Sébastien Ogier edged closer to his Toyota team-mates, including his World Rally Championship title rival Elfyn Evans, after going fastest on the second run through the Ypres Rally’s Watou stage.
The seven-time champion was second onto SS15 behind M-Sport Ford’s Gus Greensmith, who “clipped something halfway through the stage” but appeared to emerge unscathed, and had a confident run that took him through the 8.46-mile stage in 6m37.1s.
“I think the loop in the afternoon is going well. When I have grip I enjoy it much more,” said Ogier after taking the stage win.
Evans ended up being his closest rival on the stage, going just 0.6 seconds slower to head to the day’s final stage with a 8.3s advantage over the WRC points leader. However, he ended the stage with a wedge of Belgian grass lodged in the rim of his rear-left wheel.
Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing
“We had a pretty big moment actually in quite a fast place,” said Evans. “It just slipped out on a bit of gravel, so she took a bit of hanging on to now.”
After the moment occurred, in which Evans was engaging opposite lock on a short straight, Evans’ co-driver Scott Martin complimented him on keeping the car under control.
Still sat between Evans and Ogier in the overall classification is the third Toyota of Kalle Rovanperä, who was slower than both on SS15.
“It was quite clean, but to be honest it was quite slippy there,” Rovanperä said. “A lot of gravel in a few places, it was quite tricky. I was not daring enough I think, I was a bit too careful on the cuts.”
The battle between the Toyotas for the podium’s bottom step has caught the eyes of the two drivers fighting for victory: Thierry Neuville and Craig Breen.
Photo: Hyundai Motorsport
Neuville (pictured above) was the faster of the two on Watou, adding another 0.6s to his lead to bring it back up to 7.2s. He started the day 7.6s ahead.
“Obviously the Toyotas are in a big fight in between themselves, and we have to control the speed so it’s not easy when the conditions are tricky,” said Neuville.
“But I had another clean run, I could have been a little bit later on the brakes most of the time.”
Stage reporter Seb Marshall asked Breen if the Hyundais were now in “cruising mode” to retain their advantage up front.
“Cruising mode? B***** jesus,” Breen exclaimed. “They’re [the Toyotas] obviously fighting their own battle between themselves now, so it’s hugely important that we don’t make any mistakes. It’s a good rhythm.”
Ott Tänak, despite sitting in sixth place overall, is enjoying himself in the third Hyundai but is three minutes behind Ogier’s fifth place.
Oliver Solberg is persisting with a lack of power-steering in the new Hyundai i20 N Rally2 as he holds onto the WRC2 lead, but that margin was reduced by 37.7s on SS15 by Jari Huttunen in the second of the debuting Hyundais.
Sebastien Bedoret is setting the pace across the Rally2 categories, going fastest on the stage by 0.3s from Kris Princen to extend his WRC3 lead, his Belgian Rally Championship lead, and his hold over seventh place overall.
SS15 times
1 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) 6m37.1s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +0.6s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +2.2s
4 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +2.7s
5 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (Hyundai) +2.8s
6 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +6s
Leading positions after SS15
1 Neuville/Wydaeghe 2h01m57.6s
2 Breen/Nagle +7.2s
3 Evans/Martin +38.8s
4 Rovanperä/Halttunen +44.6s
5 Ogier/Ingrassia +47.1s
6 Tänak/Järveoja +3m53.2s
7 Sebastien Bedoret/Francois Gilbert (Škoda) +10m15.2s
8 Yohan Rossel/Alexandre Coria (Citroën) +10m17.6s
9 Pieter Jan Michiel Cracco/Jaspen Vermeulen (Škoda) +10m37.1s
10 Vincent Verschueren/Filip Cuvelier (Volkswagen) +11m09.5s
