Jan Kopecky's Rally Zlin lead has been slashed to just a second over Freddy Loix with three stages to go after the works Skoda man lost time with power steering problems this morning.
Kopecky had to carry out a makeshift repair after today's first stage and was at least able to maintain enough pace to cling on ahead of last year's Zlin winner Loix's BFO Skoda. Juho Hanninen has also gained on his rally-leading teammate, though he is 10.2sec adrift in third.
Skoda currently looks assured of a podium sweep on its home event, and may yet take a 1-2-3-4.
Peugeot's lead runner Bryan Bouffier crashed his PH-run car on SS10, and though that moved Kronos Peugeot driver Thierry Neuville into fourth, the Belgian is being caught by Andreas Mikkelsen in the Skoda UK car – although after winning today's opening two stages, Mikkelsen lost a little time with an error on SS12. He is now 17.5sec behind Neuville.