Paris (AFP)

Will Estonian driver Ott Tänak (Toyota) be crowned in a round at the end of the World Rally Championship (WRC)? Saturday did not settle everything at the Rally of Catalonia and the last four specials on Sunday will be decisive.

To offer his first world title this weekend and before the last game in Australia (14-17 November), the 32-year-old driver has to score two points more than Sebastien Ogier (Citroën), six times title holder, while not letting Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) take back more than eleven units.

However, in the state of the classification Saturday night, after 13 out of 17 specials, only the French, eighth, has more map in hand. Between Estonian and Belgian, the game remains open.

Neuville is comfortably installed in the first provisional place, acquired during the first stage of the morning, with 21 sec 5/10 ahead of his teammate Dani Sordo.

On Sunday, the Spaniard will still have the task of holding Tänak back in third place just 1/10 behind him, chaining the best times in the special stages on Saturday (ES9, ES10, ES11, ES12).

It remains to be seen whether the Toyota driver will play the attack or caution, knowing that he retains all his chances of being crowned during the final rally and that he also plays, with his team, the constructors title.

"There are still four complicated stages, we'll see what we can do, we want to take the maximum points and limit as much as possible the chances of others in Australia", is content to let go Estonian.

- Ogier: "not the end of the world" -

"We do not know what can happen and we have to wait, urges Neuville, I'll try to finish the job and manage my lead (...) But if Tänak also does the job, we can not not stop him. "

In addition to the fight for the second and third places of the rally - that can also aim Sebastien Loeb, the French teammate of Neuville, pointed at only 6/10 of Tänak -, the bonus points in the championship of the Power Stage (ES17) will be expensive.

Ogier, who lost a lot of time on Friday because of a hydraulic problem that deprived him, among other things, of power steering and his shift paddle in the second and third ES, is eighth at 4 min 9 sec 9/10 of the leader and 2 min 45 sec 4/10 of the seventh place.

Whatever the division of points in the Power Stage, it would not be enough to stay in the title race. The Citroën driver can now only count on a misadventure of his rivals.

"I do not wish anyone and I think Ot deserves (the title)," replies the Frenchman. Not being champion for the first time since 2013 "would not be the end of the world," he says. "Whatever happens, I'm a six-time champion, it's life and there are more important things."

There is also the title constructors to be awarded, but it is unlikely that it is played Sunday: it should indeed that Hyundai is ahead of Toyota from eight to 44 lengths, which at present is far from the case.

But with his three cars in the top 4 and only two "Toy" points after the crash of British Kris Meeke in the ES8 (that of Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala is fifth), the Korean brand at the opportunity to dig a nice gap.

© 2019 AFP