The Belgian ran wide at a medium-speed right hander in stage 11 (10.13km) and clipped a rock with the rear of his I20 N, which sent the car off the road and into the trees lining the road.
Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe emerged from the incident unscathed but the damage to the car was too severe to continue.
Neuville had started the day with a 5.7-second lead over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, which he extended to 10.8s prior to stage 11, the only brand new test at this year’s event.
The Hyundai driver wasn’t the only driver to hit trouble in the stage as WRC2 runner Oliver Solberg was lucky to recover from a huge spin behind the wheel of his Toksport Skoda Fabia.
Neuville’s accident has handed the rally lead to Evans, who now enjoys a 19.1s advantage over M-Sport’s Ott Tanak.
The sole remaining Hyundai driven Esapekka Lappi has inherited third, while M-Sport’s Pierre-Louis Loubet has jumped to fourth ahead of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta.
Source: Autosport