Sebastien Ogier holds the overnight lead going into Saturday of the 2019 Rally Monte Carlo, while Ott Tanak drops down to seventh.
Ogier took the lead after SS6 from Thierry Neuville, who was fastest after the morning stages, with the Hyundai drivers benefitting from their choice of tyres.
But in SS6 Neuville carried too much speed into a bend and was forced to go down a side road, losing 19.7 seconds to Ogier while turning around and getting back onto the stage.
Neuville was able to gain back the time to complete the stage only 0.2 seconds slower than Ogier and finished the day only two seconds behind the Frenchman.
The battle between Andreas Mikkelsen and Jari-Matti Latvala continues, with Mikkelsen heading up the pair in third.
After being fastest on both runs of Roussieux-Laborel, Sebastien Loeb was in third in his first weekend in the i20, but he dropped to fifth after struggling on the final stage of the day.
Elfyn Evans will start Saturday in sixth after a strong afternoon, ahead of Thursday night leader Tanak, whose morning was marred by destroyed slick tyres.
His problems were compounded by a front left puncture in SS7, which he lost nearly two minutes changing.
Kris Meeke lost time with engine issues caused by leaves stuck in his Yaris' grill and suffered more misfortune in the afternoon, encountering a puncture that cost him four minutes to change.
The puncture was caused by a broken wheel rim, which Meeke claimed was his third of the event.
WRC2 Pro leader Gus Greensmith is in ninth, with WRC2 leader Yoann Bonato in 10th.
Both Esapekka Lappi and Pontus Tidemand were forced to retire for the day with broken wishbones.
Leading Positions:
1. S. Ogier (Citroen) 1:37:17.3
2. T . Neuville (Hyundai) +2.0
3. A. Mikkelsen (Hyundai) +1:17.7
4. J. Latvala (Toyota) +1:25.1
5. S. Loeb (Hyundai) +1:25.9
6. E. Evans (M-Sport) +1.47.5
7. O. Tanak (Toyota) +2.34.9
8. K. Meeke (Toyota) +5.33.0
