Thierry Neuville’s hopes of clinching his first FIA World Rally Championship title at the Central European Rally took a significant hit after a dramatic Saturday morning saw the Hyundai ace fall from first to fourth overall as Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier (above) moved into the lead on Saturday’s second leg.
The Belgian had made a near-perfect start on the all-asphalt, multi-country event, leading by 6.4s in his i20 N Rally1 after Friday’s opening leg in the Czech Republic. But on the penultimate day of the penultimate round of the 2024 WRC season, he suffered not one, but two costly off-road excursions within the span of a minute.
Just yards after recovering from a first spin during the morning’s second stage, the 15.12-mile, German-Austrian border-straddling Beyond Borders 1 test, Neuville found himself wide on the grass again. The second off proved particularly costly as he struggled to extract his car from a concrete drainage ditch and lost nearly 40s.
Eight-time WRC champ Ogier found himself back in the lead for the first time since Friday morning, but the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 driver had Ott Tanak’s Hyundai hot on his heels. Tanak, who’d briefly headed Ogier after the opening stage of the day, claimed two fastest times, compared with Ogier’s three, and trails the Frenchman by 5.2s heading into Sunday’s four-stage final leg.
Today’s events have made it increasingly likely that the championship will be decided at the season-ending Rally Japan next month. Based on Saturday’s provisional points haul (which are only locked in on completion of the event), Neuville has surrendered eight to Ogier and three to Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, who currently sits 25.8s ahead of him in third place.
Crucially, he’s lost five points to teammate Tanak, his closest championship rival, but needed to outscore the Estonian by two to secure the title this weekend.
“There is disappointment, for sure, but the rally isn’t over and tomorrow is an exciting day,” Neuville said. “We paid the price. It was definitely a mistake in the recce with the pace notes. The note was too fast, and I am a bit disappointed about that, but it is what it is.”
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta trailed Neuville by 52.0s in fifth, the Japanese driver’s cause not helped by the 16-second time penalty he incurred on the first stage of the day. He exceeded the target speed in a virtual chicane area by 8km/h (5mph) and was penalized by 2s per km/h as a result.
Sixth at the overnight halt went the way of Katsuta’s fellow Toyota pilot Sami Pajari, the Finn enjoying the experience of his first asphalt start in a Rally1 car.
M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster held seventh overall, but it was a disappointing day for his teammate, Adrien Fourmaux, who retired his Puma Rally1 after the day’s second stage with a front differential issue that compromised his car’s handling, leading to two trips off-road.
In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Yohan Rossel’s WRC2 title ambitions took a heavy blow, but his DG Sport Competition Citroen teammate Nikolay Gryazin enjoyed another dominant day.
Rossel began the penultimate round of the season well aware that only a victory would be enough to keep his championship hopes alive, but his rally began to unravel from the get-go. A broken wheel after an excursion on Thursday, followed by a lackluster run through Friday, left him languishing far down the order.
Saturday turned out to be even more frustrating for the Frenchman when he slid his Citroen C3 off the road on the opening stage, damaging the rear suspension. Although Rossel and co-driver Florian Barral managed to make repairs, the 14-minute time loss effectively ended their title challenge.
Rossel’s misfortune leaves only two drivers in the WRC2 title fight: Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari. Neither are scoring WRC2 points this weekend. Solberg is using CER to gain asphalt experience and currently sits second fastest of the Rally2-spec machines, but has already completed the maximum-allowed seven rounds this season. The Swede currently leads the series, but must wait until the Rally Japan finale to see whether Pajari, who’ll return to his Rally2-spec GR Yaris for his seventh counting event, can better his score.
Sunday’s finale is made up of two runs through the 7.56-mile Knaus Tabbert Am Hochwald test, plus two through the 9.24-mile Passauer Land stage The second blast through the latter forms the rally-closing, bonus points-paying Wolf Power Stage. Can Neuville dominate the final leg and claw back some of his advantage in the title race, or will he play it safe and aim for sealing the deal in Japan?
WRC Central European Rally, positions after Leg Two, SS14
1 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 2h10m12.7s
2 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +5.2s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +14.0s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +39.8s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m31.8s
6 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m07.3s
7 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +3m22.7s
8 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroen C3 – WRC2 leader) +7m39.6s
9 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 – non-points) +8m10.6s
10 Filip Mares/Radovan Bucha (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +9m30.4s
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