“I can see nothing compared to him,” Solberg argued. “It’s stupid to put the stage in this period into the dark, it should just be the same for everybody.”
Things were the same for everybody on the final stage, but Solberg elected to take it easy and protect the lead he had built. That lead stands at 1m08.4s after nine stages.
“I just wanted to get through this one, there’s so much happening,” Solberg said. “It was clean, I’m through, I extended my lead today so it’s been a fantastic day.”
Ogier set his second fastest time in a row, and third of the weekend, on SS9, clawing another 12.1s from Evans to close to just 6.5s overnight. At lunchtime, Ogier had been 35.7s behind.
“We tried to have a better afternoon,” admitted the reigning world champion. “This was the first loop of the rally where we could finally be faster – no slush on the road, the rest was just mad.”
Evans confessed: “”I obviously wasn’t brave enough, not going well enough in the ruts. Not ideal.”