Hyundai’s Neuville and Toyota driver Evans incredibly clocked identical overall times to sit tied for the lead on Friday night after 119.74 competitive stage kilometres.
Neuville claimed three of the four morning stages on the way to opening up a 10.1-second lead over Evans until a puncture on stage six cost the Belgian valuable time.
Evans moved into a 1.6s lead before Neuville responded on the final test to match Evans at the top of the leaderboard.
While the top two couldn’t be separated on times, only 6.6s covered the top three following Sebastien Ogier’s stunning victory on stage eight.
The hard-fought battle has arrived while the championship’s future is firmly in the spotlight as discussions continue among the teams and the FIA to resolve next year’s Rally1 technical regulations.
The FIA wishes to remove hybrid power and decrease the performance of the cars through a reduction in aero and the air restrictor, although these proposed changes have been strongly opposed by the teams.
Asked about the battle for the rally victory, Latvala told Autosport: “It is exciting. In the morning it was looking like it was going to be a tough day for us because Thierry was so strong on the first stage, and I thought our chances were not going to be so great.
“But the drivers improved over the day and eventually having exactly the same time with Thierry and Elfyn is something special.”
Source: Autosport