Henry leaps into the lead

In the lead at midday, Jean-Sébastien Vigion could hope to keep his position until the next morning. Indeed, this Saturday afternoon in Limousin offered the same three routes as in the morning. And it was once again Patrick Henry who would shine. During SS5, in the second passage of the Royère-Beaumont sector, the winner of Alsace-Vosges set a new scratch time. But, penalized by ten seconds for showing up late at the start of SS2, Henry still cannot take advantage of his good times. Despite three best times in four special stages, he is only in fourth place.

As in the morning, the “long” special penalizes its Peugeot 307 WRC, who seems to suffer during extended stints. Guillaume Canivenq, who had remained in ambush until then, set his first scratch time of the weekend and moved up to second position in the general classification. But the good operation is for Pierre Roché who, consistent throughout the different special stages, positions himself in the lead at the end of SS6.

Le Tourangeaux, despite a fourth place in the last special of the day, retains his first place in the general classification. But by a hair. Second in SS7, Guillaume Canivenq is three tenths closer to Roché, while Jean-Sébastien Vigion is not much further (+1??1). Patrick Henry, spared this time by the setbacks, once again sets a benchmark time. He achieved his fourth scratch time of the day and took the opportunity to get closer, overall, to 6??3 behind the leader. At the end of the day, he even learned that his ten-second penalty was cancelled, taking advantage of this turnaround to take the lead in the race. rally. However, after 106,88km on the program for this day, the positions are very tight. Everything will be decided in the six Sunday specials.