WRC | Rally Croatia, SS8: Neuville catches Evans and returns to the lead

The end of the day you don't expect. The first stage of the 2024 Croatia Rally ended with Special Stage 8, the 23.63 kilometer Krasic – Sosice 2, in which the general classification of the fourth WRC event changed almost radically, at least in the positions to be podium.

Thierry Neuville once again became the leader of the event thanks to a good performance, in which he was able to close the small gap that separated him from Elfyn Evans – it was 1″6 – doing better than his rival by that very margin.

This means that Neuville and Evans finished the first stage with the same race time, in 1 hour, 5 minutes, 15 seconds and 3 tenths. Neuville, however, was the driver to win the most special stages, 4 against 2 each for Evans and Ogier. This brought him back into the lead, although by no margin over the first of his rivals.

The fight between the two thus ended in stalemate, but the Belgian will have to complain about the puncture which caused him to lose around ten seconds on SS6. He himself admitted that he hadn't had a great day, but what made things even more complex was Sébastien Ogier's fantastic performance on SS8.

In today's last test, the 8-time world champion of Toyota Gazoo Racing showed off an exceptional performance, making perfect use of the asphalt which gradually became clearer, step by step. This, however, should not take anything away from the great performance of Sébastien, who more than halved the gap between the two leaders of the event, bringing it to just 6.6.

This means that Ogier is also back in the fight for victory, even if tomorrow the rain, expected during the day, should make the situation more complex. It will therefore be essential to make the right choice of tyres, without taking unnecessary risks or being too conservative.

Outside the Top 3, Ott Tanak finishes at the foot of the podium with the second Hyundai i20 N Rally1, but his gap to the leaders is over half a minute: too much, at least at the moment, to hope for a recovery. Meanwhile, behind him, Adrien Fourmaux ended the day in fifth position with the first Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid equipped with the new rear wing.

The Frenchman, perhaps too cautious in the morning lap, completed the day 11.6 seconds behind Tanak, but tomorrow he will be able to count on a reassuring margin over the drivers following him. Takamoto Katsuta, at the wheel of the third Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, took completed the day with an anonymous sixth place, over 45 seconds behind Fourmaux.

Andreas Mikkelsen did no better, seventh, one minute behind the Japanese, mainly due to very high times in the two passages in the longest special test of the day. All things considered, perhaps Hyundai would have been better off relying on Esapekka Lappi once again. Gregoire Munster closes the Rally1 ranking, far behind everyone both due to lack of experience and a lack of talent needed even to come close to the performance of his teammate.

As for WRC2, an excellent day for Citroen Racing. The French manufacturer placed a 1-2 thanks to Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel, first and second respectively in the class rankings and in possession of the last 2 places in the Top 10 of the general classification. The only one to keep pace with the C3s was Gus Greensmith at the wheel of the first Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 managed by the TokSport team.

The first stage of the Croatian Rally ends here. The event will restart tomorrow morning with Special Stage 9, the 15.72 kilometer Smerivisce – Grdanjci 1. The first car will enter the special at 07:31, on what will be a completely different route to today's, slower, more tortuous and slippery. Without forgetting the possible dangers brought by the rain.

WRC 2024 – Rally Croatia – Ranking after SS8