Paddon remains under pressure, Neuville loses time

Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) retains the head of Rally of Sardinia at the end of the first pass of the three special stages of the second stage. The New Zealander remains less than ten seconds ahead, but it is now Ott Tänak (Ford) who is his closest adversary.

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) a perdu plus d’une minute dans l’ES12 après avoir rencontré des problèmes de freins. Le Belge a chuté en 4e position à 47s de Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota).

The Monte Lerno route claimed other victims since Sébastien Ogier (Ford) and Mads Ostberg (Ford) lost more than 2 minutes following punctures. The Championship leader finds himself 7th behind the Toyota Yaris WRC of Juho Hänninen and Esapekka Lappi, while the Norwegian is in 8th place, a dozen seconds behind the four-time WRC champion. Andreas Mikkelsen (Citroën) suffered the same problem, but Stéphane Lefebvre's replacement retained his 9th place ahead of Éric Camilli (Ford Fiesta R5).

Jan Kopecky (Skoda) retains the lead in WRC 2, with Éric Camilli not registered in the category.

The second passage of the second stage will start from 15:08 p.m.