Thierry Neuville has crashed out of Rally Italy Sardinia on the final stage of Saturday morning.
The Hyundai driver went off the road approximately eight miles into the 14-mile Tula test. His i20 N Rally1 oversteered wide and dropped down a bank on the outside of a tightening right-hander.
Neuville had been running in third position and was leading the split times on SS8 before his off. The championship leader had won the previous stage and held a comfortable 33.3s advantage over Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, while title rival Elfyn Evans was languishing in sixth place.
Out front, Ott Tänak retook the rally lead on the second pass through the Tempio Pausania stage after Sébastien Ogier elected to take a more cautious approach, having used his only spare tire after Saturday’s first stage.
The Estonian extended his advantage to 3.3s on the next stage, setting the fastest time ahead of Ogier, who had a moment that pushed his left-rear tire off the rim. The Toyota driver had been trying to balance keeping the pressure on Tänak and managing his tires: “It’s been a tough loop, and this one I’ve never seen so rough. I’m happy I made it through.”
Katsuta was the chief beneficiary of Neuville’s error as he moved into third place, extending his advantage over Dani Sordo with third fastest time on the second run through Tula, eight adrift of Tänak’s benchmark.
With Neuville out, Sordo is now the second Hyundai and holds fourth place. He continued to lose ground to Katsuta on the second pass of the morning stages and is 17.1s behind the Toyota.
Takamoto Katsuta has inherited a podium position after strife for Adrien Fourmaux on Friday and Thierry Neuville on Saturday
Despite his own woes, Sordo was more concerned about the plight of his championship-leading team-mate: “I see Thierry and I was really disappointed. Honestly, it’s sad. I don’t know why he needed to take this amount of risk.”
Elfyn Evans has moved up to fifth as a result of Neuville’s troubles but remains off the pace. He dropped a further 4.8s to Sordo in stage eight and his gap to the leaders is now getting close to two minutes.
Grégoire Munster is seventh, running 4.7s behind WRC2 leader Sami Pajari. Both M-Sport cars were suffering from brake problems; in Adrien Fourmaux’s case, the problem was more serious, as he was 1m39.7s slower than Tänak.
It became clear why Fourmaux was struggling so badly by the end of the stage: “I’ve lost front brakes, I can only brake with the handbrake,” he explained. “It’s definitely not our rally this year, but we continue.”
Grégoire Munster is flying the flag for Ford on Saturday after Adrien Fourmaux's Friday retirement
Pajari has increased his lead in WRC2 to 49.2s, going second fastest on both second passes of the morning loop. He was beaten on both by Yohan Rossel on both occasions, as the Citroën driver continued his recovery drive after stopping to change a wheel on Friday. Across Saturday morning Rossel has carved 44.5s out of Pajari’s lead.
Jan Solans moves into second place at the expense of Pierre-Louis Loubet, after the Toksport driver lost 1m43.9s on the second pass of Tula. The stage that ended Neuville’s rally and set Loubet back was punishing for others too: Hyundai driver Teemu Suninen retired with a technical issue, while CHL Sport Auto team-mate Emil Lindholm also stopped mid-stage.
Bruno Bulacia leads the Junior WRC category by 49.9s from Ali Türkkan. He had been battling championship leader Romet Jürgenson for the lead on Saturday morning but the FIA Rally Star graduate as forced out with a broken front wishbone on the road section after SS7.
