Neuville edges Ogier, Mikkelsen in tight Rally Turkey battle

Top 15 classification after SS7 at Rally Turkey

World Rally Championship leader Thierry Neuville holds a slender advantage at the end of the first full day of action at Rally Turkey ahead of title rival Sebastien Ogier and Hyundai teammate Andreas Mikkelsen.

Long-time leader Mikkelsen lost his advantage when his tyres struggled with a lack of grip on the gruelling final Friday stage, SS7 Cicekli 2, to see him lose over 10 seconds to both Neuville and Ogier. Despite Ott Tanak claiming victory on the stage, Neuville moved into the overall classification lead by just 0.3s from Ogier which saw Mikkelsen move down to third place - only 2.3s off the defending WRC champion in second place.

Jari-Matti Latvala led the Toyota charge in fourth but over 13 seconds off the provisional podium trio along with a comfortable 15-second gap to team-mate Tanak.

Tanak’s stage win saw him move up to fifth overall ahead of Hayden Paddon in the third Hyundai car with Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi just 1.2s off in seventh place.

It was a tough afternoon for Citroen’s Craig Breen who had been challenging for the lead early on but his day ended down in eighth place – over 50 seconds off of the lead – triggered by punctures on the rough Rally Turkey route.

The event took its toll on M-Sport Ford’s Elfyn Evans and Citroen’s Mads Ostberg who were both forced to retired with broken suspensions on SS6.

That saw Teemu Suninen jump up to ninth place for M-Sport Ford with WRC2 leader Jan Kopecky moving into the final points place for Skoda as he holds a 16.3s advantage over teammate Chris Ingram.