Tag: Thierry Neuville

Neuville wins first WRC title, Toyota snatches manufacturers’ crown in Japan finale

After years of near-misses, including five frustrating runner-up finishes, Thierry Neuville could finally celebrate a first FIA World Rally Championship drivers’ title at the season-closing Rally Japan. But his Hyundai Motorsport team missed out on …

After years of near-misses, including five frustrating runner-up finishes, Thierry Neuville could finally celebrate a first FIA World Rally Championship drivers’ title at the season-closing Rally Japan. But his Hyundai Motorsport team missed out on a WRC title double as Toyota Gazoo Racing snatched the manufacturers’ crown after a gripping final day.

Neuville (at right, above, with co-driver Martijn Wydaghe), secured his championship in dramatic fashion early on Sunday when teammate Ott Tanak – the only driver with a mathematical chance of beating him – crashed his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 out of the rally lead on the day’s opening stage. With a 25-point cushion heading into the all-asphalt season finale and Tanak bagging zero points in Japan, Neuville’s title was guaranteed with four stages to spare.

Ott Tanak ended his slim WRC title hopes after crashing out on Sunday’s opening stage. He was quickly joined by Heikki Kovalainen’s Skoda. WRC media

“I am feeling great, to be honest — we worked so long for this,” said Neuville, who’s led the WRC standings since his opening-round victory on January’s Monte Carlo Rally. “I don’t have the words, but I want to thank everybody who was part of it, who fought for us and all of the team as well. We were many times very close; we always give it our all, but this year we have been rewarded for it.”

The late drama capped off a rollercoaster week for the Belgian, who battled back from 15th place after a turbocharger failure on Friday to finish sixth overall. His title win is a first not only for him and Wydaeghe, but also for their home country of Belgium. It’s also the first drivers’ title for Hyundai Motorsport after a decade in the WRC.

While Neuville reveled in his long-awaited triumph, Tanak’s crash delivered a cruel twist to Hyundai’s WRC manufacturers’ title aspirations. The Korean marque had the upper hand heading into the final day, but the pendulum swung back to Toyota and its fleet of GR Yaris Rally1 machines after a tense showdown on the rally-closing Wolf Power Stage. Toyota trio Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta delivered clutch performances when it mattered most, helping the Japanese marque take its eighth WRC manufacturers’ title by a razor-thin margin of three points – the closest since Lancia captured the crown by just two points in 1983.

Evans enjoyed a double celebration, inheriting the rally win after Tanak’s retirement and becoming the sixth different winner in a highly competitive 2024 WRC season. The Welshman’s triumph also secured him second place in the drivers’ standings – a bittersweet milestone he’s now achieved for the fourth time.

“It wasn’t looking so good at one point, but we’re very happy with the result and for the team,” he said. “Thank you to my teammates also – they did a great job. We’re sorry we couldn’t deliver [the drivers] championship, but we’ll try again next year.”

Elfyn Evans’ first win of 2024 helped Toyota grab an eighth WRC manufacturers’ title. Red Bull Content Pool

Ogier completed a Toyota 1-2, finishing 1m27.3s behind Evans. The eight-time WRC champ’s rally was blighted by a costly wheel change on Friday that dropped him out of contention for the win, but his recovery drive ensured vital points for Toyota in their title fight.

Adrien Fourmaux capped a breakthrough season by completing the podium in his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1. The Frenchman’s consistent form has earned him five podium finishes in 2024 and fifth place in the final WRC drivers’ points – his best season to date.

Fourmaux finished just 7.1s ahead of Toyota’s Katsuta, who delighted his home crowd by finishing fourth overall, while Gregoire Munster rounded out the top five after a consistent weekend in the second M-Sport Ford Puma.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Sami Pajari and co-driver Enni Malkonen sealed the 2024 title in style, delivering a perfectly executed drive to finish second in class on the slippery Japanese stages.

Arriving at the season finale in Aichi knowing that a top-two finish would secure the WRC2 crown, the Finnish duo kept to their gameplan, maintaining a composed and consistent approach to lock in the runner-up spot from start to finish.

The result also marked a championship-winning debut season for Toyota’s GR Yaris Rally2, with Pajari showcasing the car’s potential throughout the campaign.

“It’s a really nice feeling,” said Pajari. “A big relief after two days of driving a bit slowly and taking care of everything, not doing anything silly and reaching the finish line.”

The class victory in Japan went to Nikolay Gryazin, who led the event from the outset in his Citroen C3. Gryazin put in a commanding drive, leading from the opening stage to finish 1m46.5s clear of Pajari and secure his third WRC2 win of the season.

Sami Pajari did what he needed to do in Japan, finishing second in class to secure the WRC2 title. McKlein/Motorsport Images

The 2025 FIA World Rally Championship is set for an expanded 14-round calendar that includes all-new events in Saudi Arabia, Paraguay and Spain’s Canary Isles. But as usual, the action begins Jan. 23-26 at one of the series’ most historic and prestigious events, the Monte Carlo Rally, with its challenging, often icy, all-asphalt stages in the French Alps.

WRC Rally Japan, final positions after Leg Three, SS21
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 3h23m41.0s
2 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m27.3s
3 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria Ford Puma Rally1) +1m55.5s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m02.6s
5 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +3m11.5s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +6m54.1s
7 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroen C3 – WRC2 winner) +10m04.3s
8 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2 champion) +11m50.8s
9 Hiroki Arai/Shunsuke Matsuo (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +13m24.3s
10 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +14m15.8s

WRC Drivers’ Championship after 13 of 13 rounds
1 Neuville 242 points
2 Evans 210
3 Tanak 200
4 Ogier 191
5 Fourmaux 162

WRC Manufacturers’ Championship after 13 of 13 rounds
1 Toyota Gazoo Racing 561 points
2 Hyundai Motorsport 558
3 M-Sport Ford 295

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Neuville strengthens his WRC title grip with early Central European Rally lead

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 …

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.

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier had taken an early lead, but was soon passed by a charging Thierry Neuville in his Hyundai. Red Bull Content Pool

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.

Andreas Mikkelsen’s fourth 2024 start for Hyundai ended prematurely – not the ideal outcome as the Korean marque seeks to consolidate its WRC manufacturers’ points lead. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

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.

M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux faced hybrid unit glitches and setup struggles as he toiled to a frustrated seventh overall.

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.

Citroen C3 driver Yohan Rossel needs to win WRC2 this weekend to keep his class title hopes alive. But as things stand, that’s not looking likely… McKlein/Motorsport Images

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

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Neuville strengthens WRC title chances with Acropolis Rally victory

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville moved a step closer to claiming his first FIA World Rally Championship title after winning a grueling and twist-filled Acropolis Rally Greece. The Belgian (above) mastered the rough, rock-strewn, all-gravel stages around …

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville moved a step closer to claiming his first FIA World Rally Championship title after winning a grueling and twist-filled Acropolis Rally Greece.

The Belgian (above) mastered the rough, rock-strewn, all-gravel stages around Lamia to head up a Hyundai Motorsport 1-2-3 finish, ahead of i20 N Rally1 teammates Dani Sordo and Ott Tanak, with Neuville’s main title rival Sebastien Ogier suffering a dramatic roll on the rally-closing Wolf Power Stage while on course to finish second overall.

Ogier was able to push his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 back onto its wheels and finish the rally, the eight-time WRC champ crucially securing the 15 points scored on Saturday night, but he plummeted down the overall rally standings after dropping more than 20 minutes.

Frenchman Ogier had led early in the three-day rally, but slipped behind when his car was crippled by a turbocharger failure late on Friday’s opening leg. Tanak and Sordo also lost valuable time, both suffering tire damage on Saturday that dashed their own victory hopes and catapulted Neuville into the lead.

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier had charged back to second, but rolled on the closing stage to put a major dent in his WRC title hopes. McKlein/Motorsport Images

Even Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe weren’t totally immune to the rally’s brutality. A misfiring engine plagued their Hyundai on the opening morning, but the pair managed to regroup and adopted a sensible strategy, carefully balancing risk and reward to avoid further calamities on the treacherous road surfaces.

His Greek victory stretched Neuville’s lead in the WRC drivers’ standings to 34 points over Ogier, with Tanak two more points back in third. But with 90 points still available from the remaining three rounds, and Ogier switching from a part-time campaign to a full-on attack on a ninth title, it’s still far from over. In the WRC’s manufacturers’ championship, Hyundai extended its advantage over Toyota Gazoo Racing to 35 points.

“I didn’t have the information on Ogier’s crash at all, and when I saw the car I still wasn’t sure it was him,” said Neuville. “I understood from that point on that I just had to bring home the car and get through.

“Since yesterday morning we understood that we had to get through and to follow our objectives. I’m really proud of my team as well, and Martijn, too — we got the car to the end and that’s what matters.”

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville celebrates a near-flawless Acropolis Rally win – one that puts him a step closer to a first WRC title. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool 

With Ogier in trouble, Tanak collected 11 of a possible 12 points from Super Sunday. The 2019 WRC champ also claimed his 50th WRC podium.

Elfyn Evans’ title aspirations took a major hit when he rolled his Toyota late on Saturday, while M-Sport Ford duo Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster were also forced to rejoin under restart rules following their own incidents on Friday and Saturday resectively. For Fourmaux, there was small consolation in taking fastest time on the bonus points-paying Wolf Power Stage, but the Puma Rally1 driver’s chances of earning a top-three finish in the final WRC standings now seem remote. 

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Sami Pajari clinched the class victory in the closest way possible, the Finnish rising star relying on countback rules after completing the event level on time with Robert Virves.

Pajari, driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, appeared to have his third WRC2 win of the season in the bag as he headed into the closing Wolf Power Stage with a near 30-second advantage over Estonian Virves’ Skoda Fabia RS. But in true Acropolis Rally style, drama unfolded at the very last moment.

A deflating front-left tire three miles from the finish line left Pajari rapidly losing time. By the time he crossed the stage end, Virves had clawed back the gap, leaving both drivers deadlocked on total overall time.

As per the WRC regulations, the tiebreaker was determined by the fastest time on the rally’s opening stage — a decisive advantage for Pajari, who’d been 19.7s quicker on Friday morning’s 13.96-mile Ano Pavliani test.

“About five kilometers (three miles) from the finish, I realized we had a puncture, and I knew the best option was to keep going rather than stop to change it,” explained a shocked Pajari. “When we crossed the line, I looked around to see if anyone knew the result, but nobody seemed to know. It took a few minutes to find out that we had won, and it was a huge relief.”  

He now trails WRC2 championship leader Oliver Solberg, who skipped the Acropolis Rally as one of his seven points-counting events, by just three markers.

Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver Sami Pajari dead-heated with Robert Virves in WRC2, only taking the win on countback. McKlein/Motorsport Images

The WRC now heads across the Atlantic to South America for round 11 at Rally Chile, Sept. 26-29. The Concepcion-based event, which features breathtaking, all-gravel mountain stages, will be crucial to Ogier’s continuing chase of Neuville in the WRC’s overall title battle.

WRC Rally Acropolis Greece, final positions after Leg Three, SS15
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 3h38m04.2s
2 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m36.8s
3 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m57.3s
4 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2 winner) +7m01.1s
5 Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +7m01.1s
6 Yohan Rossel/Florian Barral (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +7m31.9s
7 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +9m54.0s
8 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo der Ohannesian (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +11m27.9s
9 Josh McErlean/James Fulton (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +12m27.2s
10 Robert Dapra/Luca Guglielmetti (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +13m44.9s

WRC Drivers’ Championship after 10 of 13 rounds
1 Neuville 192 points 
2 Sebastien Ogier 158
3 Tanak 154
4 Elfyn Evans 140
5 Adrien Fourmaux 130

WRC Manufacturers’ Championship after 10 of 13 rounds
1 Hyundai Motorsport 445 points   
2 Toyota Gazoo Racing 410 
3 M-Sport Ford 226

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Neuville grabs Saturday Acropolis Rally lead, boosts WRC title hopes

Thierry Neuville’s FIA World Rally Championship title hopes were bolstered on Saturday as the Hyundai ace (above) emerged from the plot twists of another punishing day at Acropolis Rally Greece with a commanding overall lead. The Belgian, who …

Thierry Neuville’s FIA World Rally Championship title hopes were bolstered on Saturday as the Hyundai ace (above) emerged from the plot twists of another punishing day at Acropolis Rally Greece with a commanding overall lead.

The Belgian, who started the penultimate leg third, climbed to the top as his i20 N Rally1-driving factory teammates, Ott Tanak and Dani Sordo, suffered misfortunes in what has proven to be easily the season’s most brutal rally so far.

Tanak had led by 21.8s after Friday’s grueling opening leg, but Greece’s unforgiving, rock-strewn gravel stages took their toll early on Saturday. Forced to stop twice within six miles to change wheels, the Estonian’s challenge fell apart as he dropped four minutes and plummeted down the leaderboard to fourth.

Sordo, making his first top-level appearance since June’s Rally Italy Sardinia, briefly inherited the lead. But, like so many before him, the Spaniard was undone by the unforgiving road conditions. A collision with a rock caused a rear-tire blowout, which cost around 50s and negated his advantage in an instant.

But Neuville, whose Friday had been somewhat marred by a misfiring engine, managed to survive the rock-related carnage. Carefully pacing himself and conserving his Pirelli tires, he steered his Hyundai clear of any potential disasters to end the day with a lead of 53.7s over Sordo. 

Sebastien Ogier, Neuville’s closest championship challenger despite starting the 2024 season on a part-time schedule only, clung to third overall, the eight-time WRC champ ending Saturday 1m20.9s adrift of the lead in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier is holding on to third, but looks set to lose ground to Thierry Neuville in the WRC title battle.

With 18 points provisionally secured (they’ll be confirmed only if Neuville finishes Sunday’s closing leg), the rally leader and his co-driver, Martijn Wydaeghe, are on course to extend their WRC points lead, which stood at 27 points over Ogier at the start of the rally.

“There’s another day left, so at the moment there is no conclusion yet,” insisted Neuville, who’s finished WRC title runner-up five times, but is yet to make the final step. “We need to see where we end up tomorrow — that’s the only thing that counts.

“So far we’ve had a very good management of our rally and, despite some issues on Friday, nothing major happened. From the beginning, our approach was to be careful with the car when it was needed and we somehow got through. I tried to adapt my driving style a bit in the ruts and not put the car too sideways with the risk of hitting stones — that’s the only thing you can do.

“It’s a lottery out there and we don’t know what will happen. Tomorrow we have to see what the weather will be like and how hard we need to drive for the extra points. There are a lot of things we still have to manage.”

Sordo’s tire blowout obliterated the rear bodywork on his i20 N, and with no mid-day service, he and co-driver Candido Carrera were forced to patch up the car as best they could. The duo even resorted to wearing ski goggles to keep the dust out as they fought to retain second place.

Dani Sordo inspects the damage to his Hyundai i20 N Rally1. The Spaniard kept going and holds second overall at the overnight halt. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Ogier, who won three of the day’s six stages, could only reflect on what might have been. After leading early on Friday, his rally was derailed by a turbocharger failure that cost him more than two minutes. His Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans has fared far worse at this 10th round of the season; stricken by similar turbo issues on day one, the Welshman’s title hopes took a devastating blow when he rolled his car on Saturday’s penultimate stage and was forced to retire.

Tanak trailed Ogier by almost two minutes in fourth overall, while M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 youngster Gregoire Munster, who’d been hunting down a top-five spot in Friday’s opening leg, crashed out on Saturday’s third stage.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Finland’s Sami Pajari surged ahead of overnight leader Robert Virves, ending Saturday with a relatively comfortable 27.7s class lead.

Estonian Virves had held a slim 1.5s advantage entering the penultimate leg and, after 30 miles of competitive action in the morning loop, the gap had only increased to 3.9s.

However, it was Pajari’s commanding run through the day’s fourth stage, Aghii Theodori, that proved pivotal. On a softer road surface compared to the earlier stages, the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver outpaced Virves by 16.4s, propelling himself into the WRC2 lead.

A puncture on the repeat pass through Aghii Theodori further prevented any hopes of a comeback from Virves and, by the day’s close, the Skoda Fabia RS driver found himself trailing Pajari by what could prove an insurmountable margin.

Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver Sami Pajari pulled out the stops in Saturday afternoon’s opening stage to grab the WRC2 lead. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

A rough, tough Acropolis Rally Greece concludes on Sunday, when crews face three more special stages totaling 33.59 competitive miles. A rally-closing second run through the 11.36-mile Eleftherohori stage will be the bonus points-paying Wolf Power Stage.

WRC Rally Acropolis Greece, positions after Leg Two, SS12
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 3h01m05.3s
2 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +53.7s
3 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m20.9s
4 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3m19.2s
5 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2 leader) +5m06.1s
6 Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +5m33.8s
7 Yohan Rossel/Florian Barral (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +6m00.3s
8 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +6m58.1s
9 Georg Linnamae/James Morgan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +8m33.9s
10 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo der Ohannesian (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +9m23.2s

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Neuville leads WRC Croatia Rally 3-way fight after Saturday twists

Thierry Neuville (above) holds the slightest of WRC Croatia Rally leads after Saturday’s enthralling, flat-out penultimate leg ended with Hyundai’s asphalt ace besting Toyota’s Elfyn Evans by just 4.9s, with Sebastien Ogier only 6.7s further back. …

Thierry Neuville (above) holds the slightest of WRC Croatia Rally leads after Saturday’s enthralling, flat-out penultimate leg ended with Hyundai’s asphalt ace besting Toyota’s Elfyn Evans by just 4.9s, with Sebastien Ogier only 6.7s further back. 

After a day of multiple twists and turns – literally and metaphorically – Belgian Neuville was ecstatic to head to the overnight halt in his i20 N Rally1 holding that sub-five-second lead and provisionally scoring 18 points to boost his FIA World Rally Championship title lead over GR Yaris Rally1 driver Evans. Eight-time champ Ogier made it two Toyotas inside the top three, and is still very much in contention for his 59th career WRC win.

The morning loop of four stages swung in Neuville’s favor thanks to his efforts in preserving his four soft-compound Pirelli P Zero tires. Evans, who’d ended Friday tied with the Belgian on overall time, conceded 4.7s to Neuville across the morning’s tests as he struggled to juggle only three softs, one hard and two wet-weather tires in the absence of forecasted rain.

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans struggled with his tire choices in Saturday’s morning loop, but is still within 4.9s of rally leader Thierry Neuville. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

All three Toyota Gazoo Racing crews opted to carry four soft and two wet-weather tires for the repeated afternoon loop, while Neuville chose a more diverse package comprising two hards, two softs and two wets.

Although Toyota’s strategy initially paid off when Evans reclaimed the lead after beating Neuville by 6.7s in the light drizzle of the afternoon’s opening test, 9.77-mile Smerovisce-Grdanjcl 2, the Hyundai man responded by winning the final three all-asphalt stages in predominantly dry conditions to go back in front.

Under the new-for-2024 WRC points system, Neuville’s Saturday finish will earn him those 18 points, providing he completes Super Sunday’s final four stages. Evans will receive 15, while Ogier, who’s running only a limited WRC schedule this season, will bank 13.

“It’s not a big lead, but we had a great day,” said Neuville. “Despite a not perfect tire choice this afternoon we were capable of defending our lead. It wasn’t easy when the weather wasn’t very easy to judge. Now we need to continue attacking and have a good tire choice [on Sunday].”

Ott Tanak ended Saturday still in fourth overall, more than a minute further back in the second factory Hyundai. The Estonian was lucky to escape with nothing more than slightly a bent rear wheel when he ran wide on a left-hander and clipped a curb early in the leg.

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak holds fourth, a minute out of the lead battle. Running wide and damaging a wheel didn’t help his cause. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Tanak had 19.9s in hand over Adrien Fourmaux’s fifth-placed M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1. The Frenchman was again impressive in his long-shot quest for a third consecutive WRC podium, taking the fastest time on the Smerovisce-Grdanjci stage to stretch his advantage over Toyota’s third entry, Takamoto Katsuta.

Seventh-placed Andreas Mikkelsen suffered another time-consuming overshoot, but felt increasingly comfortable on asphalt aboard the third of the factory Hyundais, while Gregoire Munster gained more valuable experience in his Puma to end the day eighth overall.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Nikolay Gryazin maintains a comfortable 39.5s lead over DG Sport Competition teammate Yohan Rossel. Similar to Friday’s opening leg, the Citroen C3 duo were a notch above the competition, now led by Finn Sami Pajari, albeit 26.3s behind Rossel in the final class podium spot.

Pajari’s climb up the order comes at the expense of Spain’s Pepe Lopez, the Skoda Fabia RS driver dropping time to lose his podium place and sit fifth in the WRC2 standings behind Gus Greensmith’s similar machine.

Nikolay Gryazin maintained his WRC2 lead, heading a Citroen C3 1-2 over teammate Yohan Rossel. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Four more all-asphalt stages comprise Sunday’s finale, with up to 12 championship points still up for grabs in the overall battle. Two tests are each tackled twice for a total of 34.04 competitive miles before the finish in Croatian capital Zagreb.    

WRC Croatia Rally, positions after Leg Two, SS16
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 2h09m46.0s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +4.9s
3 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +11.6s
4 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m15.5s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m35.4s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m14.2s 
7 Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +4m00.8s
8 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +4m56.3s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroen C3 – WRC2 leader) +7m41.4s
10 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +8m20.9s  

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Neuville’s Sunday sweep secures WRC Monte Carlo Rally victory

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville opened his 2024 WRC title bid with a win on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally on Sunday. The Hyundai i20 N driver (above) racked up his 20th FIA World Rally Championship victory and his second on the Monte with an …

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville opened his 2024 WRC title bid with a win on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally on Sunday.

The Hyundai i20 N driver (above) racked up his 20th FIA World Rally Championship victory and his second on the Monte with an imposing performance in the French Alps, banking a perfect score of 30 points alongside co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe. The Belgian duo mastered the ice-patched mountain roads to head Toyota Gazoo Racing rival Sebastien Ogier by 16.1s at the finish.

Neuville shrugged aside early engine issues before launching an attack on Saturday, overtaking both Ogier and his Toyota teammate and early leader Elfyn Evans to storm into the lead with a slender 3.3s advantage at the end of the leg. A clean sweep of fastest times in Sunday’s three-stage finale cemented his position ahead of nine-time Monte Carlo winner Ogier.

Thierry Neuville kept up the pressure on Sunday’s final leg to secure his second Monte Carlo Rally win.

“I don’t have the words, to be honest,” said Neuville after finishing the final stage on the iconic Col de Turini. “It was just so great this weekend — I felt so comfortable in the car.

“The whole team was doing an amazing job and I think the whole package was working really well,” he added. “There are always things to improve, so of course we need to continue working, but we are very happy to win this rally.”

Ogier, who’s running only a limited WRC schedule this season, led for a single stage on Saturday afternoon, but the Frenchman could not hold off Neuville despite his best efforts. 

“It’s been a nice battle with Thierry,” said eight-time WRC champ Ogier. “Well done to him, he’s been really fast this weekend.”

Sebastien Ogier enjoyed the battle with Thierry Neuville, but fell short of a 10th Monte Carlo Rally win. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Evans held the upper hand after Friday’s opening leg, but time ebbed away from him on Saturday, not helped by a hybrid unit problem on his GR Yaris Rally1. He eventually finished 29.1s behind his teammate, Ogier.

Ott Tanak, returning to Hyundai after a season with M-Sport Ford, placed fourth on his first rally back with the German-based squad. Mystery engine problems hindered the 2019 WRC champ throughout the rally, although a stage win for the Estonian on Saturday morning confirmed his potential with the i20 N Rally1 in 2024 guise.

Adrien Fourmaux equaled his career-best WRC result by finishing fifth overall in his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1. Behind him was Hyundai debutant Andreas Mikkelsen, with Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta almost three minutes further back in seventh after sliding off the road on Friday.

Adrien Fourmaux matched his best WRC finish with a fifth place for M-Sport Ford. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Yohan Rossel stormed past Pepe Lopez and Nikolay Gryazin on Sunday’s short leg to claim back-to-back Monte Carlo Rally class wins.

Starting Sunday’s final leg 6.9s behind fellow Citroen C3 driver Gryazin, Rossel clawed back 3.9s from the Bulgarian in frosty conditions on the opening stage, matching Lopez’s time.

With the bit between his teeth, Rossel continued his charge, outpacing Lopez’s Skoda Fabia RS by 5.8s and Gryazin by 8.6s on the penultimate stage. That propelled the 28-year-old Frenchman to within two tenths of a second behind Lopez going into the rally-closing Wolf Power Stage, and also relegated Gryazin to third.

Maintaining his momentum, Rossel completed a clean sweep of stage wins to claim victory by 4.0s over Lopez, despite having worn out his car’s tires.  

“It’s crazy; it’s an incredible feeling,” said an elated Rossel.

Yohan Rossel pulled out all the stops on Sunday’s final leg to grab a WRC2 class win. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Round two of the WRC takes place on the snow and ice of Rally Sweden. The series’ only pure winter rally, based in Umea on Feb. 15-18, is one of the fastest events of the season.  

WRC Monte Carlo Rally, final positions after Leg Three, SS17
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3h09m30.9s
2 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +16.1s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +45.2s
4 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m59.8s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1) +3m36.9s
6 Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +5m34.6s
7 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +8m28.5s
8 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroen C3 – WRC2 winner) +10m29.8s
9 Pepe Lopez/David Vazquez (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +10m33.8s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +10m45.2s

WRC Drivers’ Championship after 1 round
1 Neuville 30 points 
2 Ogier 24
3 Evans 21
4 Tanak 15
5 Fourmaux 11

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Neuville holds off Ogier for slender WRC Acropolis Rally lead

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville (above) kept a charging Sebastien Ogier at bay to lead WRC Acropolis Rally Greece after Friday’s opening leg, the Belgian overcoming a late technical drama in the process. Just 2.8s separated Neuville from Toyota Gazoo …

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville (above) kept a charging Sebastien Ogier at bay to lead WRC Acropolis Rally Greece after Friday’s opening leg, the Belgian overcoming a late technical drama in the process.

Just 2.8s separated Neuville from Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Ogier after the first full day of competition at the legendary Acropolis’s 70th edition. And despite winning just one of the five grueling gravel road tests that made up Friday’s 63.37 competitive miles, he led the day from start to finish. 

The Hyundai i20 N Rally1 driver passed overnight leader Kalle Rovanpera, who’d set the pace on Thursday evening’s rally-opening, 0.92-mile super special stage in Athens, by going fastest through Friday morning’s Loutraki opener. Pushing on, Neuville had pulled out a 7.4s buffer over Ogier’s GR Yaris Rally1 going into the day’s final stage in Elatia, but his hard work was very nearly in vain as a mechanical problem, suspected to be transmission related, hampered him throughout the 17.6-mile blast.

“The rear diff was slipping all the time and I couldn’t go on full-throttle for first, second and third gear,” Neuville explained. “I was constantly losing time and I couldn’t rotate the car on throttle, so I was struggling a lot. 

“It was stressful, also because it was a challenging stage. From the first kilometer I could hear the noise from the rear diff and I was worried that I couldn’t go to the end, but we managed.”

Ogier, who’s running a limited schedule in 2023 and is back in action for the first time since June, was poised to steal the lead late, but could only claw back 5.0s after low-hanging tree branches removed his Yaris’s rear wing. The eight-time WRC champ believes tire strategy will be key in Saturday’s punishing leg, which boasts almost 90 miles of competition. 

“I felt that my rear wing was missing, but I had no idea why,” he recalled. “It’s going to be a bit like this all weekend — what the tire differences are between us — but it’s a big day tomorrow.”

Sebastien Ogier (above, rear wing still intact…) closed to within 2.8s of rally leader Thierry Neuville. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

GR Yaris Rally 1 driver Rovanpera earned one stage win as the rally threaded up the country following Thursday’s spectacular start in Greece’s capital city. Opening the road, the reigning WRC champ and 2023 points leader was hindered by loose stones as the surface dried after torrential rains in the days leading up to the event and trailed teammate Ogier by 25.5s at the end of Friday. 

Just 5.5s behind was Elfyn Evans, who struggled to make an impact despite this rally being crucial in his bid to hunt down teammate Rovanpera in the championship points battle. A slow puncture in the morning’s first stage caused the Welshman minor time loss and he, like teammate Ogier, also lost his Yaris’s rear wing in the final stage.

Evans leapfrogged Esapekka Lappi in the Elatia closer to hold fourth overall by just 1.1s after the Hyundai driver was forced to err on the side of caution after nursing a water leak for much of the afternoon. 

A stall in the final stage saw Hyundai’s other entry, Dani Sordo, slip from fifth to seventh on the leaderbaord, but the Spaniard’s frustrations were nothing compared with those of Ott Tanak, who sat ninth overall in his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1. 

Tanak checked out of the mid-leg tire fitting zone 22 minutes late after repairing a technical fault and incurred a 3m40s time penalty as a result. Although coy on the details, he believed the issue was similar to the one which ruled out his M-Sport Ford teammate, Pierre-Louis Loubet, who retired before the day’s first stage citing “temperature issues.” But there were at least some positives the Estonian could take from the day, as he won two special stages in his Puma. 

 

M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak has the speed, but a tech issue has put him out of contention.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Yohan Rossel stormed to the front of the class field after rival Adrien Fourmaux suffered heartbreak late in the leg.

Fourmaux, who drives a Ford Fiesta Mk2 for M-Sport Ford, was undoubtedly the star performer on what proved to be a testing day for several of the WRC2 category’s regular front-runners. 

His consistency appeared to be paying off as he carried an eight-second lead into the penultimate stage, but a pesky rock on the start line dealt the Frenchman front-left tire damage and his advantage was sliced to just 0.9s. 

Worse was to come on the Elatia finale, however, in the form of another puncture. Fourmaux and Alex Coria opted to perform a mid-stage wheel change, dropping almost two minutes and handing the class lead to compatriot Yohan Rossel. 

Rossel didn’t win any stages aboard his Citroen C3 Rally2, but headed Skoda Fabia RS driver Gus Greensmith by 6.8s at the overnight halt.

Adrien Fourmaux was WRC2’s star of the day until a pair of late punctures.

WRC Acropolis Rally Greece, leading positions after Day One, SS6
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 55m10.4s
2 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2.8s
3 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +25.5s
4 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +31.0s
5 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +32.1s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +41.7s
7 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +48.6s
8 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2, non-points) +3m16.7s
9 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Puma Rally1) +3m34.5s
10 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroen C3 – WRC2 leader) +3m46.3s

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a WRC+ All Live subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

WRC Rally Sardinia: Neuville seizes lead after chaotic Saturday

Thierry Neuville sits on the brink of his first FIA World Rally Championship win of 2023 having taken control of Rally Sardinia on a thrilling and chaotic Saturday which saw eight-time WRC champ Sebastien Ogier crash out of the lead. Neuville …

Thierry Neuville sits on the brink of his first FIA World Rally Championship win of 2023 having taken control of Rally Sardinia on a thrilling and chaotic Saturday which saw eight-time WRC champ Sebastien Ogier crash out of the lead.

Neuville (above) had trailed Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Ogier and his Hyundai Motorsports teammate Esapekka Lappi in third place since the start of the all-gravel, sixth round of the WRC season – but a heavy downpour in the day’s penultimate Erula-Tula stage caused utter chaos and turned the rally on its head.

Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 driver Ogier, hunting down a record fifth Italian win, entered the stage clinging onto a slender overall lead. However, the Frenchman’s fortunes took a dramatic downturn when he understeered off the road, veering down an embankment less than a mile after the start.

Second-placed Lappi reduced his pace a little upon seeing Ogier’s stricken car, inadvertently dropping more than a half minute to teammate Neuville’s Hyundai i20 N Rally1.  

Neuville had started ahead of the lead pair and was unaware of the drama unfolding behind him on the road, but climbed from third to first overall as a result of Ogier’s exit and Lappi easing off. After setting fastest time on the day’s final stage, the Belgian now heads a Hyundai 1-2 by 36.4s going into Sunday’s four-stage finale.

“I am relieved to be at the finish,” admitted Neuville, who has not won a rally since Japan last November. “It was a tough day out there, but the feeling was getting better and better with the car. We learned a lot, that’s important, but it’s still not always perfect yet and we can still improve.

“Tomorrow is a short but tricky day,” he added. “We need to have a clever drive through and try to bring home the 1-2 for the team.”

Reigning WRC champ and current points leader Kalle Rovanpera was elevated to third at Toyota teammate Ogier’s expense, although the Finn is unlikely to be able to trouble the front-running pair on outright pace. He trailed Lappi by 1m14.3s at the end of the leg after being hampered by excessive tire wear in the afternoon.

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera sits in third, but too far back to trouble the lead Hyundais. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Perseverance paid off for Elfyn Evans, whose day was filled with setbacks. The Welshman’s GR Yaris sustained radiator damage in a water crossing on the third stage of the morning loop and he leaked almost three minutes limping back to service.

History threatened to repeat itself later in the day when Evans’ car momentarily lost power while negotiating another water splash. But the misfire cleared itself shortly afterward and he reached the finish, albeit almost four minutes behind teammate Rovanpera in fourth overall.

Ott Tanak and Takamoto Katsuta were not as lucky, with both suffering water-induced retirements. A faulty electrical sensor was to blame for M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 man Tanak’s exit, while Katsuta bowed out with radiator damage on his GR Yaris.

Their respective mishaps enabled Dani Sordo, recovering from a Friday morning roll, to climb to fifth overall in his Hyundai.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, just four stages stand between Adrien Fourmaux and his first win in the class. 

The Frenchman, driving an M-Sport-prepared Ford Fiesta Rally2, overtook overnight WRC2 leader Sami Pajari in the second stage of the morning and maintained his lead throughout the rest of the day, reaching Olbia’s end-of-leg halt with a 25.7s buffer despite nursing a minor technical issue through the final test.

“It’s been a very challenging day for us and for the car — so I am happy to be here,” Fourmaux said.

M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux is closing in on a first WRC2 class win. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

With Pajari ruled out by rear-suspension damage sustained in a collision with a roadside rock, Skoda Fabia RS pilot Andreas Mikkelsen was Fourmaux’s nearest challenger. Only 0.1s back from the lead at one point in the morning, the two-time WRC2 champ was ultimately repelled by the Frenchman in Saturday afternoon’s wet weather conditions.

Teemu Suninen languished in seventh on Friday night, but an impressive comeback drive by the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 driver saw him climb to third in the category.  

Expect more rain for Sunday’s short, sharp final leg, which consists of two passes through Arzachena-Braniatogghiu (9.46 miles) and Sardegna (4.84 miles) for a total of 28.6 competitive miles. The second pass through Sardegna is the bonus points-paying, rally-closing Wolf Power Stage.

WRC Rally Italy Sardinia, leading positions after Day Two, SS15
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 3h10m36.9s
2 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +36.4s
3 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m50.7s
4 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +5m36.5s
5 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) + 6m27.9s
6 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Fiesta MkII – WRC2 leader) +8m11.7s
7 Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +8m37.4s
8 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Hyundai i20 N – WRC2) +10m46.4s
9 Emil Lindholm/Reeta Hamalainen (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +11m08.3s
10 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +11m40.5s

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a WRC+ All Live subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Consistent Neuville leads tricky Friday on WRC Rally Croatia

Thierry Neuville led throughout Friday’s treacherous opening leg of WRC Rally Croatia, despite only winning one stage of the all-asphalt event. It was the Hyundai driver’s consistency which ultimately came to the fore as the roads in the hills west …

Thierry Neuville led throughout Friday’s treacherous opening leg of WRC Rally Croatia, despite only winning one stage of the all-asphalt event.

It was the Hyundai driver’s consistency which ultimately came to the fore as the roads in the hills west of capital city Zagreb tested the mettle of the FIA World Rally Championship’s leading crews. Running a special paint scheme on his i20 N Rally1 (above) to commemorate his teammate, Ireland’s Craig Breen, who died in a pre-event testing crash last week, Neuville ended the grueling day just 5.7s clear of second-placed challenger Elfyn Evans’ Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.

Neuville was unhappy with his car’s morning setup, but took the lead after the day’s second stage when Sebastien Ogier, winner of the day’s opener, dropped over one and a half minutes carrying out a mid-stage wheel change on his GR Yaris. 

The Belgian remained at the helm throughout the afternoon, although Evans cut his advantage by more than half as scattered rain clouds loomed over the stages. Both drivers stuck to a mixed combination of hard and soft compound Pirelli tires, which proved to be the optimum choice.

“We’ve done a decent job, but it hasn’t been easy at all,” Neuville admitted after the leg’s eighth and final stage. “It was a bit better at the end of the day and I am really happy that we had a bit more fun in the car this afternoon. Hopefully we can finish in first place at the end — that would be a great achievement for the team and for us.”

One driver for whom tire gambles did not pay off was Ott Tanak. The Estonian bolted wet-weather rubber onto his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 for the second run through the Stojdraga-Hartje test, but conditions remained mostly dry and he fell behind Esapekka Lappi’s Hyundai after dropping 17.0s.

Tanak responded in the penultimate stage by besting Lappi to reclaim third overall, reaching the overnight halt 3.4s clear of his Finnish rival and 24.3s adrift of second-placed Evans. 

Despite his wet-weather tire gamble backfiring, Ott Tanak fought back to an overnight third. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Ogier, meanwhile, valiantly fought his way back up to fifth, 50.3s in arrears of Lappi. The eight-time champ came to Croatia as the WRC points leader, despite running only a limited program of rallies in 2023, but will be hard-pressed to stay there if Neuville continues at the sharp end and comes away with a significant haul of points.

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta overtook M-Sport Ford driver Pierre-Louis Loubet in the final stage to grab sixth, while reigning WRC champ Kalle Rovanpera languished in eighth overall. The GR Yaris driver won last year’s Rally Croatia, but currently trails the front-runners by more than two minutes after he, too, stopped to change a wheel at the same location as teammate Ogier.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Yohan Rossel left his opponents floundering to build a convincing lead over Nikolay Gryazin.

Rossel, who’s running his first event since January’s season-opening Monte Carlo Rally, announced his return to the series by punching in a trio of fastest stage times aboard his Citroen C3.

The car received a number of technical upgrades ahead of Rally Croatia and those tweaks seem to be suiting the Frenchman. He cleared the day without errors and carried a sizeable 29.9s advantage over Gryazin’s Skoda Fabia RS at the end of the leg.

“It has not been easy, but it’s been a good day for us,” said Rossel, who held second in the WRC2 points before the rally. “We will see how it goes tomorrow.”

Yohan Rossel took Citroen’s upgraded C3 to a comfortable early WRC2 lead. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Saturday’s second leg follows a similar format to Friday’s opener, with four stages, driven morning and afternoon, adding up to 72.45 competitive miles 

WRC Rally Croatia, leading positions after Day One, SS8
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 1h16m02.4s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +5.7s
3 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1) +30.0s
4 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +33.4s
5 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m23.7s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m52.1s
7 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Nicola Gilsoul (M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1) +1m52.9s
8 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m40.3s
9 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroen C3 – WRC2 leader) +3m20.0s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +3m49.9s

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a WRC+ All Live subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.