Neuville snatches Rally Italia Sardegna lead on Friday's final stage

The battle for top spot at Rally Italia Sardegna between Hyundai teammates Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux went right down to the wire on Friday's final stage.

Neuville won the 23-kilometre Monti di Alà 2 test, beating third-fastest Fourmaux by 5.1 seconds to snatch the overall lead. After Friday's six stages, the Belgian holds a razor-thin 0.4-second advantage.

Fourmaux had managed to retain the lead through the first two Friday afternoon stages, with the duo trading fastest times.

Also on the final stage of the day, Oliver Solberg (Toyota) clocked the second-fastest time to extend his gap in the fight for third over Sébastien Ogier (Toyota). Ogier moved up to fourth, 25.1 seconds behind the Swede, at the expense of title hopeful Sami Pajari (Toyota). The Finn dropped from fourth to fifth, sitting 2.8 seconds behind the reigning world champion.

World championship leader Elfyn Evans (Toyota), burdened with road-sweeping duties all day, ended Friday in sixth position, nearly 1 minute and 9 seconds adrift of Neuville.

However, with the title contenders sitting in third (Solberg), fifth (Pajari), and sixth (Evans), the Welshman remains on course to collect enough points to wrap up the world championship by Sunday's finish.

Action resumes tomorrow with six stages—three loops run twice—where crews will tackle a grueling day featuring four tests of over 24 kilometres in length.