Sebastien Ogier has a 35.9s lead going into the final day of Rally Mexico.
The reigning champion took four stage wins on Saturday to storm ahead in the M-Sport Ford as drivers around him all suffered issues.
Both day two leader Dani Sordo and Sébastien Loeb, who had managed to leapfrog the Spaniard in to the overall lead on Saturday Morning, would both incredibly hit the same rock on stage 14, giving the pair punctures.
Loeb was worst affected – he was forced to stop on stage and change the Citroen C3’s tyre costing the then-rally leader two and a half minutes and eventually he eventually dropped to fifth by the end of the day’s nine stages.
“It was a stone on the line. Nothing really bad. I didn’t think I’d have a puncture for that but I had one.” Said Loeb.
Sordo meanwhile managed to complete the stage with a flat tyre, but he still lost thirty seconds.
Photo Credit: Jaanus Ree/RedBull Content Pool
Behind a dominant Ogier is Kris Meeke in second, with the Irishman managing to keep pace with the leader and the gap at the front would have been smaller if not for a spin late on Saturday afternoon.
With Sordo sitting in third, fourth is the second Hyundai of Andreas Mikkelsen, with the Norwegian trying a variety of different setups and tweaks in a bid to get closer to the top three, but still lies over thirty seconds behind Sordo.
A recovering Loeb is in fifth with championship leader Thierry Neuville down in sixth at the end of day three. Saturday was another day of road sweeping duty and the Belgian suffered as a result.
Extra problems such as a puncture and being forced to stop for over a minute as his i20’s engine flooded after going through a river crossing on the opening stage of the morning has cost him even more time.
Ott Tänak was another driver to suffer on Saturday. The Estonian was third going into the days action, but a turbo issue on his Toyota on the very first stage of the day forced him to retire.
WRC2 sees Pontus Tidemand continue to lead with Gus Greensmith in second, with the pair lying seventh and eighth as a result of the high attrition rate ahead. Jari-Matti Latvala sits ninth overall after restarting under Rally2 rules.
Rally Mexico concludes tomorrow with three stages remaining.
