Elfyn Evans finds himself within the Croatia Rally lead after Thierry Neuville crashed into retirement on Saturday morning.

Neuville had headed Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Evans by simply 5.7sec in a single day and stretched his benefit over the Welshman into double figures on the opening pair of dry asphalt velocity exams within the hills west of Croatian capital Zagreb.

However the Belgian’s reign got here to an finish within the all-new Ravna Gora – Skrad stage when his Hyundai i20 N stepped out of line in a right-hand bend. The rear-left of the automotive collided with a concrete block, inflicting terminal injury.

Evans inherited the highest spot because of this, however he can’t afford to calm down. A closing stage scare didn’t assist to calm his nerves and M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tänak was simply 22.6sec behind on the mid-leg service halt.

“The floor on the finish of the final one, we knew it was low on grip, however I skimmed a barrier with the rear,” Evans exhaled. “We had been very fortunate.”

Esapekka Lappi climbed to 3rd general at team-mate Neuville’s expense, though the Finn was sad along with his morning. A scarcity of traction eroded his confidence and he misplaced floor to the frontrunning pair, finishing the loop 22.2sec in Tänak’s wake.

Pierre-Louis Loubet was over a minute additional again in his Puma however got here underneath rising strain from Toyota drivers Sébastien Ogier, Takamoto Katsuta and Kalle Rovanperä – all of whom had been lower than 5 seconds behind.

Ogier is on a restoration mission after being handed a one-minute penalty on Friday night. He was lumbered with an additional 10-second sanction earlier than the motion had even restarted after a technical problem on the street part made him arrive late to the primary stage.

Yohan Rossel maintained his stronghold on the WRC2 class lead in eighth general whereas Nicolas Ciamin and Nikolay Gryazin accomplished the leaderboard.