Croatia Rally leader Thierry Neuville has avoided a penalty for deviating from the prescribed route on Friday’s second stage.
Neuville outbraked himself approaching a haybale chicane towards the end of the Stojdraga – Hartje test.
The front of his Hyundai nosed a haybale, pitching him off the road and onto the grass before rejoining the stage.
Neuville set the fastest time by 4.2 seconds.
Normally deviating from the defined route of a stage results in a 10s penalty, but the stewards decided not to penalize Neuville as “this was not an intentional incident”.
The stewards document read: “The driver Mr. Thierry Neuville explained that he had assumed the chicane on SS2 to be wider and that he had noticed the tight chicane entrance too late, thus blocking the brakes and running wide on the second retarder of the chicane.
“The car touched the hay bale and got some damages. The co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe further added that it was not an intentional incident and that already during the recce there was some confusion with the correct position of the chicane.
“During the first passage of the recce the chicane was not marked onto the road. The team manager Mr. Tolga Ozakinci further explained that he had checked the data from cars No. 4 and No. 11 and had made a comparison chart, which showed a time loss of 2.46 seconds for car No. 11 in this chicane location due to the incident.
“The video evidence shows competitor No. 11 braking late to the chicane on SS2 Stojdraga-Hartje 1 at 24.01km (Road Book 1, page 69 box 24) and due to that, the crew had passed one hay bale from the wrong side. As the car hit the hay bale and slid off to the grass, competitor No. 11 did not gain any advantage in this incident. Furthermore, during this incident car No. 11 got some damages to the front right corner.
“The Stewards conclude that this was not an intentional incident and decide to take no further action.”
