Croatia Rally has been turned on its head by the second pass of Generalski Stol – Zdihovo, with the majority of frontrunners picking up punctures on a highly polluted road.
Thierry Neuville was one of only three Rally1 drivers to steer clear of a deflation on a stage littered with loose rocks and gravel, with pollution dragged onto the road further exaggerated by stage 14 being the second pass of the Generalski Stol – Zdihovo test. The other two were Oliver Solberg and Elfyn Evans, the first cars on the road.
The remaining Rally1 runners were not so fortunate. First to puncture was Jon Armstrong, stopping to change the front-right wheel; he later went off the road and up a bank, being caught out by pollution on the road near the stage finish,.
The other M-Sport car was next to suffer, Josh McErlean picking up a second puncture in two stages and limited to the finish,. He’s also carrying an electrical issue that’s a consequence of an earlier fire to the wiring loom, which has left him unable to fire his car up without a push start.
Both M-Sport cars suffering punctures was a sign of things to come
Hayden Paddon was another to suffer a puncture – in his case electing to carry on but losing two minutes regardless – before the top three came through.
Takamoto Katsuta was the first of the top three to be afflicted by the conditions triggering a puncture, losing 1m07.5s to Neuville.
“A small cut or something we had on the pacenote, there was rock inside and we got the puncture,” explained Katsuta,
“After that we couldn’t stop and had to use the inside to stop the car. Really annoying, to be honest.”
But as Katsuta was waiting to pull away, news came through that erstwhile rally leader Sami Pajari had also suffered a puncture.
“Sami? F**!” said Katsuta, pulling away from the stopline.
Pajari had led the way since Elfyn Evans' stage three crash but now needs luck to turn in his favor to rescue his chances of a maiden WRC win
In Pajari’s case the puncture had happened early in the stage, so he’d elected to stop and change the wheel rather than press on to the finish. That cost him 1m48.7s to Neuville and with it, the rally lead.
“That’s it,” said Pajari, visibly feeling deflated himself. “I have no idea where I got it. It is what it is.”
Paddon’s assessment of the stage suggested the condition of the road and the amount of stones and rocks were to blame for the mass punctures, rather than the tires themselves.
“It’s a lottery in there for punctures,” he said. “You’re just hitting rocks everywhere because you have to follow the clean line. And all the lines and the cuts are just rocks everywhere.”
Neuville now has a 1m15.9s lead over Katsuta in second, with Pajari a further 19.1s behind in third and with his hopes of a first WRC win seemingly dashed.
With Neuville first and Paddon fourth, Hyundai has a golden opportunity to outscore Toyota
Despite his puncture Paddon held station, with 1m22.1s still in hand to WRC2 leader Yohan Rossel but nearly two minutes off Pajari ahead.
There was drama in WRC2 too: Nikolay Gryazin’s Lancia suffered a technical gremlin he couldn’t identify and lost over a minute, falling to fourth in class behind Léo Rossel and Roope Korhonen.
