Ott Tänak maintained his day-long lead but stage winner Sébastien Ogier pulled a further 3.2 seconds clear of third-placed Takamoto Katsuta and moved to within 5.8 seconds of the Estonian’s lead.
Fourth-placed Kalle Rovanperä ceded 0.9 seconds to Thierry Neuville but took a cushion of 8.2 seconds over the Belgian into the last stage of the day.
This stage was re-introduced for the first time since the late 1990s and Elfyn Evans again paid the price for road-sweeping duties. The Welshman carded a time of 11min 18.7sec but it was 7.9 seconds slower than the 11min 10.8sec set by Ogier. Evans retained sixth overall.
Sami Pajari retained seventh but Josh McErlean overhauled his M-Sport Ford team-mate Grégoire Munster and snatched eighth with an impressive run.
Oliver Solberg maintained 10th overall and took a WRC2 advantage of 20.4 seconds over Yohan Rossel into the last stage.
Spanish WRC2 contender Diego Ruiloba (Citroën - 60) failed to start SS9.
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“It’s a nice stage. The grip level was a bit better than I expected. It was all okay.”
Car 1. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“I had a good stage. At the end, there was a lot of cleaning and I was overheating my tyres at the end. It was warmer than expected. The clouds were not there and the sun on the road kept the tyre temperatures quite high.”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“Super slow stage. I am sure it is cleaning as well.”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“This stage is cleaning like hell. It’s been a good stage for me. Let’s see how much we lose tonight.”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“I was quite happy with our notes and everything. I prepared quite well for this stage. There was a lot of loose gravel but it is going to be cleaning a lot.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“Pretty okay actually. It’s not so easy to drive a brand new stage.”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“It’s quite okay, I guess. I had surprisingly good grip. The pace notes were quite nice.”
Car 13. MUNSTER/LOUKA
“You always hesitate on the first pass through a new stage and it was more slippery than we expected.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“We had enough drama today. It was an interesting stage. It was nicer than it felt on the recce.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“It’s one of those stages where you don’t know where you are at. It’s brand new for everyone.”