Saturday’s special stages at the Chile Rally were marked with a red pencil on the calendars of all the WRC drivers due to the expected pitfalls, and so it was.
Special Test 8 carried out this afternoon saw upheavals in the general classification and an excellent retirement, that of Sébastien Ogier.
The 8-time world champion, who entered the test second, found a large stone in his path a few hundred meters from the end of the test while taking a right-hand bend and hit it squarely with his right front wheel. .
The steering arm broke in the impact, so the GR Yaris Rally1 number 17 went off on a tangent, stopping against the dirt wall of the hill. Ogier and Landais could do nothing but notice the problem and retreat.
This is an even more important twist than yesterday’s. With this withdrawal, Ogier should have said a definitive farewell – or almost – to the pursuit of the ninth world title of his career, narrowing the fight for the championship among the Hyundai drivers.
Kalle Rovanpera won the SS8, the 25.64 kilometer Lota 1, and thanks to this result he managed to overtake Ott Tanak in the general classification. The Estonian made a mistake in the first part of the special, ending up in a sort of spin and losing several seconds to the competitors for the victory.
So Rovanpera took advantage of it, now second in the general classification and first pursuer of Elfyn Evans. Thanks to the great performance on SS8, the reigning 2-time world champion has recovered 9.7 seconds on Evans and, after overtaking Tanak, now even sees the possibility of taking the lead in the next round. Between him and Evans there is just 1″8 in favor of the Welshman.
Important news also for seventh position, with Esapekka Lappi still in difficulty after losing the front bodywork. The Finn sees Adrien Fourmaux approaching, now 3″7 behind him with one test remaining at the end of the morning lap.
The general classification of the WRC2 changes again, and a lot. Yohan Rossel is still the leader, but behind him there is no longer Nikolay Gryazin, but Oliver Solberg. The TokSport team driver did better than both Citroen Racing drivers, climbing to second place and now finding himself just 1.5 seconds from the class lead.
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