WRC | Ogier thanks Neuville and Evans and wins the Rally Croatia

Sébastien Ogier won the Croatian Rally, the fourth round of the 2024 WRC, without having done anything special to take it home. Now convinced that he had taken third place so as not to annoy his teammate Elfyn Evans, Ogier found himself leader of the event with 2 stages to go. At that point he couldn't help but take victory number 59 of his fantastic career, the second of the season for Toyota Gazoo Racing after Rovanpera's at Safari.

Although the 8-time world champion always remained very close to the first two, it is fair to underline that the two main contenders for the title committed only one, but heavy, mistake during the 20 races which jeopardized the final result.

Thierry Neuville largely commanded the event, winning 9 special stages, but on SS18 Martijn Wydaeghe made a mistake in dictating the notes and the Belgian ended up hitting a tree, losing the rear wing and also the opportunity to win the second event of the year after having already put the winner's trophy of the Rallye Monte-Carlo on the board.

A double insult for Neuville, because a few minutes earlier it had been Elfyn Evans – still on SS18 – who made a mistake, ending up spinning in the middle of the woods, on the same stretch that led Neuville to make the mistake.

Neuville had no opportunity to be informed of his rival's mistake: if he had known, he probably would not have taken the risks he accepted to try to secure a victory he deserved. Wydaeghe has made one of the rare mistakes since sailing Neuville, i.e. since January 2021.

If the 35-year-old from Hyundai Motorsport isn't smiling, Elfyn Evans must be even more sorry for the mistake, because it led him to lose precious points for the World Championship. The second place taken home is worth the double for Toyota Gazoo Racing, but it doesn't help his ranking.

The first, big disappointment in terms of performance of the weekend was Ott Tanak. The Estonian continues to struggle in gaining confidence with the i20 N Rally1 and the results have been visible since Friday, the day in which he suffered a greater gap from the three drivers competing in the race. Paradoxically, however, Ott is the driver to have earned the most points over the weekend thanks to the new scoring system.

On Saturday and Sunday the 2019 world champion changed his pace, improving it, but never being able to really make a difference and make up for lost time to compete for the podium. In Portugal he will have a perfect starting position to try to redeem himself.

Although he is one of the two starting drivers for 2024 together with Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta confirms his unsuitability for the role he plays. The fifth place finish is a gift from Fourmaux, because his times were so high compared to the best that he never had the opportunity to fight for the podium, nor to worry Ott Tanak and Adrien Fourmaux until the Frenchman committed the mistake that removed him from the Top 10.

If Ott Tanak cannot be satisfied with his weekend, Andreas Mikkelsen was perhaps the biggest disappointment in terms of result of the entire weekend. The Norwegian, called upon to make an important contribution to Hyundai Motorsport in the chase for the Constructors' championship title, was always slower than Takamoto Katsuta, finishing behind him without appeal.

The impression is that the many years spent away from the WRC's reference cars have made him lose the habit of managing more horsepower and more sophisticated aerodynamics. The doubt arises that, this weekend, Esapekka Lappi would perhaps have been the ideal choice for Hyundai to pursue its objectives.

Complicated race for the M-Sport Ford Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrids. Gregoire Munster completed the race in seventh place, penultimate among the Rally1s with a race aimed at avoiding serious errors. This strategy gave him the first points of the season scored directly in the race (excluding the Power Stages and Super Sundays).

Two-faced weekend for Adrien Fourmaux. Until Saturday the Frenchman occupied fifth position in the general classification, but in the first test this morning he made a mistake and ended up hitting an anti-shear block in a right-hand corner, breaking the right front suspension.

Fourmax was thus forced to stop during testing to try to repair the damage with the clear aim of restarting. If he had withdrawn he would have been forced to lose the points gained yesterday evening. Adrien, after several minutes, succeeded in the feat and set off again, despite finishing outside the Top 10 of the event's general ranking but saving the spoils he had collected yesterday.

Thanks to the 19 points he brought home this weekend, Thierry Neuville keeps his lead over Elfyn Evans unchanged. Now the Belgian leads with 86 points against his rival's 80, therefore an advantage that remains laughable. Third position for Adrien Fourmaux, who did a great job of making amends for the mistake he made this morning and winning the Power Stage, scoring 15 points in a weekend that saw him outside the Top 10 in the overall standings. Ott Tanak is fourth on 53 points, 6 less than Fourmaux, and 8 points ahead of the Toyota pairing of Sébastien Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta.

1-2 Citroen in WRC2: Gryazin beats Rossel

Citroen Racing takes home the best possible result from Croatia with a 1-2 of its C3 Rally2s. Nikolay Gryazin led the category classification ahead of his brand mate Yohan Rossel for the entire duration of the event. The Frenchman, after a difficult Friday, attempted a comeback yesterday, partially succeeding. Today the Russian completed the work by winning and giving great satisfaction to the Transalpine manufacturer.

The final duel between Sami Pajari and Gus Greensmith was beautiful. The Finn won within tenths of a second (just 3 points away) after gritting his teeth and fending off the comeback of the British driver from Skoda TokSport. The former M-Sport driver thus saw a podium that he would have deserved vanish, but which he saw vanish due to a puncture yesterday.

Croatia Rally: the Pirelli comment

Terenzio Testoni, Pirelli rally activity manager: “We witnessed a wonderful and exciting rally, in which it was easy to make mistakes. Congratulations to all the winners of the various categories. From a technical point of view, the rally presented the difficulties we expected , both due to the poor grip of the road surface and the dirt, which was particularly significant on Sunday”.

“The tires responded well to the various stresses, even when the crews' choices proved to be wrong, due to misleading weather forecasts. The robustness and resistance to wear of the tires meant that the event took place without problems, even when the wheel system was damaged several times on different cars.”

“In fact, the use of the entire range of assigned tyres, including the wets, meant that all the cars had new tires available to face the challenge of Super Sunday, which in the end was decided by two errors, completely understandable considering the level of competition and the rally still to be decided with three stages still to go.”

WRC 2024 – Rally Croatia – Final classification