Sebastien Ogier leads the World Rally Championship after defeating Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans to claim his fifth victory of the season and maximum points in Chile.
Seeking a record-equalling ninth world title, Ogier, who is contesting a partial season, boosted his bid after coming through a titanic battle with Evans across Chile’s 16 stages in changeable weather to win by 11.0s.
Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais took the full 35 points by claiming the 10 Super Sunday points to move into a two-point championship lead over Evans.
Hyundai held a 1-2-3 early on in the rally but its challenge faltered, with Adrien Fourmaux ultimately only able to salvage a podium in third, 46.5s back, as Thierry Neuville hung onto fourth – 59.0s off Ogier.
Neuville came under pressure from the impressive Sami Pajari to keep fourth place, as the Finn arguably produced his best drive of the season to date to claim fifth.
After Friday’s error, Rovanpera salvaged sixth, as his title bid suffered a blow with the Finn now 21 points behind.
Fellow title contender Tanak managed to seal one Super Sunday point despite being down on power due to an issue with his spare engine. The Estonian is now 43 points behind in the title race.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta came home in seventh, hampered by a lack of experience of the stages after missing last year’s event.
M-Sport-Ford’s Gregoire Munster drove smartly to seal his best result since March in eighth, while team-mate Josh McErlean missed out on points after a wild spin on Friday followed by a fuel pump issue on Saturday.
Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson sealed a maiden WRC2 title after taking a fifth class win of the season.
