Argentina WRC: Neuville denies Evans victory by 0.7s

Neuville was only 2.5s faster in the first of the three Sunday stages, in which Evans had brake issues, but the Belgian topped the subsequent SS17 by over eight seconds and was just six tenths behind Evans before the Power Stage.

Evans seemed to respond perfectly in the Power Stage as he was over three seconds quicker after the early splits, but he ended up 1.3s off the Belgian’s pace.

“I need to learn from it to come back stronger and win these rallies in the future.”

Jari-Matti Latvala took fifth, 23.4s behind Ogier.

Hayden Paddon spent the day in a lonely sixth, which he kept even though he only had rear-wheel drive in SS17, and then no power steering in SS18.

Juho Hanninen, whose Toyota had reoccurring technical woes during the rally, was seventh, as Dani Sordo completed his recovery from a Friday crash in eighth.

Mads Ostberg was ninth, ahead of WRC2 winner Pontus Tidemand.

Having also won the Power Stage, Neuville collected 30 points and is third in the standings, 18 and two behind Ogier and Latvala respectively.

Final standings

Cla	Driver/Codriver	Car	Gap
1	Thierry Neuville Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	3h38m10.6s
2	Elfyn Evans Daniel Barritt	Ford Fiesta WRC ’17	0.7s
3	Ott Tanak Martin Jarveoja	Ford Fiesta WRC ’17	29.9s
4	Sébastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia	Ford Fiesta WRC ’17	1m24.7s
5	Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila	Toyota Yaris WRC	1m48.1s
6	Hayden Paddon  John Kennard	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	7m42.7s
7	Juho Hanninen Kaj Lindstrom	Toyota Yaris WRC	11m16.9s
8	Dani Sordo  Marc Marti	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	14m44.1s
9	Mads Ostberg  Ola Floene	Ford Fiesta WRC ’17	15m11.3s
10	Pontus Tidemand  Jonas Andersson