Toyota's Sebastien Ogier extended his lead in RallyRACC over newly-crowned WRC champion Kalle Rovanpera on Saturday morning after a crash for Gus Greensmith led to the cancellation of Stage 11.
Ogier seemed to have the measure of new world champion Rovanpera but did have to stave off a challenge from the third-placed Hyundai of Thierry Neuville.
Dry asphalt roads greeted crews for the start of the Saturday’s morning loop, and it was Neuville that seemingly made the most of the conditions. "The battle is not over, that's for sure,” said Neuville, who won last year’s visit to Spain. “I feel like I'm pushing but I don't feel comfortable. After the hybrid issues that hampered his Friday, Tanak declared that his car was working correctly, but the Estonian dropped 2.1s.
Rovanpera’s run wasn’t straight forward after a “scary moment” at the final corner that required some evasive action to avoid an obstacle.“I am driving quite clean and I'm still in a comfortable place. We had a scary moment in the last corner - there was a scary block or something in the road and I was sure it was going to break our car, but luckily it was quite soft.