WRC | Rally Croatia, SS11-12: Neuville closes the lap in style

The morning lap of the second stage of the Croatian Rally presented a perfect Thierry Neuville. Not in the score, because he “only” won two of the 4 tests held today, but in the management of the tires and in the choice of when and how to attack, producing the maximum effort in the decisive moment of the first part of the day.

The Hyundai driver, after having increased his lead over Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier by a few tenths in today's first two tests, moved up a gear by first winning Special Test 11, the Vinski Vrh – Duga Yield 1 of 8.78 kilometers , and then repeated in the next stage, the SS12 Pecurkovo Brdo – Mreznicki Novaki 1.

In just over 9 kilometers of the final test, the Belgian inflicted 2.9s on Sébastien Ogier and 3 seconds flat on Elfyn Evans, thus increasing his lead over his two rivals from Toyota Gazoo Racing in the general classification of the event.

Neuville now has a 4″7 margin over Evans and 11″3 over Ogier. All this thanks to excellent tire management (he started the lap with 4 Softs and 2 Cinturatos, i.e. wet tyres), treating them sparingly in the first two tests and then exploiting them in the subsequent ones. And the strategy paid off despite the reversal of starting positions today not helping him.

The race, however, remains open. 4″7 ahead of the first of his opponents, moreover an Evans who knows he is competing for the title as Toyota's top driver, is not a reassuring margin to rest on. The same goes for the 11″3 over a beast like Ogier, super on asphalt and on special stages which should adapt better to the characteristics of the Toyotas rather than the Hyundais.

If the fight for the top three positions is more than exciting, the one between Ott Tanak and Adrien Fourmaux is cooling down thanks to the 2019 world champion. The Estonian from Hyundai Motorsport has a different pace than yesterday, much more competitive. Too bad it's too late to get back into the fight for success, as he is now almost 1 minute behind Neuville.

Adrien Fourmaux closes the Top 5 with the first Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid in the ranking. The Frenchman is 14″2 from fourth place and doesn't seem able to catch up on Tanak, so much so that the gap between the two is almost unchanged compared to last night. The Frenchman however took away the satisfaction of winning SS9, first test this morning.

There is no news even outside the Top 5, at least among the Rally1s, with Takamoto Katsuta secure in sixth place, on a par with Andreas Mikkelsen in seventh and Gregoire Munster in eighth. All three have lags and advantages over their respective rivals too large to be changed by performance alone.

Nothing new in WRC2 either, with the Citroen C3 Rally2s of Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel ahead of everyone. The Frenchman was slowed down by a puncture on SS12 and this led him to lose contact with the Russian in the fight for the class victory. Luckily for him, Gus Greensmith – driver of the TokSport team at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 – was also held back by a puncture in the same test and this led him to maintain second position.

Greensmith, however, wasn't so lucky. The puncture led him to lose third place, now in the hands of Finnish Sami Pajari with the first Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. Be careful though, because the young driver today at the wheel of the Japanese car and former Skoda driver has moved to within 5″2 of second place: the games for second place in the WRC2 are open.

The morning lap of the second stage of the Croatian Rally ends here. Today, unlike what happened yesterday, the drivers will be able to take advantage of the mid-day service to prepare the cars for the afternoon lap that I will start with the SS13, the 15.72 kilometer Smerovisce – Grdanjci 2. The first car, the Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid of Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka, will enter the test at 2.31pm.

WRC 2024 – Rally Croatia – Ranking after SS12