Thierry Neuville holds a commanding lead heading into the final day of Croatia Rally, taking advantage of puncture for key rivals to inherit a substantial time gap over Toyota duo Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari.
Pajari had lost two minute stopping to change a puncture on SS14, whereas Katsuta’s puncture had occurred later in the stage so had pressed on to the finish.
Neuville, along with Elfyn Evans, was the only driver not to sustain a deflation, avoiding the plentiful rocks hidden in the cuts which drivers often had little choice but to take as a means of avoiding loose gravel covering the Croatian roads on the second pass of stages.
“It just clicked this weekend,” said Neuville, who has 1m14.5s in hand over Katsuta in second. “The car was from the beginning was feeling better than the other rallies. We were able to go step by step improving during the event and now I have something I’m more or less comfortable with.”
Pajari is now 31.9s behind Katsuta in third place and was taking little consolation from still being in the podium places, given an earlier puncture had cost him the lead.
Pajari is all set to pick up a podium finish – but is understandably struggling to see any upsides from losing the lead
“We are still on the podium position, so I should be happy for that but I’m not able to find so many positives about this afternoon,” said Pajari.
“Tomorrow is another day, one day to go, so you never know. But of course I’m quite gutted.”
Paddon is taking a very conservative approach in fourth place, knowing his one and only job is to deliver points for Hyundai in the manufacturers’ championship given Adrien Fourmaux’s earlier retirement from whacking a pole.
The one-time WRC event winner is 1m41.8s behind Pajari but has almost 10 minutes in hand over the next Rally1 car – M-Sport’s Josh McErlean in 17th place – so has little to do other than cruise to the finish on Sunday.
“It started off alright and then we had to change plan a little bit, so it’s a bit like walking on eggshells,” said Paddon.
“It’s definitely more difficult to drive when you don’t want to make a mistake or pick up a puncture, which is pretty easy to do in these conditions. But we’re here, that’s the main thing, so now we can look forward to tomorrow.”
McErlean nearly didn't take on the afternoon loop at all, needing (permissible) assistance more than once
McErlean successfully completed a nightmarish loop, suffering two punctures and nursing an electrical problem that would have left him stranded had he suffered a stall in one of the stages. He had to be push-started out of the midday tire fitting zone by Jon Armstrong, Shane Byrne and his own co-driver Eoin Treacy.
“Never give up,” said McErlean at the finish of the day’s final stage.
“We’ve added to jump-start the car after every refuel. Nobody has given up in the team, even at the tire fitting. And Eoin especially to do the job he is to try and manage it. Maybe the timesheets don’t say what it took to get here but it’s a nice relief to come with everything in white and not red on my dash.”
M-Sport had hoped to pick up a stage win with Armstrong given his rapid pace on Friday morning and came close again on Saturday’s final test. Alas Armstrong fell just short on the second pass of Platak, going second-quickest and 1.9s off Evans’ benchmark.
“It’s never bad if you’re that far away from these guys,” said Armstrong. “We’ll keep learning and keep getting closer.”
Yohan Rossel continues to lead WRC2 while holding fifth place overall, his lead now extended to over a minute after a loose turbo pipe set Lancia team-mate Nikolay Gryazin back on SS14.
Lancia was running 1-2 until a loose turbo pipe cost Nikolay Gryazin a minute
His younger brother Léo is up to second place aboard a Citroën C3 Rally2 but is still battling Roope Korhonen, the pair separated by 15.5s at the end of the day. Gryazin is a further 13s behind in fourth.
Oliver Solberg won two more stages on the Saturday afternoon loop after taking a clean sweep on the first passes, though was held back by punctures on the second runs of Pećurkovo Brdo – Mrežnički Novaki and Platak.
