The Hyundai driver will take a 1.2s lead over M-Sport’s Ott Tanak heading into Friday’s six asphalt stages in the Czech Republic.
Tanak had assumed an early rally lead after winning Thursday’s opening 2.55km super special held around a racecourse in Prague.
But the Estonian was unable to hold onto the advantage when the rally headed to its second super special stage of the day, Klatovy, 8.92km.
Held in darkness, Neuville completed the two loops of the Klatovy test, 2.2s faster than Tanak to leap from third into the rally lead.
"It was not the greatest stage. I don’t know about the tyres - I think I was in between the wet and the soft, and I decided to go soft at the very last minute," said Neuville.
"The anti-cut devices were reflecting from the lights so you couldn’t see very well, but we had a clean run through."
Tanak felt he struggled to generate sufficient temperature in his soft tyres but still managed to clock a time faster than rest of the Rally1 field.
Source: Autosport