Neuville set a blistering pace across the morning’s two stages, winning them both to extend his lead over Toyota’s Ogier to 13.5 seconds, with only the Power Stage remaining on Sunday afternoon.
Neuville’s impressive pace has also put him at the top of the Sunday standings, where seven points are on offer for the fastest driver as per the new scoring structure.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans remains in third overall 42s adrift, but is second in the Sunday combined times meaning he is set for six extra points. Hyundai’s Ott Tanak ended the loop fourth overall (+1m54.7s) and third for the day in front of Ogier.
M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux held onto fifth (+3m27.6s) ahead of Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen (+5m29s) and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta (+8m25.7s).
Gregoire Munster returned to the action following his crash on Saturday and is in contention to pick up two Sunday points.
After claiming the maximum 18 points under the new structure on Saturday night, Neuville made his tactics clear on Sunday morning with another 12 points on the table.
The Belgian picked up from where he left off on Saturday and engaged full attack mode. The Hyundai driver blitzed stage 15, the third pass through La Breole /Selonnet, which featured black ice patches.
Neuville emerged from the early morning darkness with a time 4.7s faster than rival Ogier to extend his overall lead to 8s over the Frenchman.
“The beginning was a big push, toward the end I was a bit more careful but I guess everybody has to slow down on that section - we did well, I’m happy with my time,” said Neuville.
Ogier felt he was too cautious but was surprised by the speed of Neuville.
Source: Autosport