Gigi Galli and Jean-Marie Cuoq round out the provisional points scorers at this stage, the latter gaining a place in SS3, when
Toni Gardemeister was more than a minute off the pace. Gardemeister lost further ground in the new
Suzuki SX4 WRC in SS4 and SS5 and complained of engine problems. He dropped to 13th overall as a result and continued to lose ground on the repeat loop, ending the leg in 14th and more than three minutes off eighth.
Jari-Matti Latvala and
Henning Solberg now complete the top ten. Jari spent the day re-building his confidence after hitting a rock last night in SS1 and suffering a puncture, which cost him around 3-4 minutes.
He was sixth quickest in SS3, seventh in SS4, and eighth in SS5 to haul himself up to 15th. In the afternoon he continued to make progress and was sixth again in St Pierreville before setting two seventh best efforts in SS7 and SS8. He finally finished the day 1.5 minutes off the final drivers' point – but crucially on course for the final manufacturers' point, which will be some solace for
BP Ford.
Of the rest Per-Gunnar Andersson and
Matthew Wilson ended the day in 11th and 12th, with Frederic Romeyer next up, followed by Gardemeister and Ales Broccoli, who heads the A7 runners in his Renault Clio.
Olivier Burri leads the race for the Group N honours, 16th overall, nearly a minute up on Patrick Artru's Lancer, his closest rival, who is 18th.
In terms of retirees there was only one major casualty - namely BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT 'third' driver, Khalid Al-Qassimi, who went off in SS6. It is not yet known if he will be able to re-start under the SupeRally format.
The action now resumes on Saturday at 07.31 hours local time. Two identical loops of three stages lay in wait, totalling around 133 competitive kilometres - the longest day of the event.
