Unstoppable Thierry Neuville. After the three consecutive victories on Friday afternoon that allowed him to close the first day of Rally Spain in the lead, the 33-year-old from St. Vith hit three more scratch in three piesse scheduled for this morning, returning Elfyn’s comeback plans to the sender Evans.
Leader of the classification for the first five special stages, the Welshman of the Toyota team left another precious second on the ground, due to a delay that arrived in almost double figures. Neuville earned 1 ″ 7 to the Welsh in PS7 di Savallà (14.08 km) and then made the most of the first passage on the PS8 – Querol-Les Pobles (19.17 km) won with 1 ″ 7 on a surprising Adrien Fourmaux – bringing the overall margin to 6 ″ 7 against Evans. In the conclusive PS9 of El Montmell (24.4 km), Neuville finally won the whole Hyundai challenge with Dani Sordo, ahead of the Spaniard by only three tenths, with Evans third at 2 ″ 3.
Still disappointing morning for Sebastien Ogier. While on the one hand the Frenchman can smile because the Belgian is taking away important points from Evans in a world championship perspective, on the other hand he certainly cannot be satisfied with the performance offered at the wheel of his Yaris and the evolution of his ranking.
After losing 19 ″ 4 to Neuville and 18 ″ 7 to Elfyn Evans yesterday, the seven-time world champion was unable to make the necessary breakthrough for his race. At the end of the morning the Frenchman is always third but, in addition to having lost another 10 ″ 6 from the summit, he will now have to beware of the returning Dani Sordo.
The Spaniard, who had started the day at 5 ″ 4 from Ogier, lost eight tenths in the first two special stages, but made the most of an opaque PS9 of the Toyota driver, recovering in one stroke only six seconds and taking two tenths from the last step of the podium.
At the moment out of the game for the positions that matter Kalle Rovanpera, fifth at 53 ″ 7 from Neuville. Behind him the Ford of Adrien Fourmaux, the two Hyundai of Oliver Solberg and Nil Solans, the other Ford of Greensmith and the Citroen Wrc2 of Eric Camilli.
Oct Tanak did not resume the race after the crash on PS4, which heavily damaged his i20 Coupe. In the afternoon, second passage on the three specials already addressed this morning.
Rally Spain | Ranking after PS9 – Top-10
Pos. | Pilot | Car | Time / Gap |
1 | T. NEUVILLE | Hyundai | 1: 31: 22.2 |
2 | E. EVANS | Toyota | +9.0 |
3 | S. OGIER | Toyota | +32.0 |
4 | D. DEAF | Hyundai | +32.2 |
5 | K. ROVANPERÄ | Toyota | +53.7 |
6 | A. FOURMAUX | Ford | +1: 26.2 |
7 | O. SOLBERG | Hyundai | +2: 44.4 |
8 | N. SOLANS | Hyundai | +3: 11.0 |
9 | G. GREENSMITH | Ford | +3: 16.4 |
10 | E. CAMILLI | Citroen (Wrc2) | +5: 51.5 |