The Latest Breaking News from Ott Tanak

The Toyota driver started the day with a 10.8s advantage but a stunning drive resulted in the Finn to clean sweep the trio of stages to open up a 52.4s-lead over Hyundai’s Dani Sordo.

The Toyota driver produced an head turning display despite being disadvantaged by road position to end the day leading Hyundai’s Dani Sordo by 10.8s. Rovanpera won three of the day’s eight stages to become the fourth different leader of the event to date.

Neuville held a 16.1s rally lead on Friday morning after early leader Sebastien Ogier suffered a wheel failure on his Toyota during stage 2, but the Belgian faced a stern challenge from Toyota’s Evans in the afternoon.

The reigning world champion won last year’s visit to Croatia after coming through a thrilling final stage showdown with then Hyundai driver Ott Tanak.

The WRC heads to Croatia in a sombre mood following the death of Hyundai driver Craig Breen, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a testing crash ahead of the event last Thursday.

Sebastien Loeb hasn’t been snapped up by a World Rally Championship team for a part-time drive this year, but the phone may already be ringing again after his latest triumph. The nine-time world champion once again reminded the rallying fraternity of his supreme talent last Sunday by adding the Azores…

Nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb joined the team to contest four WRC events last year to help boost the squad’s championship hopes.

The eight-time world champion, competing in a partial WRC campaign, assumed the lead on Saturday morning after Hyundai rival Esapekka Lappi crashed out on stage 11.

The Hyundai driver lost control 10 kilometres into the Ibarrilla test and speared into a bank. The force of the impact flicked the car around, before rear-ending a telegraph pole as it came to a halt in the road.