The thrilling battle between Sebastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville continues to rage on the final day of Rally Italia Sardegna and the rivals head into the closing two stages split by a mere 1.3 seconds.  With victory within sight, Neuville has powered through the first loop of two stages, winning both, to slash last night’s deficit of 3.9 seconds to just 1.3 seconds with 20.02 competitive kilometres remaining.

Coming into the seventh round of the FIA World Rally Championship with a 19-point advantage, Neuville remains focused on increasing that lead before the series resumes in Finland in six weeks’ time. Both drivers have run without problem this morning and Ogier is being pushed to the limit as the rivals dice for supremacy. Behind them, Esapekka Lappi holds a lonely third position and the Finn is on course for his best result of the season.

Hayden Paddon continues to keep Mads Østberg at bay, both drivers now looking for solid finishes and good points going into the summer break. Craig Breen had a spin in the first passage of the Sassari-Argentiera stage, which runs as the Power Stage later, but the gap to Jari-Matti Latvala is such that the lost seconds are pretty immaterial. After the disappointment of retiring on the road section back to Alghero last night, Latvala overhauled Jan Kopecky for seventh but the Czech driver continues to head the FIA WRC 2 Championship category in eighth overall. Ott Tänak, in ninth, is now focused on reaching the finish and after an minor off in the second stage of the morning, Martin Prokop retains 10th overall.