Neuville, Evans tied for the lead after eight stages

Hyundai’s Neuville and Toyota’s Evans couldn’t be split after 119.74 competitive stage kilometres, ending the day with identical overall times.

Neuville had been in control of the rally, winning three of the four morning stages that contributed to a 10.1-second lead over Evans, before knocking a tyre off the rim in stage six.

This strife helped Evans close to within 0.1s before the Welshman moved 1.6s in front. However, Neuville fought back on the day’s final stage to claim a share of the lead.

Sebastien Ogier also hauled himself into the victory fight with a stunning final stage effort to close to within 6.6s of the lead pair.

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, who steadily found improvements after a slow start to the rally held fourth, 41.1s in arrears, while M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux rounded out the top five [+52.7s].

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta [+1m37.8s], Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen [+2m37.8s] and M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster [+3m07.3s] completed the Rally1 field.

The weather threw a curveball to crews at the start of the afternoon as light snow began to fall at the start of stage five [Platak, 16.63km].

Neuville was first to tackle the conditions that became increasingly wet with every pass, particularly for the Rally1 crews. The Hyundai driver admitted that the surprise weather change made the stage “dangerous” but his run was good enough to claim a fourth stage win.

“It is very dangerous to be honest as we had now information from the route note crew and, at that speed we are going, there are plenty of surprises,” said Neuville.

“You have to trust your feeling and keep you eyes wide open. Nobody told us it was going to snow in there.”

Evans posted the second-fastest time, 1.5s slower than Neuville as the deficit to the rally leader increased to 10.1s.

Starting sixth on the road, Ogier faced the dampest conditions but was still able to post the third-fastest time, 5.4s slower than Neuville.

Fourmaux managed to close the gap to fourth to 3.9s after edging Tanak by 0.4s, despite having a moment in the stage.

In contrast, Tanak’s struggles behind the wheel of his i20 N from the morning continued into the afternoon. The Hyundai driver reported an issue with his rear tyres.

“It snowed so much and I had some issues with the rear tyre,” said Tanak. “Some set-up changes are necessary. I think the…