The Hyundai driver emerged from a dramatic Saturday with a 26.2s lead over Rovanpera, having started the day 36.4s adrift of the Finn.
Neuville claimed two stage wins across the morning before slashing the deficit to Rovanpera to 10.9s after the latter overshot a hairpin. The Belgian assumed the lead when Rovanpera switched into cruise mode after his title rival and Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans crashed out on stage 11.
With Rovanpera knowing Evans’s title hopes are all but over, he cruised through the afternoon allowing Neuville to open up a healthy lead.
M-Sport’s Ott Tanak ended the day in third, 1m49.1s followed by Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier (+2m20.2s) and team-mate Takamoto Katsuta (+2m47.9s).
Hyundai’s Teemu Suninen (+2m58,8s), Gregoire Munster (3m52.2s), Pierre-Louis Loubet (+9m05.8s), top Rally2 competitor Adrien Fourmaux (9m12.3s) and WRC2 leader Emil Lindholm (9m18.8s) completed the top 10.
Crews faced dry roads for the first time since Thursday as Saturday’s afternoon began. While the road surface was no longer wet there was plenty of slippery mud that had been dragged on to navigate.
Ogier coped with the conditions the best to score a first stage win of the event to date on stage 12 (Schärdinger Innviertel, 15.72km). The Frenchman pipped rally leader Neuville by 1.5s, who was keen not to overload his tyres.
"First time of the weekend we have a bit of a grip, but in the mud, it's extremely slippy. The grip changes are actually bigger than before,” said Ogier.
Tanak enjoyed a clean run to set the third fastest time ahead of Katsuta and Rovanpera, who posted identical times, both 4.9s adrift.
After struggling for confidence during the morning loop, Katsuta joked that his Toyota engineers managed to “change his brain” resulting in a much stronger performance. The run elevated the Japanese back ahead of Suninen into fifth overall.
With Evans now absent from proceedings, Rovanpera could afford to take extra care on the muddy sections which meant the deficit to Neuville grew to 14.5s.
That gap increased to 26.7s as Rovanpera continued to adopt cruse mode through Stage 13 (Mühltal 27.15km), the same piece of road where he overshot a hairpin left in the morning.
"It's a bit more difficult [having to survive]. Usually, it's easier when you have proper pace [but] now when you are braking more and some sections you try and be fast it's not so easy,” said Rovanpera.
“But anyway I think we are doing OK. The only goal is to finish now.”
The battle for the stage win was the closest of the rally so far as Ogier took the spoils by 0.1s from a charging Tanak, with Neuville, 3.5s adrift.
Katsuta built on his improved showing by taking another 1.9s out of Suninen to maintain his fifth position overall.
The final stage of the day, held at night, proved to be arguably the toughest of the rally thanks to the mud on the road. Ogier likened it to a Rally GB gravel stage as he carefully navigated the test.
“I was just making it through in this one, it's not really enjoyable when you have absolutely no grip with slick tyres.”
M-Sport duo Tanak and Loubet found out how slippery the surface after running wide into a ditch at the same left-hand corner. The pair escaped the hazard to reach the stage end losing 30.4s and 25.1s respectively.
Tanak, running without hydraulic pressure was unusually angry with himself at the stage end.
"I had a stupid instinct to pull the handbrake and it locked the front wheels,” said Tanak.
The stage was claimed by Rovanpera who said he “wanted to drive a bit” as he took the stage by 0.5s from Neuville.
"I just wanted to end the day with somehow a good feeling, so I tried to drive a bit. It's good to be at the finish of the day, it's tough out there,” said Rovanpera. “I think this is the toughest tarmac conditions I have ever seen, I don't think you can call it Tarmac on this stage."
Four more stages await the field on Sunday to conclude the rally.
