Dani Sordo controls a 31.6-second Rally Italy lead over Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville as early leader Teemu Suninen dropped from second to fifth on Saturday morning.
M-Sport’s Suninen had started the day 17.4s behind rally leader Sordo but ended it 1m00.1s adrift, slipping behind Sébastien Ogier, Neuville and finally Elfyn Evans across the first four stages of Saturday.
A broken handbrake didn’t aid his cause, but ultimately he couldn’t live with the frontrunning pace once his road position advantage on Friday had been eradicated.
“There’s no options I just have to deal with it. It’s been a challenge, yeah,” said a crestfallen Suninen at the end of SS10.
Sordo was imperious again however. While Ogier and Neuville squabbled for position and Suninen fell backwards, the 2019 Rally Italy winner checked out. Keeping himself among the leading times, he almost doubled his lead gap across the morning loop.
That intense fight for second is proving the most enthralling. Ogier snatched what was at that point third place from Neuville on the day’s first stage and kept the gap steady on the following too. Ogier’s advantage stood at 2.9s heading into SS10 but a stall cost him dear; 5.9s in fact as he dropped back to third by 3s.
Neuville took two spare tires unlike his rivals who carried just one but didn’t feel that had paid off.
“I’m pushing very hard,” he said. “The fight is still on, it’s very close. Obviously the second spare wheel wasn’t necessary, our tires were still good enough so unfortunately not the best choice.”
Evans jumped up to fourth on SS10, 5.9s ahead of Suninen, but is losing touch to Ogier and Neuville ahead. With six stages left in Sardinia, he trails Neuville by 22.6s and Ogier by 19.6s, feeling he “paid the price” for being too careful looking after his tires.
Ott Tänak was on a recovery mission on Saturday, beginning the leg eighth after dropping close to two minutes with suspension trouble on Friday. He finds himself in sixth, passing both Pierre-Louis Loubet and Gus Greensmith who ran into problems of varying magnitude.
Loubet cut a frustrated figure bemoaning that it’s “not our morning”. However last year’s WRC2 (now WRC3) champion remains on course for his first finish in a Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC and was promoted to sixth spot after M-Sport’s Greensmith failed to make the start of Coiluna – Loelle 2 with a broken alternator belt.
When Loubet was asked by stage-end reporter Molly Pettit if everything was alright, Loubet replied: “No. We have no wheel so it’s completely impossible to drive the car, we lose all the aerodynamic parts.
“I think the rear right is completely dead as we had a puncture on this morning’s first stage so tricky morning, not our morning but we are here.”
Photo: Red Bull Content Pool / Jaanus Ree
That’s more than could be said for Kalle Rovanperä who retired from ninth place on the first pass of Coiluna – Loelle when the rear of his Toyota stepped out, whacked a tree and sent him backwards into another. With the rear-left wheel ripped off his Yaris WRC, he had no chance of continuing.
His team-mate Takamoto Katsuta restarted following his Friday woes – unlike M-Sport’s Espaekka Lappi – and was charged with sweeping the roads clear for his rivals; something he reckoned was useful learning for the future.
Jari Huttunen is up to eighth overall and at the head of the WRC3 class after Oliver Solberg punctured on Saturday’s third stage. That elevated Kajetan Kajetanowicz into second in class and ninth overall, just 0.1s behind, with Solberg demoted to third in class and 10th.
Pontus Tidemand now has a healthy lead in WRC2, keeping himself immune from the drama on what incredibly is his first ever visit to Sardinia despite his vast experience. Toksport team-mate Eyvind Brynildsen is second.
Adrien Fourmaux had occupied that place and was closing in on Tidemand’s lead only to stop on SS9 in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2. Hyundai’s Ole Christian Veiby should have been the one to benefit but picked up his third puncture of the weekend on SS8, restricting him to third.
SS10 times
1 Neuville (Hyundai) 8m42.9s
2 Sordo (Hyundai) +2.6s
3 Evans (Toyota) +3.2s
4 Ogier (Toyota) +5.9s
5 Tänak (Hyundai) +8.1s
6 Suninen (M-Sport) +11.1s
Leading positions after SS10
1 Sordo (Hyundai) 1h55m45.6s
2 Neuville (Hyundai) +31.6s
3 Ogier (Toyota) +34.6s
4 Evans (Toyota) +54.2s
5 Suninen (M-Sport Ford) +1m00.1s
6 Tänak (Hyundai) +2m20.2s
7 Loubet (2C Competition Hyundai) +3m03.9s
8 Huttunen (Hyundai) +6m15.4s
9 Kajetanowicz (Škoda) +6m15.5s
10 Solberg (Škoda) +6m20.3s
