Adrien Fourmaux’s hopes of capitalising on Elfyn Evans and Oliver Solberg’s earlier Croatia Rally retirements have disintegrated on stage 12, as he oversteered into a telegraph pole and retired moments later.
Hyundai’s best-placed pilot in the drivers’ championship was running fifth overall and catching team-mate Hayden Paddon for fourth, a result which would have thrust him back into the title race given the leading Toyota duo’s earlier issues.
But traversing a slow uphill right-hander through a village, the back end of Fourmaux’s i20 N Rally1 stepped out, clattering a telegraph pole on the outside of the turn.
The damage to his car was significant enough that he parked up at the side of the road a couple of corners later, his i20 rendered unable to continue further.
A quick look at the left side of the car after Fourmaux jumped out confirmed what he feared: his day was done. His gloves were thrown in frustration into the drivers’ seat.
Pajari's gap to the rotating cast in second place has remained consistent over Saturday's morning loop
Sami Pajari’s lead remains stable, with 12.4s in hand over Thierry Neuville.
The 2024 world champion had fallen behind Takamoto Katsuta on stage 10 but immediately hit back on the brand new Generalski Stol – Zdihovo test, where the Safari Rally Kenya winner had “no confidence” and dropped 16.9s.
“Everywhere pollution more than what the pacenote says,” Katsuta explained after his time loss. “Not good enough.”
Though Katsuta pulled three seconds back on the short Pećurkovo Brdo – Mrežnički Novaki test, the gap to second has expanded to 12.7s.
“I’m just pissed off with the last run,” said Katsuta, “I didn’t want to take too much risk on the long one, I really have to bring her back, but it cost a lot of time.”
Katsuta is currently on target to leap to the top of the WRC drivers’ standings, pending the outcome of Sunday points, and hasn’t ruled out going after Neuville and Pajari for second and first place.
Katstua lost all confidence on the brand new Generalski Stol - Zdihovo test, with his notes not reflecting the level of pollution on the road
“For sure if there is chance I want to go for it but I have a more important thing to do this weekend,” he added. Katsuta is the lead Toyota for manufacturers’ points, as Pajari is registered to Toyota’s second team.
Hayden Paddon’s role in the third Hyundai has now gained further importance with Fourmaux’s retirement, acting as its second points-scoring machine in the overall classification in fourth place.
“A shame to see Adrien parked up there,” said Paddon. “Once you see that, you have to back it off even more. It changes things a little bit for us but we just keep to our plan as well.”
WRC2 leader Yohan Rossel is promoted to fifth overall by Fourmaux’s demise and has built his advantage over Lancia team-mate Nikolay Gryazin to 36.7s.
Behind the fight for third place was intense: Léo Rossel caught and passed Alejandro Cachón’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 for the final podium spot on stage 10, then carried too much speed through a fast left-hander on SS11 and came inches from crashing his Citroën C3 Rally2 backwards into a telegraph pole.
Cachón's morning has been messy: he also went off the road twice on SS11
But Cachón’s promotion back to third was short-lived: he hit a rock on Pećurkovo Brdo – Mrežnički Novaki and lost half a minute with a puncture, promoting the younger Rossel back to third. Roope Korhonen, who’d slid off the road on SS11 while nine seconds up on the splits to the rest of the field, moved into fourth, with Cachón sliding down to fifth.
Last year’s Junior WRC runner-up Taylor Gill was the star of the morning in WRC2 though, taking his first category stage win on the long Generalski Stol – Zdihovo stage and going second-fastest behind the elder Rossel on SS10.
