Everything happened in the second pass of the Personal Fibertel Santa Rosa-San Agustín II (23,44km) and Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 WRC) was the one who profited the most of this competition: he closed the day with a victory and was able to go up to the lead in the overall in the last stage of friday. Delays and problems for Sébastien Ogier (Citroën C3 WRC), Ott Tänak (Toyota Yaris WRC) and Kris Meeke (Toyota Yaris), the runner ups of the Belgium.

The last friday stage in the Xion Rally Argentina 2019 was a truly Pandora box. Just Thierry Neuville was able to finish the stage with no problems and made it with a time of 13m47s6/10, leading by 8 seconds over Ogier whose only comment at the end of the stage was “I can’t go faster.”

Likewise, the two that opened the road, were the ones that stood a better chance in the last stage of the day. Tänak broke the transmission of the Yaris that was hard to drive in the last kilometres of the stage and he made spin that caused him to lose more than 24 seconds. Meeke lost the third gear halfway through and gave in valuable 20 seconds. Behind, Daniel Sordo (Hyundai i20 WRC), Teemu Sunninen (Ford Fiesta WRC) also had some problems like Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota Yaris WRC), who broke a tyre.

All these problems resulted in Neuville leading with 11s9/10 over Ogier, while Tänak is at 3s4/10 and  Meeke at 28s1/10. Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai i20 WRC) completes the top five at 29s4/10.

Ostberg y Pedro Heller closed the day in the front in the minor categories

Mads Ostberg (Citroën C3 R5) is leading at will in the WRC2 Pro, with an advantage of more than 4 minutes over Marco Bulacia (Skoda Fabia R5), who also keeps the pace and won his second special in the race.

Shocking moments in the WRC2. The fight for the lead lost its two main protagonists. Alberto Heller broke the gear box of his Ford Fiesta in the section towards the stage, while Takamoto Katsuta (Ford Fiesta R5) got stalled due to mechanical issues.

Thus, Pedro Heller (Ford Fiesta R5) starting leading followed by his runner-up Paulo Nobre (Skoda Fabia R5), while the Mexican Benito Guerra (Skoda Fabia R5) is in the third position.