SS11: Neuville on a charge

Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg´s Thierry Neuville notched up the first stage win for Peugeot with a searing 8m29.9s as he defended his third place from BFO ŠKODA´s Freddy Loix.

"The car feels good and we made no mistakes," said Neuville. "It was a proper run. He [Loix] is looking for the podium as well so I hope he has a slow run!"

Loix was indeed slower, by 7.9s, over the 17.70km Nyárásvölgy stage. "I don’t know why I lost that time. I have the feeling that I’m driving well but the time is not there. It’s like that, I can’t do more."

Rally leader Andreas Mikkelsen was second fastest in the stage by 1.3s, with second placed Jan Kopecký a further 3.2s in arrears.

"It was a good run," said Mikkelsen. "Okay, we can go faster for sure. We have a good gap now so nothing crazy. There’s still three stages to go so I have to stay concetrated now."

"There was one corner where he [Mikkelsen] I think was cutting fully and I wasn’t," said Kopecký. "It’s not impossible to catch him, because this is a rally, but it will be very difficult."

Bryan Bouffier was just 0.2s further behind Kopecký, and fourth fastest through the stage in the Peugeot France 207 S2000: "It’s not the best time but it’s better than yesterday. I thought maybe I had a puncture at the rear but it was okay."

The battle for seventh became the battle for sixth as IRC Production Cup frontrunner György Aschenbrenner reported a handling problem, and although he completed the stage in a remarkable 8m44.0s, he was beaten by Red Bull ŠKODA driver Hermann Gassner Jnr.

8m41.1s brought Gassner past Toni Gardemeister, who reported at the end of the stage that his Fabia S2000’s engine had dropped on to three cylinders.