Thierry Neuville completed his return to action on Saturday morning under Rally 2 regulations in style by setting the fastest time through the day-closing superspecial stage on the outskirts of Villa Carlos Paz tonight.
Driving a Citroen Junior World Rally Team DS3 WRC, Neuville edged out Petter Solberg by 4.6s when he went up against the Ford driver.
Dani Sordo was second quickest, 4.3s down on Neuville with Mikko Hirvonen next up in his factory Citroen. Philips Rally Argentina leader Sebastien Loeb was fifth quickest.
Ott Tanak won the battle of the M-Sport Ford team-mates by beating Evgeny Novikov by 0.9s in their head-to-head, while Armindo Aruajo saw off fellow MINI driver Eliseo Salazar in their showdown.
Daniel Oliveira didn’t start the stage after it emerged that the driveshaft that broke on stage 12 caused an oil leak in his Brazil World Rally Team Fiesta.
| Pos. | Driver | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | S. LOEB | 3h57m40.8s |
| 2. | M. HIRVONEN | +7.2 |
| 3. | D. SORDO | +1:46.9 |
| 4. | M. ØSTBERG | +3:06.1 |
| 5. | M. PROKOP | +9:22.5 |
| 6. | S. OGIER | +10:26.7 |
| 7. | A. MIKKELSEN | +10:31.7 |
| 8. | T. NEUVILLE | +11:48.0 |
| 9. | P. SOLBERG | +14:08.8 |
| 10. | A. ARAÚJO | +14:17.7 |
| 11. | E. NOVIKOV | +21:51.0 |
| 12. | N. AL-ATTIYAH | +27:27.9 |
| 13. | N. FUCHS | +28:29.9 |
| 14. | B. GUERRA | +29:20.2 |
| 15. | E. SALAZAR | +32:54.9 |
| 16. | V. GORBAN | +34:45.1 |
| 17. | O. TÄNAK | +36:39.4 |
| 18. | M. LIGATO | +37:01.7 |
| 19. | G. SABA | +37:34.1 |
| 20. | D. OLIVEIRA | +40:00.7 |