The Hungarian is 25.0sec ahead of home hero Daniel Polášek, an ambassador for Czech Republic’s round of the FIA European Rally Championship.
Herczig’s compatriot Márton Bertalan completes an all-Peugeot 208 Rally4 provisional podium in his pursuit of his third top-three finish of the season with Ekaterina Stratieva and Ciprian Lupu rounding out the top five.
“I’m really, really happy to be leading the rally,” said Herczig, who was quickest on class on Saturday’s opening three stages. “We had a good day and the car is working really well, the set-up is perfect. The afternoon loop was really tricky with the rain and we only had slick tyres in the car. We went with four medium tyres in the rain, it was slippery but we managed it quite good. I was trying to be fast but not too careful and it’s working.”
“Actually I love this because I’m the guy who loves the extremes,” Polášek said after winning SS8 in treacherous conditions. “It was really great to drive on the slicks with this type of rain. We wanted the rain to start yesterday evening because we did the tyre choice for wet conditions. We hoped for the rain but it came a little later than expected. But it’s brilliant to drive at home.”
Bertalan was quickest on Friday night’s Zlín super special and again on SS6. He said: “In the morning I couldn’t find my pace so in the midday service we changed the set-up and it was much, much better. In the first stage after service we won it because of the changes but I didn’t have before experience in the wet and my first experience was here on the Barum Rally with slick tyres on the front so the most important thing is we are here.”
Behind Stratieva, who is starting Barum Czech Rally Zlín for the 15th time, wheelchair user Lupu overcame a misting windscreen on SS8 to finish the first leg of his Zlín debut in fifth place aboard his Renault Clio Rally5.
Six stages over a competitive distance of 81.12 make up Sunday’s route with the legendary Semetín stage is up first from 08:23 local time. The event-deciding Halenkovice Power Stage is due to get under way at 16:05.
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