Andreas Mikkelsen back in front in Cyprus after disaster for Thierry Neuville

Neuville (Kronos Peugeot) had claimed the lead when Mikkelsen spun his Skoda UK Fabia on SS3 this morning. Both men knew that a victory would be enough to give them the championship.

But on the next stage Neuville lost two minutes with a puncture, and also reported a battery problem. An apparent alternator issue then caused his Peugeot to stop on the subsequent road stage, ending his title bid.

Mikkelsen won both stages this afternoon and will start day two with a 20.7-second lead over Nasser Al-Attiyah's Barwa Ford.

Current championship leader Jan Kopecky is falling away in third place in his Skoda, and with double points available in Cyprus, that will not be enough to hang on and take the title if Mikkelsen wins.

Freddy Loix, the other man still chasing the title, moved ahead of fellow Skoda driver Patrik Sandell for fourth on SS4 as he got more comfortable on gravel after a long absence, but remains a long way from the leaders.

Leading positions after SS5:

Pos  Driver                 Team/Car                Time/Gap
 1.  Andreas Mikkelsen      Skoda UK              1h07m17.7s
 2.  Nasser Al-Attiyah      Barwa Ford               + 20.7s
 3.  Jan Kopecky            Skoda                    + 46.1s
 4.  Freddy Loix            BFO Skoda              + 1m41.2s
 5.  Patrik Sandell         Skoda Sweden           + 1m46.3s
 6.  Karl Kruuda            ME3 Skoda              + 2m43.5s
 7.  Matthias Kahle         Skoda Deutschland      + 3m30.6s
 8.  Toshi Arai             Arai Subaru            + 4m35.3s
 9.  Nicos Thomas           Thomas Mitsubishi      + 5m23.7s
10.  Charalambos Timotheou  Mitsubishi (private)   + 6m42.9s