Thierry Neuville has moved from eighth to sixth despite checking out of Friday morning service six minutes late and incurring a one-minute time penalty – while Takamoto Katsuta fell from second to seventh with a puncture.
The all-new, 19.5-mile Camp Moran stage is the longest of the rally, so was a punishing way to start what is going to be a long Friday in Africa.
Punctuated by plenty of rough sections and generally constant slow-speed corners, the stage took the best part of 26 minutes for the Rally1 cars to complete.
And it was rally leader Ott Tänak who was fastest by 2.1s over his team-mate Neuville, whose Friday morning was frantic as the Hyundai team changed the driveshaft and transmission on his i20.
But despite the time loss for leaving service late, Neuville moved up the standings – both due to his strong SS3 time, but also the misfortune of others.
Katsuta was one of the unlucky ones, picking up a rear-right puncture.
“We did not know if it was a puncture or an issue, the TPMS was not working,” Katsuta told DirtFish after the stage.
“I was trying to avoid every single rock, but no idea. Horrible.”
Katsuta was not the only Toyota to puncture, as Sami Pajari also collected a flat on the stage. But unlike Katsuta, the Finn chose to stop and change it, losing over three minutes while Katsuta lost over two.
But Pajari caught the ire of M-Sport’s Grégoire Munster, who fell from third to fifth overall because he was hampered by dust thrown up by Pajari’s GR Yaris Rally1.
In the heat of the moment, Munster dropped the collective stance from WRC drivers to not give stage-end interviews in English.
“He lost about three minutes, and when you lose three minutes you go on the side to let past,” said a frustrated Munster.
“We are one minute from the fastest but just because I couldn’t see a thing.”
Overall, Munster is exactly one minute off Tänak’s lead, which is now held over Elfyn Evans by 13.1s. Kalle Rovanperä is third, 27.7s from the summit, with M-Sport’s Josh McErlean in fourth place.
Neuville is 1m21.8s from the lead, Katsuta 2m36.4s down and Pajari 3m34.0s adrift – precisely 0.1s behind M-Sport privateer Jourdan Serderidis.
Oliver Solberg is a fine seventh overall and leading WRC2 by over 35s from Kajetan Kajetanowicz.
