World rally championship leader Elfyn Evans suffered a puncture and continued to lag his title rivals in the decisive season-ending Saudi Arabian rally on Friday while Hyundai's Adrien Fourmaux stayed top.
Welshman Evans, ninth overnight in the Jeddah-based event, lost more than two minutes on the 11th stage when he stopped to fix a rear-left puncture on his Toyota.
That dropped him to 10th, although he climbed back to eighth at the end of the day.
Evans led teammate Sebastien Ogier by three points going into the weekend but risks losing out to the Frenchman who was sixth and on course to equal compatriot Sebastien Loeb's record nine titles.
"We had a puncture alarm right at the beginning (of the stage)," said Evans. "It was going down quite slow but it was so far to go that we had to make a decision to change it where we could. Not ideal."
Toyota's Kalle Rovanpera, the third title contender, was fifth with Ogier losing a position to the Finn after also having to deal with a late puncture.
Ford's Martins Sesks took over at the top briefly when Fourmaux went the wrong way at a junction but the Frenchman regained the lead after stage 14 to go into Saturday's final leg with a 2.4-second advantage. Hyundai's Thierry Neuville was in third place.
"It's been crazy," said Fourmaux of his day after both he and Sesks suffered punctures in Friday's closing stage.
"I don't know where I got a puncture to be fair, but there are rocks everywhere. It's a crazy rally. Every time we lose the lead, we get it back after."
The rally, making its debut on the world championship calendar, ends on Saturday when there will also be bonus points to be won.
