The second stage of the Croatia Rally ended in the Italian evening with Special Stage 16, the 9.11 kilometer Pecurkovo Brdo – Mreznicki Novaki 2 which gave the last chance of the day to see the three-way fight for first place in the general classification of the fourth WRC event of the season.
A fight pitting Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier, drivers of Toyota Gazoo Racing, against Thierry Neuville, exponent of Hyundai Motorsport and leader of the event with 9 special stages out of 16 won, but such a small advantage as to leave everything open.
The Belgian has a puncture behind him and a wrong tire choice made this afternoon, sublimated by a shower of rain which made him lose almost 8 seconds. These, added to the dozen left on the road with yesterday's problem with the front right tyre, force him to rest this evening with just under 5 seconds of margin over Elfyn Evans. 4″9, to be precise.
Yet Neuville impressed, and not a little, with the ability with which he managed to manage the tires this afternoon and immediately return to the lead after leaving it on SS13 after the rain had mocked him. A test of strength, but also of precision, because Neuville has always raced to the limit in order to gain the right to score 18 points, the maximum that Saturday allows in the new points allocation introduced this year.
Of course, Neuville will have to reach the finish line tomorrow to confirm today's points, but from a World Championship perspective it was a very important performance, with 3 special stages won consecutively with which he regained command of the operations and pulled ahead of his direct rivals.
Elfyn Evans tried to resist, as did Ogier, but their performance was shattered by an excellent form from their rival. Tomorrow, by virtue of the fact that Ogier will not play the entire season, it is easy to think that the 8-time world champion will try not to hinder Evans, so as to allow him to take as many points as possible in the chase for the title.
Evans, like Neuville, will fight and push again to win the event and to obtain maximum points on Sunday. So there will be no calculations, but a duel to the last tenth to establish which of the two will bring home the most championship points this weekend.
Outside the Top 3 we still find Ott Tanak with the second official HyundaI i20 N Rally1, now far from the podium area. The Estonian was however able to defend himself from the attacks brought by a good Adrien Fourmaux in the first Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid, the only truly competitive one.
The Frenchman from M-Sport had good performances, especially in the afternoon, but Tanak almost always did better, so much so that he brought his lead to 19.9s over his rival.
Behind them the positions have been defined since yesterday, with Takamoto Katsuta sixth in the third GR Yaris Rally1, ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen's Hyundai i20 N Rally1 and the second Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid, the one driven by Gregoire Munster. With these positions, if they were to be confirmed tomorrow too, Toyota would be able to gain a lead on Hyundai in the Constructors' World Championship. For the Alzenau team the contribution of Ott Tanak is missing, only fourth and never able to worry Evans and Ogier, but also of Mikkelsen, who is losing the duel with Katsuta.
As for WRC2, Citroen Racing sees its cars clearly dominate thanks to the first position of Nikolay Gryazin and the second of Yohan Rossel. The Russian has managed his large advantage over his brand mate and now has a margin of 39″5 also thanks to a penalty given to the Frenchman on SS16 for arriving 1 minute late at Time Control. Third position for Sami Pajari at the wheel of the first Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, who has a margin of 14″8 over an unlucky Gus Greensmith. The Briton from the TokSport team lost out on the podium due to a puncture suffered today.
The 2024 Croatia Rally will resume tomorrow with Special Stage 17, the 13.15 kilometer Trakoscan – Vrbno 1, in a round of 4 stages without assistance, unless before leaving the Service Park. The first car, the Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid of Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka, will enter testing at 07:08 Italian time.
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