Hyundai i20 N star Neuville was undoubtedly the man to beat
in the morning. Having held third last night, he pinched second place from
Ogier on the day’s first ice-patched speed test and stormed into the top spot
before midday as time ebbed away from overnight leader Elfyn Evans.
Ogier seized control by reeling off back-to-back stage wins early
in the repeated afternoon loop, but Neuville retaliated by outpacing the Toyota
GR Yaris-driving Frenchman in the closing kilometres to carry a 3.3sec
advantage into Sunday.
With Rallye Monte-Carlo marking the debut of the all-new
WRC points structure, Neuville’s late charge will earn him 18 points
providing he completes Sunday’s stages. Ogier will receive 15 while Evans, who
ended the day 34.9sec off the lead in third, gets 13.
"It was perfection,” Neuville said of his drive on Pellafol
- Agnières-en-Dévoluy. “Everything went well and I really enjoyed the car - it
was incredible.
“It was important to take the points tonight but we also
needed to keep the car on the road. I had a good feeling, so I went for it and
it seems like it paid off," he added.
Ogier’s stage win at Les Nonières - Chichilianne was the 700th
of his career. That feat moved him ahead of Finnish legend Juha Kankkunen (699
stage wins) into fourth on the all-time WRC list of stage winners.
"I have been trying since the beginning of the rally, basically,”
admitted the nine-time Rallye Monte-Carlo winner. “This [final stage] was no
different, but Thierry did a good stage. It looks like we need to try harder
tomorrow.”
Super Sunday brings the opportunity for the top performers
over the course of the final day to collect up to seven points in addition to
the five bonus points also up for grabs in the rally-ending Wolf Power Stage.
Evans completed SS10 with no hybrid boost on his GR Yaris. Even
with the issue fixed, he could not find an answer to the sudden speed of his peers.
“I don’t know what's going on,” the Welshman admitted after yielding 16.9sec in
SS12. “It didn't feel great, but that’s chronic.”
Hyundai man Ott Tänak’s hold on fourth was strengthened as
he pulled away from his closest challenger Adrien Fourmaux, helped by his stage
win on Pellafol / Agnières-en-Dévoluy. The pair were split by over one minute
at close of play, with Fourmaux doubling down on his conservative approach
after seeing his M-Sport Ford Puma colleague Grégoire Munster off the road in
SS12.
Munster’s demise allowed Andreas Mikkelsen to claim sixth in
his Hyundai, while Takamoto Katsuta climbed up to seventh following his costly
ditch excursion on Friday.
Eighth place went to Nikolay Gryazin, who currently heads Pepe López in a thrilling duel for WRC2 supremacy. Yohan Rossel is also involved in the support category scrap and completed the top 10.
Sunday's final leg features three stages as crews journey south to Monaco. The
trio add up to 52.12km before the rally finishes in the principality.