Neuville in control in JWRC battle

Thierry Neuville holds a commanding overnight lead of the Junior World Rally Championship section of Rally Bulgaria.

With four stages remaining on Sunday, the 22-year-old from Belgium heads Dutchman Hans Weijs by 51 seconds as he closes in on his first victory in the young driver category.

Neuville, who took the class lead from Mathieu Arzeno with a rapid time through Saturday’s first stage, enjoyed an almost trouble-free day in his Citroen C2 Super 1600, although the loss of brakes and a wild slide on today’s final test caused him some concern.

“I made a good start and I think [Mathieu] Arzeno felt the pressure after that,” said Neuville. “I don’t feel any pressure - I just need to keep my lead and avoid any mistakes. Winning tomorrow would be very important for me after not scoring on the first two rounds.”

Arzeno, who topped the J-WRC standings after day one, lost time with a puncture on Saturday’s second stage before he crashed into a wall two stages later and damaged his C2’s rear suspension to the extent he was unable to continue.

His misfortune promoted Weijs into second place, despite the Dutchman’s co-driver, Bjorn Degandt, losing his voice on the day’s first stage, which forced Weijs to drive much of the 27.46-kilometre Sestrimo stage without the benefit of pacenotes. His C2 was also struck down by an alternator glitch, which he managed to rectify in time for the final stage.

Canary Islands’ Yeray Lemes is third overnight in his Renault Clio Super 1600 with Alessandro Broccoli inheriting fourth from Kevin Abbring when the joint championship leader’s Clio R3 suffered an alternator failure on the final stage.

Abbring is due to restart under SupeRally regulations on Sunday in eighth position but he has missed a golden opportunity to move clear of Aaron Burkart in the J-WRC standings. Burkart is tied on points with Abbring but didn’t elect Rally Bulgaria as one of his scoring rounds.

Local driver Todor Slavov also had high hopes of a strong result but his challenge was wrecked by a puncture and then a front brake caliper problem, which culminated in restricting him to fifth place heading into day three, 15 seconds clear of Suzuki Swift pilot Karl Kruuda.

Egoi Valdes Lopes (Clio R3) and Ford Fiesta driver Harry Hunt are seventh and ninth respectively.