Sébastien Ogier leads World Rally champion elect Thierry Neuville after Thursday’s two Central European Rally stages, but just over three seconds covers the top seven.
Thursday’s pair of stages were both based in Czechia for this tri-nation event, but couldn’t have been more different in style. The opener, Velká Chuchle, was a superspecial based at a racecourse while the succeeding Klatovy test was far more typical of what’s to come for the rest of the weekend.
Ogier was fastest by 0.6s on SS1 over Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, but it was Neuville – who is in a strong position to claim his first World Rally Championship title this weekend – who set the pace on the longer second stage.
Ogier was however still third fastest, just 1.1s slower than the Hyundai, to hold a 0.9s advantage heading into Friday.
“Nothing special,” the eight-time champion remarked. “It is often like this on a Thursday, tomorrow will be more action.”
Thierry Nevuille picked up damage from a haybale on the opening stage
Neuville meanwhile admitted he “can’t be too happy” after “stupidly” ripping part of his Hyundai’s front wing off on the superspecial. With no service until two-thirds of the way through Friday, the Belgian is worried it could affect his performance.
“It will handicap me for the whole morning tomorrow,” he said. “Even here, we touched some, but we have nothing to lose anymore, it is gone already.”
On his first WRC event since Rally Poland in June, Andreas Mikkelsen is an impressive third overnight, 1.7s off the lead after declaring: “Now is the first time I enjoy driving the car on Tarmac.”
On his return after missing Rally Chile, Katsuta is fourth overall and just 0.3s down on Mikkelsen, with Ott Tänak only another tenth behind and 2.1s off the lead. Adrien Fourmaux (+2.4s) and Elfyn Evans (+3.1s) complete the overnight top-seven.
Yohan Rossel, who must finish first among the registered WRC2 points-scorers for the drivers' championship to leapfrog Oliver Solberg in the standings, is already in deep trouble
There’s a bit more time back to Sami Pajari who’s 6.5s off the lead, but CER is the Finn’s first ever Tarmac rally in a Rally1 car. He’s 3.4s ahead of Grégoire Munster.
There was however early drama in WRC2, as Yohan Rossel missed his braking into a corner and went off the road. Although he reached the end of SS2, the rear-right wheel of his Citroën reduced to just its spokes. There was suspension damage.
Rossel has to win CER to stand any chance of claiming the WRC2 title, but lost over 30s on SS2 and will not benefit from any service time in the morning.
