road surface and deep ruts to add to the challenge for the drivers.

The loop began with Rovanpera resuming his charge from the end of the morning loop. The Finn clinched his fifth stage win of the event to increase the pressure on Lappi in the battle for third overall.

There was also movement in the battle for the rally lead as Tanak posted the second fastest time, 0.2s slower than Rovanpera, but more importantly 1.3s faster than leader Breen. The rally leader revealed that he had skirted with a snowbank, costing him valuable time that reduced his overall advantage to 1.7s over Tanak.

Neuville and Lappi both completed the stage quicker than Breen. The upturn in pace for Neuville took him ahead of Evans to fifth in the overall standings as the latter dropped 19.4s after two run-ins with the snowbanks. The first occurred at the start of the stage and resulted in a spin, but the Welshman was able to recover to reach the stage finish.

The leaderboard underwent a significant change following a drama-filled Stage 13, the second run through the longest test of the rally.

Rovanpera was the first to hit drama thanks to a wild high-speed spin. The world champion lost the rear of his GR Yaris at a left hand but was extremely lucky to spin into an access road. Incredibly, the 22-year-old shipped only 3.4s but the time lost in his battle with Lappi for third was to be negated moments later.

Heading toward…