The final day of Rally Poland will see Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak duel it out for the win barring any drama, whilst Hayden Paddon could make it a three-way fight if he can close in on the pair.
Neuville headed into Saturday in the lead, but it was closely fought throughout as the lead changed hands four times with the German coming out on top again, but with a narrow three-second lead over the Estonian.
Saturday saw better conditions as Friday's rain passed and made way for clearer skies and a drying surface, but that didn't mean the drivers had an easy time of it, with Tänak ending up in a field with intakes full of debris, but that didn't stop the M-Sport man from snatching the lead.
Neuville would quickly return to the front before a puncture dropped him behind again, but Tänak's bad luck continued as his rear-wing became detached, leaving him with grealty reduced downforce – the pair both losing massive fistfuls of time.
"I had to be careful and keep the car on the road, but at the same time I had to push because a win is possible. I had a lot of rain in the penultimate stage when I was pushing hard. I was very unlucky, but that’s part of the game," said Neuville.
Tänak added: "It was very risky, very difficult. I tried to be very clean and make no mistakes. It was the best I could do, but sometimes I thought it was going to roll on the bonnet."
Third-placed man Jari-Matti Latvala meanwhile was closing the pair down before his Toyota crawled to a halt, forcing the Finn to retire and handing third place to Paddon, who sits 25.5s off the lead, having won three stages on the day.
Sébastien Ogier sits fourth, more than a minute behind and will need a miracle to claim a third-season victory for M-Sport. Two punctures cost him time and while running on the second flat, he spun his Fiesta into a kerb. Engine issues this afternoon slowed the Frenchman further but he retained a 11.8s advantage over fifth-placed Dani Sordo.
Stéphane Lefebvre, Mads Østberg, Elfyn Evans and Andreas Mikkelsen filled the leaderboard as Juho Hänninen fell away with engine problems. Mikkelsen twice missed junctions in his Citroën C3 and slid into a field.
