Tanak leads at New Zealand Rally, Rovanpera up to fourth

Ott Tanak held a slender overnight advantage at the New Zealand Rally after winning two of Friday's six stages while overall championship leader Kalle Rovanpera moved up to fourth in his bid to seal the title this weekend.

Estonia's Tanak clocked the fastest overall time of one hour, 36:48.6 minutes, but is just 0.2 seconds ahead of Welshman Elfyn Evans with Frenchman Sebastian Ogier third at 6.7 back.

Having been sixth after Thursday's opening sprint stage, Finland's Rovanpera moved up to fourth at 7.2 behind.

Rovanpera turns 22 on Saturday and remains within striking distance of becoming the youngest winner of the drivers' championship if he wins the rally on Sunday or finishes with eight points more than Tanak.

"It has been so far quite good. No mistakes and we did everything we could," said Rovanpera.

Evans, Ogier and Rovanpera each won a stage on Friday to keep the pressure on Tanak.

However, Evans lost crucial seconds in the seventh stage at the end of Friday's racing.

"We changed some stuff with the car and some things are better, but it took me a while to get used to it. It's not all bad but it's not the way we wanted to finish the day," he said.

Ireland's Craig Breen briefly held the lead on Friday morning, but dropped out of contention when his Ford Puma slid off the course and into a ditch.