(Reuters) - World championship leader Thierry Neuville was flown to hospital for precautionary checks on Saturday after crashing out of the Rally of Chile.
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Hyundai said the Belgian, who escaped without injury, rolled his car repeatedly on the eighth stage of the penultimate day after drifting wide at the exit of a corner and hitting an earth bank.
Neuville and co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul extracted themselves from the car without assistance and were attended to on the spot.
"The high-speed nature of the crash will prevent the number 11 crew from continuing in Rally Chile for the rest of the weekend," Hyundai added.
Neuville started the rally with a 10-point lead over reigning champion Sebastien Ogier after six rounds of the season, and was running in third place at the time of the crash.
Ogier, a six-times world champion, was in second place for Citroen after stage nine with Estonian Ott Tanak leading for Toyota.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in Barcelona, editing by Ed Osmond)