Sebastien Ogier saw his lead in the Monte Carlo Rally cut following a crash on Friday.
The defending champion began the day with a 17.3-second advantage but Ott Tanak quickly reduced that by six seconds on the loop’s first stage. However, the Toyota driver lost what he had gained in the next stage when the heavy rain arrived.
Ogier was handling the conditions well and was on course to extend his lead in excess of 45 seconds before he spun on the exit of a hairpin and went into a ditch.
The Frenchman lost around half a minute while he got his car back on the road, allowing Tanak to close in and then the Estonian outpaced his 2017 team-mate by another four seconds on the day’s finale to cut Ogier’s lead down to 14.9 seconds.
Dani Sordo (Hyundai) remains in third position ahead of Toyota pair Esapekka Lappi and Jari-Matti Latvala.
