Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville kept his FIA World Rally Championship title ambitions on track by passing Toyota Gazoo Racing rival Sebastien Ogier for the lead of the Central European Rally after Friday’s opening leg.
The Belgian (above) reached the overnight halt with a slender 6.4s lead over Ogier and 7.8s clear of his third-placed Hyundai teammate, Ott Tanak, after a flat-out day of narrow, slippery asphalt stages which weaved their way through the Czech Republic and back toward the event’s service park near Bad Griesbach in Germany.
Eight-time WRC champ Ogier had topped the leader board in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 after Thursday’s opening pair of stages, but the Frenchman slipped behind Neuville’s Hyundai i20 N Rally1 after Friday morning’s third test, the 10.47-mile Sumavske Hostice 1 stage. His cause hadn’t been helped by a couple of wide moments on the greasy, leaf-covered roads.
While the pair remained closely matched across the leg, Ogier admitted that he simply was “not fast enough” as he finished the day trailing WRC points-leader and title favorite Neuville.
A first world title is now another step closer for Neuville and his co-driver, Martijn Wydaeghe. With two days to go on an event that takes in stages in Germany and Austria, as well as the Czech Republic, they must outscore Tanak by two points while dropping no more than 10 to Ogier and 15 to Toyota’s Elfyn Evans to clinch the WRC crown with a round to spare.
“I am happy to be at the end of the day,” said Neuville, a five-time runner-up in WRC points. “It’s easy to make a mistake and I knew the only thing that was important to us was to make it to the end. It was quite greasy in [the last stage], so we played it safe and came through.”
While having two cars inside the top three bodes well for Hyundai, the pressure is on for the Korean marque to consolidate its WRC manufacturers’ title lead after third driver Andreas Mikkelsen crashed on the morning’s third stage. The Norwegian understeered wide on a leafy left-hand turn, hitting a series of fenceposts which caused heavy damage to his i20 N.
Just 15.1s blanketed the leading quartet at the day’s end, with Evans ending the leg in fourth overall, 7.1s back from Tanak. The Welshman claimed a sole stage win in his GR Yaris, as did fellow Toyota driver Takamoto Katsuta, who trailed him by 23.5s in fifth.
A hybrid issue put a slight dampener on Sami Pajari’s first outing on asphalt in one of the headlining hybrid Rally1 cars, but the Finn survived a few hairy moments in his GR Yaris to round out the top six.
M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux was also without hybrid power which, when coupled with setup struggles, restricted the Frenchman to a frustrated seventh overall, 5.2s behind Pajari, but 54.0s ahead of teammate Gregoire Munster in the second of the Puma Rally1 machines.
In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Nikolay Gryazin dominated Friday’s action to build a commanding 45.9s lead among the entries registered for championship points, but his Citroen C3 teammate, Yohan Rossel, saw his title ambitions slowly ebb away.
Gryazin was in scintillating form throughout the first full day. After edging ahead by 1.7s following Thursday’s opening two tests, he and co-driver Konstantin Aleksandrov continued their surge, clocking four fastest times to pull clear of Filip Mares’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
While Gryazin enjoyed a near-perfect opening leg, the same could not be said for Rossel. The Frenchman, who must win here to stay in the hunt for the WRC2 title, found himself 1m36.7s off the pace in fifth after a frustrating run. Rossel went off the road and broke a wheel on Thursday evening’s second stage, and further compounded his troubles on Friday by struggling to dial in an optimum setup.
If Rossel fails to claim victory by Sunday, the WRC2 title fight will be decided at next month’s season-closing Rally Japan, with either Oliver Solberg or Sami Pajari in line to secure the championship. Neither of Rossel’s rivals is registered for WRC2 points this weekend, with Skoda Fabia RS driver Solberg having already completed his seven counting rounds, but contesting the event anyway to gain experience and currently lying just 3.1s behind Gryazin, and Pajari part of Toyota’s Rally1 fleet.
Six more all-asphalt special stages, taking in both Germany and Austria, lie in wait on Saturday’s penultimate leg. Adding up to 76.71 competitive miles, the stages are mostly more flowing than Friday’s twisting tests, but no less slippery in the Central European fall conditions.
WRC Central European Rally, positions after Leg One, SS8
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 1h04m40.0s
2 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +6.4s
3 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +7.8s
4 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +15.1s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +38.6s
6 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m28.2s
7 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria Ford Puma Rally1) +1m33.4s
8 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m27.4s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroen C3 – WRC2 leader) +3m53.3s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 – non-points) +3m56.4s
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