The Zimbabwean had a solid day and looks set to score his first ever 'senior' WRC points on only his second outing with the C4, albeit more than 10 minutes off the top four and having benefited from the misfortune that has struck most of the 'works' drivers.
Further down the order,
Mikko Hirvonen is up to sixth, despite having to retire half-way through day 1. The Finn re-started this morning under the SupeRally and is now set to score three points.
Federico Villagra and Andreas Aigner complete the provisional points' scorers, the latter also on course to take the Production class victory, just under a minute up on Nasser Al-Attiyah, who is ninth. Sebastian Beltran completes the top ten.
A number of drivers' had problems today and retired from the leg - including six in World Rally Cars.
Gigi Galli went out following the morning loop after hitting a rock in SS13 and damaging his exhaust.
Jari-Matti Latvala also missed the afternoon loop, as did
Henning Solberg, who was withdrawn to preserve his car for the next event.
Per-Gunnar Andersson was the first to hit trouble this afternoon when he damaged the suspension on his SX4 WRC in SS14, while
Matthew Wilson followed him out in the next stage for exactly the same reason and
Toni Gardemeister was sidelined in the penultimate test after he suffered a hydraulic problem.
Luis-Perez Companc was unable to re-join the fold under the SupeRally after sliding into a ditch on Friday.
The action now concludes on Sunday, with just three stages and 42 competitive kilometres on the bill. SS19, the 24.70 kilometre-run through Mina Clavero-Giulio Cesare starts at 09.13 hours local time.
