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Neuville passes Ogier on stage four to take over the rally lead after the Friday morning loop
The Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT driver Thierry Neuville has become the third rally leader after the four morning stages in RallyRACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada when he passed the Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT French star Sébastien Ogier on stage four by posting the fastest time, now only 0.5 seconds are separating them heading for the second pass through the same stages this afternoon.
With only six seconds separating the top four drivers it will be a tight duel to see who will be taking the overnight rally leader after today. The 2022 champion Kalle Rovanperä was leading the rally early on but got passed by his Toyota teammate Ogier on the third stage, however, Ogier´s lead was short-lived when Neuville went fastest on the last stage of the loop.
Neuville´s Hyundai teammate Ott Tänak has been getting issues with his alternator as he went to the midday service, he managed to get it repaired but that is not the only issue he has got this morning. His Hyundai i20 N Rally1 also had a hybrid issue after the second stage but despite the drama, he is still in fourth overall.
Credit: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Toyota´s Elfyn Evans is comfortably in fifth and he has an advantage by 13.9 seconds over the local hero Dani Sordo, and he also had a good margin of 12.5 seconds over the following Takamoto Katsuta who is in seventh.
Rounding up the top 10 are the three M-Sport Ford WRT drivers of Craig Breen, Adrien Fourmaux, and Gus Greensmith, while their teammate Pierre-Louis Loubet dropped down to 11th overall after a puncture on the third stage and had to pull over shortly after the final stage to extinguish a small engine bay fire before continuing.
In the WRC2 class, it is Teemu Suninen is leading the class after passing Nikolay Gryazin on the final stage. The Russian was leading the class after the title contender Emil Lindholm suffered a puncture on the second stage and in the WRC3 it is Jan Cerny who is currently leading.
Results after SS4
| Pos. | Number | Driver / Co-driver | Nat. | Team | Car | Time |
| 1. | #11 | Thierry Neuville / Martijn Wydaeghe | Belgium | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | 33:16.6 |
| 2. | #1 | Sébastien Ogier / Benjamin Veillas | France | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | + 0.5 |
| 3. | #69 | Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne Halttunen | Finland | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | + 4.2 |
| 4. | #8 | Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja | Estonia | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | + 6.0 |
| 5. | #33 | Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin | United Kingdom | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | + 10.9 |
| 6. | #6 | Dani Sordo / Cándido Carrera | Spain | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | + 24.8 |
| 7. | #18 | Takamoto Katsuta / Aaron Johnston | Japan / Ireland | Toyota Gazoo Racing NG WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | + 37.3 |
| 8. | #42 | Craig Breen / Paul Nagle | Ireland | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | + 44.5 |
| 9. | #16 | Adrien Fourmaux / Alexandre Coria | France | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | + 55.0 |
| 10 | #44 | Gus Greensmith / Jonas Andersson | United Kingdom / Sweden | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | + 1:02.3 |
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