Takamoto Katsuta has retired from third place on Rally Italy Sardinia with a suspected transmission failure.
It was reported that the Toyota driver had made emergency repairs to the Yaris during the midday tire fitting zone but, shortly after he started the first pass through Monte Lerno, it was clear there was a problem.
A whining sound was apparent inside the car and Katsuta quickly reduced his pace to make it to the end of the stage. It was all for nothing though, and he was forced to pull over less than three miles into the stage.
Before the afternoon loop got underway Katsuta had taken third place at the expense of Thierry Neuville, who had slid off the road and down a bank on SS8 and retired on the spot.
Neuville’s incident had an unintended impact on the battle for the lead, as Ott Tänak dropped to second place, 3.3s behind Sébastien Ogier, after deliberately backing off.
When Tänak reached the end of the stage, the reason for his 6.8s deficit to Ogier on SS9 became clear: “We gave it a safe rhythm. We’ve been asked to be safe and not pushing.”
Katsuta’s retirement promoted Dani Sordo to the final podium position. He set the fourth fastest time through Monte Lerno but is a distant 1m48.7s behind Tänak.
Sordo was feeling happier aboard his Hyundai after complaining his setup had been too soft during the Saturday morning loop, though also appeared to suffer a slow puncture on the front-left wheel: “We’ve made some modifications to the car and I’m a little more happy.”
With Thierry Neuville out and Hyundai running second and third, Ott Tänak has been told not to risk it all for victory by his team
Elfyn Evans now has a chance of getting onto the podium after strife for his Toyota team-mate Katsuta. However, he lost ground to Sordo on Monte Lerno, setting a time 5.5s slower than the Hyundai.
When asked if he could catch Sordo, Evans was doubtful: “I’m not sure with stages like that we’re going to do it, but let’s see.”
Grégoire Munster was the slowest of the Rally1 cars but M-Sport team-mate Adrien Fourmaux was in the warns. A brake problem triggered by a broken anti-roll bar slowed the M-Sport driver on the final stage of the morning loop and he was forced to change a brake hose in the tire zone, checking out six minutes late and then arriving at the start for Monte Lerno late.
“The front anti-roll bar broke [on Tula],” Fourmaux told DirtFish. Then it was moving on the suspension, so then it hit the brake pipe. So then I lost the brakes. That’s why I was really slowing down for the last 10 kilometers or even more.”
