Catalunya WRC: Neuville stretches lead, Tanak into third
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville heads the Rally of Spain by 21.5 seconds, but WRC points leader Ott Tanak has surged into the top three in place of Sebastien Loeb.

Saturday afternoon began with Neuville, Loeb and Sordo preserving a Hyundai 1-2-3, with Toyota’s Tanak nearly 10 seconds in arrears of third-placed Sordo.
Yet Tanak had won the first pass of El Montmell that concluded the morning and picked up where he left off with a quickest time on Savalla 2.
Further stage wins on the repeat passes of Querol and El Montmell allowed Tanak to chew into his deficit to Sordo, who said he “couldn’t do better".
Loeb was under pressure too having shipped 4.3s to rally leader Neuville as he fell back into the clutches of the Sordo and Tanak scrap behind.
Like Sordo, Loeb felt he was at his maximum but just couldn’t keep with Tanak. The nine-time champion’s time loss was more severe than Sordo’s, and he fell behind his teammate on El Montmell with just a 1.4s buffer over Tanak heading to the short Salou street stage.
Sordo resisted the Tanak pressure on Salou to lie three seconds ahead overnight in second, but Loeb would lose his grip on a podium place, surrendering two seconds on Salou to trail the Estonian by 0.6s in fourth.
Neuville couldn’t quite match Tanak’s searing stage-winning pace either but managed to almost double his lead across the loop with a stage win on Salou to boot.
As it stands, Sunday’s Power Stage will determine whether the title is won this weekend, as Neuville is currently set to score 10 more points than Tanak and needing to score 12 more to keep the championship battle alive.
Toyota’s Jari-Matti Latvala had looked under threat from M-Sport’s Elfyn Evans briefly on Saturday morning, but Latvala continued to outpace Evans and is now 22.4s up the road in fifth despite a moment on a sandy corner on Salou.
Evans in turn has had the measure of teammate Teemu Suninen across the afternoon loop; the M-Sport duo holding sixth and seventh places heading into Sunday.
Citroen’s six-time champion Sebastien Ogier is looking increasingly likely to lose his world champion status this weekend as he languishes in eighth, needing to either beat Tanak or lose no more than two points to him to remain in title contention.
Following the hydraulic problems that left his C3 WRC with no power steering or paddle-shift gear selector on two of Friday’s gravel stages, Ogier is four minutes adrift of the leaders and used Saturday afternoon as an opportunity to test various set-ups.
Mads Ostberg is ninth and leads WRC2 ahead of Eric Camilli.

Previous article
Catalunya WRC: Neuville back ahead, Meeke crashes
Next article
Catalunya WRC: Tanak crowned champion as Neuville wins

About this article
Series | WRC |
Event | Rally Catalunya |
Sub-event | Day 3 |
Drivers | Dani Sordo , Ott Tanak , Thierry Neuville |
Author | Luke Barry |
Catalunya WRC: Neuville stretches lead, Tanak into third
Trending
Arctic Rally Finland: Wolf Power Stage highlights
Arctic Rally Finland: Highlights Stage 9
Arctic Rally Finland: Highlights Stages 6-8
Arctic Rally Finland: Highlights Stages 3-5
How Tanak froze out the competition at the Arctic Rally
Ott Tanak made up for a disastrous Monte Carlo Rally by leading all the way on the snow-kissed stages of the Arctic Rally Finland and in the process hit back at an event Toyota had been expected to dominate…
What to look out for in the 2021 WRC
As the 2021 World Rally Championship prepares to launch amid tight COVID-19 restrictions in Monte Carlo, here are the eight things unrelated to the pandemic that you should keep an eye on this year
Evans on the talking points of WRC 2021
He came close to the title last year, and now Toyota's Elfyn Evans gives his verdict on what to expect from 2021 as the World Rally Championship prepares to reconvene for the Monte Carlo season opener.
Why Britain's continued WRC absence is a wake-up call
With Rally GB dropping off the World Rally Championship calendar for the second year in a row, one of Britain's best-attended sporting events faces an uncertain future. It's an unfortunate situation that points to troubling times ahead
The Top 10 WRC drivers of 2020
A drastically-shortened 2020 season gave the World Rally Championship protagonists precious little stage mileage to strut their stuff, but as ever the cream rose to the top across the seven events. We rank the year's best performers
The twists and turns of a turbulent 2020 WRC season
The 2020 World Rally Championship bestrode all 12 months of the Gregorian calendar, and in terms of the competition it was a cracker. Moreover, it was an inspiration in dark days for the world and our industry.
The early setbacks that shaped the WRC's greatest driver Loeb
A series of close calls in his formative years threatened to leave rallying's top echelon tantalisingly out of reach for the man who would go on to claim nine WRC titles. In an exclusive interview, Sebastien Loeb recalls the key steps on his road to dominance.
Why the WRC's unorthodox Monza ending was a necessary one
The Monza Rally was an unusual way to end an unusual WRC season, and while far from ideal, without it the series could have faced serious ramifications. To persuade stakeholders to commit to an uncertain future, Monza was an important showcase…