The three-way WRC Championship fight will go down to the final Wolf Power Stage as it stands at close of play after a hot, dusty and rough day in Sardinia.
Elfyn Evans has a six point provisional lead over rally leader Oliver Solberg heading into the final four stages of the year on Sunday.
Solberg won two stages in the morning loop to move into the lead of Rally Italia Sardegna by midday, bumping the overnight leader Thierry Neuville down to second overall. The title fight was edging towards the young Toyota Swede, who was in sensational form throughout the day.
The day started with overnight second placed Adrien Fourmaux suffering a puncture in the opening stage, losing 58.5sec which dropped him to fifth overall, behind Sami Pajari but crucially (for Solberg), ahead of Elfyn Evans, who was still classified sixth overall. Fourmaux fought back on SS9 to re-take fourth from Pajari, adding further momentum to Solberg’s championship dream.
The title fight swung wildly in the afternoon when Neuville crashed out 1.1km into stage 11, gifting Evans and Pajari two extra championship points as they each moved up one position.
The very rough afternoon loop saw Ogier, comfortable in second position overall, take two stage wins as Solberg eased up to prevent any potential punctures.
Fourmaux was in the wars again on the penultimate stage when he had to stop and change a wheel losing 1:46 (unlike in the morning when he kept going) and dropped to fifth place behind Evans who was suddenly looking very strong in the championship fight with an eight-point lead and would have a better road position on Sunday.
Fourmaux blasted his Hyundai through the final stage to not only set the fastest time, but re-claim fourth overall, pushing Evans back down to fifth in the standings.
Takamoto Katsuta and Jon Armstrong ended the day in sixth and seventh overall after a dramatic afternoon for Josh McErlean who ploughed his Puma into a tree in the penultimate stage. The cooling system was damaged, but they made roadside repairs and completed the day, albeit with left rear suspension damage and dropped from a superb sixth to 15th overall.
Dani Sordo retired after stage eight in pain from his shakedown crash and Martins Sesks retired in the open section after stage ten with steering issues.
Roope Korhonen leads WRC2 in eighth, followed by Gus Grrensmith and Teemu Suninen in a Toyota 1-2-3 in the class.
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