Neuville slashes Ogier’s lead

Top 15 classification after SS12 from Rally Italia Sardegna

Thierry Neuville’s rampant victory on SS12 Monte Lerno 1 has seen him cut Sebastien Ogier’s overall lead at Rally Italia Sardegna to less than five seconds to set up an intense conclusion.

The Hyundai rider had seen Ogier open up the gap to almost 20 seconds at the end of SS11 but a late charge on the final stage on Saturday morning's loop saw the World Rally Championship leader cut the deficit to just 4.9 seconds.

The front two have also pushed clear of the chasing pack with Toyota’s Jari-Matti Latvala now a distant third, over half a minute off Ogier in second place.

Latvala’s Toyota teammate Esapekka Lappi sits fourth just seven seconds back while Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon has jumped ahead of Mads Ostberg in the Citroen to take fifth place at the end of SS12.

Craig Breen continues to hold a distant seventh place for Citroen while Jan Kopecky has inherited the WRC2 class lead for Skoda after Stephane Lefebvre was forced to stop on SS11 with suspension damage.

DMACK Ford’s Martin Prokop and WRC2 challenger Nicolas Ciamin (Hyundai) complete the top 10 runners with Ott Tanak fighting back in 11^th for Toyota after stopping on Friday’s final stage after suffering cooling damage to his Toyota after a jump.