Belgian star avoids the carnage on brutal Saturday in Greece.
Thierry Neuville’s FIA World Rally Championship title hopes were bolstered on Saturday as he emerged from the carnage of another punishing day at EKO Acropolis Rally Greece with a commanding lead.
The Belgian, who entered this penultimate day third, climbed to the top as his Hyundai i20 N team-mates Ott Tänak and Dani Sordo were both struck by misfortune in what has proven to be the season's most brutal rally so far.
Tänak had led by 21.8sec after Friday’s gruelling leg, but Greece’s unforgiving terrain took its toll early on Saturday. Forced to stop twice within 10 kilometres to change wheels, the Estonian’s challenge fell apart as he dropped four minutes and plummeted to fourth.
Sordo, making his first top-level appearance since June’s Rally Italia Sardegna, briefly inherited the lead. But, like so many before him, he was undone by the rugged Greek roads. A collision with a rock caused a rear tyre blowout which cost around 50sec and tore away his advantage in an instant.
But Neuville, whose Friday had been marred by a misfiring engine, managed to survive the carnage. Carefully pacing himself and conserving his Pirelli tyres, he steered clear of disaster to end the day with a lead of 54.9sec over Sordo. Sébastien Ogier, Neuville’s closest championship challenger, clung to third, 1min 19.9sec adrift of the lead in his Toyota GR Yaris.
With 18 points provisionally secured, Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe are on course to extend their championship lead, which stood at 27 points over Ogier at the start of the rally.
"There's another day left, so at the moment there is no conclusion yet," Neuville insisted. "We need to see where we end up tomorrow, that's the only thing that counts.
"So far we have had a very good management of our rally and, despite some issues on Friday, nothing major happened. From the beginning, our approach was to be careful with the car when it was needed and we somehow got through. I tried to adapt my driving style a bit in the ruts and not put the car too sideways with the risk of hitting stones - that's the only thing you can do.
"It's a lottery out there and we don't know what will happen. Tomorrow we have to see what the weather will be like and how hard we need to drive for the extra points. There are a lot of things we still have to manage."
Sordo’s blowout obliterated the rear bodywork on his Hyundai, and, with no midday service, he and co-driver Cándido Carrera were forced to patch up the car as best they could. The Spaniards even resorted to wearing ski goggles to keep the dust out as they fought to retain second place.
Ogier, who won three of the day’s six stages, could only reflect on what might have been. After leading early on Friday, his rally was derailed by a turbocharger failure that cost him more than two minutes. His Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans has fared far worse at this 10th round of the season; stricken by similar turbo issues on day one, the Welshman’s title hopes took a devastating blow when he rolled his car on SS11 and was forced to retire.
Tänak trailed Ogier by almost two minutes in fourth overall while M-Sport Ford Puma youngster Grégoire Munster’s crash on SS9 allowed WRC2 crews to fill out the remainder of the leaderboard. Sami Pajari overtook Robert Virves to claim the WRC2 lead as Yohan Rossel, Kajetan Kajetanowicz, Georg Linnamäe and Fau Zaldivar rounded out the top 10.
The rally concludes on Sunday where crews face three more stages totalling 54.05km against the clock.
Saturday Classification:
1. T Neuville / M Wydaeghe BEL Hyundai i20 N 3h 1m 6.3s
2. D Sordo / C Carrera ESP Hyundai i20 N +54.9s
3. S Ogier / V Landais FRA Toyota GR Yaris +1m 19.9s
4. O Tänak / M Järveoja EST Hyundai i20 N +3m 20.5s
5. S Pajari / E Mälkönen FIN Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 +5m 7.3s
6. R Virves / A Lesk EST Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +5m 35.1s
