Thierry Neuville took the lead of Rally Italia Sardinia from Hyundai teammate Adrien Fourmaux by just 0.4 seconds, while Elfyn Evans did enough to stay on course for a maiden World Rally Championship title after Friday's stages.
Fourmaux set the pace early, winning both runs of the Tula stage on Friday morning. But Neuville wasn't backing down. On the final Monti di Ala' test, the Belgian put the hammer down, going 5.1 seconds faster than Fourmaux to snatch the lead at the very end of the day.
"Our tire management and our tire choice paid off," said Neuville. "I was tempted to make a similar choice as him [Adrien] but in the end I was pretty confident that my feeling was a good one. A great day for Hyundai and Adrien as well; it's a nice battle and hopefully we can continue tomorrow."
Fourmaux admitted he struggled to see due to hanging dust on the final stage, which contributed to losing the lead. "We have quite a lot of dust in the stage already coming," said Fourmaux. "I thought Seb [Ogier] had a puncture so the gap was reduced. I see more dust coming now, so there were many places I was hesitating and losing time."
Close behind the Hyundai duo, Oliver Solberg is the best-placed Toyota driver. He needs a maximum 35-point score in Sardinia to have any hope of overhauling Evans in the drivers' title race. Solberg put the hammer down, winning the first run of Monte di Ala' and setting the second-fastest time on the afternoon pass. He is now 12.3 seconds behind Neuville and has better road position for Saturday's stages.
Meanwhile, Sami Pajari's title hopes took a dent. Outgoing world champion Sebastien Ogier passed him for fourth place on Friday's final stage, shuffling Pajari higher up the road order for Saturday and putting him behind Solberg in the projected championship standings. "Overall today we did pretty much what we can," said Pajari, who is 2.8 seconds behind Ogier but already 40.2 seconds off the lead. "I think we beat Elfyn on every single stage, so it shows how crucial road position is. It's still two more days to go and I hope we are well in the fight."
Evans, a further 28.7 seconds behind Ogier in sixth, is doing enough to claim a maiden WRC drivers' title, with his projected points gap currently 14 ahead of Solberg and 15 up on Pajari. "I guess tomorrow will be the test," said Evans, "[and] how we can respond with a better road position."
M-Sport duo Josh McErlean and Jon Armstrong are seventh and eighth overall. McErlean lost time on Friday morning with a harder tire selection than the Toyotas and Hyundais amid tire wear concerns, though he remains in the fight.
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