WRC | Rally Croatia, SS2-4: Neuville extends his lead. Evans resists

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe archived a very good, almost perfect morning lap of the first stage of the Croatian Rally, in which they won 3 of the 4 special stages and created an already substantial margin with almost all their rivals for the success of the fourth seasonal event of the WRC.

The Hyundai Motorsport crew was slower than the one formed by Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin – the first pursuers in the general classification – only in SS2, and then returned to making scratches in the following two tests which completed the first lap of the race.

With this result, Neuville now boasts a margin of 8″6 over Evans, the only rival to have a gap of less than 20 seconds. All the others are already ahead starting from Sébastien Ogier, third at 21″5.

However, the lap of the 8-time world rally champion was of an absolute level. Having entered the special stage much later than the two main contenders for the title, Ogier set times very close to those of his rivals despite running on a much dirtier surface due to the cuts in the corners made by those who entered the test before him.

Of course, the gap from the leaders is already significant, but the Gap champion deserves credit for a morning like a true Ogier, that is, that driver capable of annihilating his rivals when he was still racing the entire season and not yet part time.

Behind Ogier we find Ott Tanak and Adrien Fourmaux respectively at the wheel of the second Hyundai i20 N Rally1 in the standings and the first Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid. The Estonian doesn't seem to have a feeling with the Korean car, continuing the difficulties that have gripped him since he returned to defend the colors of the Alzenau team.

It was a two-faced morning for Fourmaux, who did well, however, not to make any mistakes and still find himself fighting for fourth place. Tanak, who precedes him, has a margin of 4″3, therefore recoverable during the afternoon lap.

Outside the Top 5, all the other riders have gaps that already exceed one minute. Takaamoto Katsuta, sixth on the third GR Yaris Rally1, is 1'12″2 behind Neuville and half a minute behind Fourmaux who precedes him in the general classification. Andreas Mikkelsen, third Hyundai driver, is seventh, but in turn almost half a minute behind from Japanese.

Gregoire Munster closes the Rally1 rankings in eighth place, but literally followed by the first Rally2, Nikolay Gryazin's Citroen C3 which commands operations in WRC2. In this regard, in the cadet class Citroen Racing dominates with Yohan Rossel in second place ahead of Gus Greensmith (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of the TokSport team). Sami Pajari is fourth in the first Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.

Friday morning lap at Rally Croatia ended with the PS4. Today the drivers will not be able to take advantage of the mid-day service, but will instead be able to choose tires for the afternoon lap in the Tire Fitting Zone. The first of the 4 special stages of the afternoon, the 16.63 kilometer PS5 Platak 2, will start at 2.45pm Italian time with the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 number 11 of Neuville and Wydaeghe entering the stage first.

WRC 2024 – Rally Croatia – Ranking after PS4