Ott Tänak extended his Rally Germany lead on Saturday as he opened up a 21.4 second lead over Andreas Mikkelsen, thanks to five stage wins as the rally headed to the Panzerplatte to do battle with abandoned tanks and country lanes.
Tänak had a clean day and looked as though he was controlling the situation while his rivals made mistakes; Mikkelsen spun his Citroën C3 and then stalled, dropping time to his M-Sport rival.
Reigning World Champion Sébastien Ogier finished the day in third, almost 30s down on Tänak, but crucially is set to gain points on title rival Thierry Neuville, whose day ended in disaster when he retired with rear suspension damage.
The Belgian's Hyundai i20 seemingly couldn't handle the tough military roads and forced him out of the rally.
"It was probably a bad impact on the wheel rim," said Neuville. "I knew the corner very well and there is a small step out of the cut. I have to accept it, look forwards and keep the motivation for the next rounds, because the title is still on."
Juho Hänninen made a perfect tyre choice to overhaul fourth-placed Elfyn Evans in his Toyota Yaris, however, a broken damper slowed the Finn and the Welshman regained the place by 4.2s.
Craig Breen holds sixth in his C3 despite three trips through the fields, while Jari-Matti Latvala is a low-key seventh, as the Finn dropped two minutes due to a puncture, but still holds a comfortable advantage over Hayden Paddon.
WRC 2 leader Eric Camilli and local hero Armin Kremer complete the top 10.
Kris Meeke retired yet again, this time with a broken water pump, whilst Dani Sordo recovered some lost ground with three stage wins to hold P37.
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