Ott Tänak continues to dominate Rally Argentina and with a sweep of three stage wins on Saturday morning the Estonian has now extended his lead to 42.2 seconds. After a tricky loop, where fog was swirling around the mountains, Thierry Neuville has moved up into second with Kris Meeke trailing in third, albeit only 10.1 seconds further behind.

Saturday’s route takes in two identical loops of three stages split by a super special stage on the outskirts of Villa Carlos Paz. Drivers had reported fog in some of these stages during the recce and the day was set to be the toughest with the potential to really split the field. Tänak continues to be on a flyer and hasn’t put a foot wrong all morning in the Yaris WRC and three fastest times in the stages of the Punilla Valley have seen him double his advantage going into the afternoon loop. The fog provided a real lottery for all the crews as it drifted over the vast landscape but Neuville has pushed hard and moved into second on the final long 40 kilometre stage. The Belgian dropped a bit of time with a misunderstanding in the pace notes and had a moment in the final long stage, but won the super special stage and inched ahead of Meeke to take second going into the afternoon.

Dani Sordo is chasing and running well in fourth with some top times and heads Sebastien Ogier by 41.4 seconds. The World Champion took it easy through the longest stage of the rally but needs to keep up the pace as Andreas Mikkelsen is only 7.6 seconds behind in sixth. The Norwegian took a tyre off the rim in the second stage but has otherwise had a clean run. Elfyn Evans remains in a fight with Ogier and Mikkelsen for fifth and mounted an assault in the final long stage to claim third fastest. Esapekka Lappi continues to hold eighth, the Finn learning all the time on his first outing in Argentina. He wasn’t confident enough in the fog and then went heavily off the road with a wrong pace note. Teemu Suninen is another to be making his debut on the event and he is ninth ahead of FIA WRC 2 Championship category leader Kalle Rovanperä. The young Finn has been fastest on all four stages to overhaul team-mate and reigning FIA WRC 2 Champion Pontus Tidemand.

Craig Breen had a disastrous time in the long stage; he landed in the wrong direction after an off camber jump and rolled the C3 WRC. He managed to keep going despite dropping nearly 10 minutes, but was forced to retire with roll cage damage during service.