The Belgian successfully defended his win on the flowing, high-speed Catalan event from two seasons ago by a margin of 24.1 seconds from Toyota's Elfyn Evans.

However, a near-perfect weekend that ended with Neuville bagging four extra points by setting the second fastest time ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚon the end-of-rally power stage was overshadowed by events leading up to it.

Video footage shared on social media prior t🧜o 'Riudecaynes 2' shows his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe pushing the car towards the regroup area when, suddenly, smoke and then fire billows from🌟 the exhaust. 

They eventually got going to complete the stage and chalk up Neuville's sixth Tarmac win as a World Rally driver, although the starter motor pro♑blem meant he was not in a celebratory mood at the finish.

"I am relieved to be at the end," said Neuville. "It wa💎s a tough weekend but we fought very hard. We had a good clean run and until near the end everything was perfect. 

"Unfortunately, lots of stress🥀 before the last stage - again. I am really disappointed about that because otherwise the weekend would have been perfect and nice, but now it isn't. I don't know what to say to be honest."

Hyundai's i20 Coupe WRC has been plagued with teething issues this season; Ott Tanak experienced a similar situation before the last stage of Rally Greece with the team having to investigate suspected electrical problems after Rally Kenya and Rally Eston♔ia respectively.

Second place for Evans ensures the 2021 drivers’ title will be decided at Rally Monza in five weeks’ time. He led by close of play on Friday and will no♉ doubt be thinking what might have been had the set-up changes applied to his Yaris yesterday not backfired on him.

With the Welshman’s confidence in the car’s balance shot, his missed out on the chance to strengthen his bid for a maiden World Rally Champioܫnship crown given that title rival Sebastien Ogier lost out on the final podium spot.

“I’m pleased in one sense but quite frustrated on anot🃏her,” said Evans, who was third fastest in the final stage💃.

“It was still a pretty solid job and Iಌ think if you take one-two in a row [victory in Finland and second in Spain] it’s not a ba🐎d set of results but, of course, we are fighting a bit of a cause here so it’s not what we really wanted.”

Ogier was embroiled in an intense dog-fight with hometown hero Dani Sordo throughout Saturday and th𒉰at spilled over into Sunday.

Just 1.2 seconds separated them before today’s opener which was held in🥂 the dark and Sordo applied his local knowledge to telling effect to jump past the eight-time champion. Three moᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚre fastest times pushed his half-second buffer up to 6.8 seconds by the end of the rally.

Ogier - who heads to Monza 17 points to the gꦓood over Evans - attempted to put a brave face on fourth place, saying: “It’s fun for the Championship! Of course,📖 I was targeting higher but for some reasons it didn’t happen.”

Kalle Rovanpera put the puncture and high-speed off-road moment from Saturday firmly behind him to close out fifth place, 2 minutes 45.4 seconds in front of M-Sport Ford's Gus Greensmiꦉth.

Oliver Solberg was the leading 2C driver and equalled his best ever WRC result in seventh, with team-mat🍎e Nil Solans 8.2 se꧑conds behind in eighth.