Stage winner Petter Solberg has made more progress in his efforts to catch Thierry Neuville for sixth position on Philips Rally Argentina. The factory Ford driver is now 1m17.5s behind the Citroen Junior runner after going 22.8s faster through the run.
Evgeny Novikov was second fastest, 18.5s down on Solberg with overall leader Sebastien Loeb third quickest.
Loeb is continuing to control his advantage over Citroen team-mate Mikko Hirvonen and leads by 1.3s heading to service in Villa Carlos Paz.
Mads Ostberg said his Adapta Fiesta was suffering from significant oversteer while Ott Tanak, running first on the road, reported encountering patches of fog on the stage, which is famed for its lunar landscape.
Andreas Mikkelsen is unlikely to tackle the stage amid fears the front suspension failure on the previous test will prevent him from continuing. Mikkelsen had been embroiled in a close battle with Volkswagen Motorsport team-mate Sebastien Ogier until he hit trouble.
A 30-minute service halt now awaits the crews before stage 17, the repeat of Mina Clavero/Giulio Cesare, goes live at 14:07hrs local time.