Thierry Neuville has retired from Rally Estonia after an incident on Saturday afternoon’s first test, elevating Sébastien Ogier into the podium places in third.
Ott Tänak continues to lead the event ahead of the other Hyundai of Craig Breen.
Neuville had begun the stage in third place but his car bounced int he deep that ruts that had formed, pushing him wide and he hooked the rear-right of his i20 Coupe WRC into a ditch. He destroyed the rear-right corner of his car in the process; the wheel hanging at a 90-degree angle to the wheel arch.
He made it to the end of the stage still classified in ninth place in the rally, but any hopes of continuing appear hopeful at best.
Tänak’s lead meanwhile is now into double figures as he edged Breen by 3.5 seconds to build his advantage up to 10.3s. Breen wasn’t immune to any drama though, as one his tires was hanging off the wheel rim at the end of the test.
Ogier was the stage winner despite also suffering with a tire that ever so slightly let go. His Toyota is 4.6s behind Breen and 14.9s adrift of the lead.
Elfyn Evans suffered a tire blowout towards the end of the stage too, dropping him 14.4s behind team-mate Ogier.
Photo: DirtFish Media
“It just let go on the straight, the tire just completely delaminated, we didn’t touch anything,” Evans said.
“Just on the Tarmac section we were flat out in sixth gear and it popped.”
Kalle Rovanperä closed to within five seconds of Toyota team-mate Evans after his puncture, completing the 12.57-mile stage 4.2s faster than the Welshman.
Evans had been quicker in the splits before his tire woes though, but with some aero now missing from the back of his Yaris, a tasty battle between the Toyota pair could lie in prospect.
“In these high speed places when it’s rough it’s quite scary to push hard,” Rovanperä said of the conditions.
Any hopes M-Sport’s Esapekka Lappi had of overhauling the fourth Toyota of Takamoto Katsuta were further thwarted on Prangli 2 as he gave up another 4.8s to Katsuta’s Yaris WRC to trail by 16.6s.
“It’s working quite OK, I like this car, just I made a few big mistakes which is a shame but I’ll try better on the next one,” promised Katsuta.
Lappi may be stuck in seventh but was comfortably faster than team-mate Teemu Suninen to extend his advantage over his fellow Finn to 11.5s.
Pierre-Louis Loubet pulled another 1.7s clear of Gus Greensmith to keep himself secure in 10th place, building a cushion of 15.1s.
SS7 times
1 Ogier (Toyota) 9m45.3s
2 Tänak (Hyundai) +0.6s
3 Rovanperä (Toyota) +2.6s
4 Breen (Hyundai) +4.1s
5 Evans (Toyota) +6.8s
6 Katsuta (Toyota) +9.1s
Leading positions after SS7
1 Tänak (Hyundai) 48m12.7s
2 Breen (Hyundai) +10.3s
3 Ogier (Toyota) +14.9s
4 Evans (Toyota) +29.3s
5 Rovanperä (Toyota) +34.3s
6 Katsuta (Toyota) +43.8s
7 Lappi (M-Sport Ford) +1m00.4s
8 Suninen (M-Sport Ford) +1m11.9s
9 Neuville (Hyundai) +1m26.2s
9 Loubet (2C Competition Hyundai) +1m36.7s
