Argentina WRC: Neuville denies Evans victory by 0.7s

Evans, first from SS2 onward, saw his lead of over a minute shrink to just 11 seconds during Saturday.

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.

"Gutted to be honest. To lose by such a fine margin after so many issues," Evans said after the finish.

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

Ott Tanak completed the podium, having doubled his lead over his teammate Sebastien Ogier during Sunday.

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	Skoda Fabia R5	17m32.1s

Standings after Argentina

Pos.	Driver	Team	Pt.
1	Sebastien Ogier	M-Sport Ford	102
2	Jari-Matti Latvala	Toyota	86
3	Thierry Neuville	Hyundai	84
4	Ott Tanak	M-Sport Ford	66
5	Dani Sordo	Hyundai	51
6	Elfyn Evans	M-Sport Ford	42
7	Craig Breen	Citroen	33
8	Hayden Paddon	Hyundai	33
9	Kris Meeke	Citroen	27
10	Juho Hanninen	Toyota	15