The Friday day of the Sardinia Rally, the final event of the season, ended with Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) in first place, ahead of his French teammate Adrien Fourmaux and Oliver Solberg (Toyota). Sébastien Ogier is currently in fourth place in the provisional rankings. The rally, which took place on the island of Sardinia, was the last of the season after the Saudi Arabia Rally was canceled due to the situation in the Gulf. Neuville, a Belgian driver, took the lead with a four-tenth of a second advantage over Fourmaux after completing seven special stages on Friday. Neuville had faced a competitive challenge throughout the day, with Adrien Fourmaux briefly leading after setting the pace on ES5. However, Neuville reclaimed the top spot by posting the fastest times in the last two special stages of the day. The 2024 world champion expressed cautious optimism about maintaining his lead. "We had a lot of dust in the special stage, and I hesitated in many places," Fourmaux said. "We will see the time, I hope we will keep the lead. It would be good to stay 1 and 2 this evening for the team." Oliver Solberg, driving for Toyota, secured third place, 12.3 seconds behind Neuville. The Swede is now in a strong position to finish ahead of his Welsh teammate Elfyn Evans, who was leading the world championship before this final round. However, Evans finished sixth on Friday, behind Sami Pajari, who is still in contention for his first title. Meanwhile, Sébastien Ogier, a nine-time world champion, is now out of the running for the title but hopes to achieve a sixth victory at the Sardinia Rally. He is currently 37.4 seconds behind Neuville. "It's sure that I had a bit of difficulty finding the motivation," Ogier admitted, after suffering from a flat tire during the event.