Jari-Matti Latvala was the pacesetter on SS13, the opening stage in Saturday’s decisive final loop, but it was his Volkswagen team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen who made the most progress.
Before the mid-point service Mikkelsen had pledged to try and catch third placed Dani Sordo, and on SS13 he took a big step closer, narrowing the Spaniard’s advantage from 20.8sec to 11.5sec.
The gaps between the top three drivers did not change significantly. Thierry Neuville was third quickest, 2.1sec slower than Latvala, while rally leader Sebastien Ogier was less than a second further back.
Further down the order, WRC debutant Elfyn Evans moved back up to seventh after completing in the ninth-fastest time, 8.8sec quicker than his rival Michal Kosciuszko. The Welsh youngster is 2.5sec ahead of Kosciuszko heading to SS14.