Thierry Neuville kept his FIA World Rally Championship title aspirations on track on Friday by overtaking Toyota GAZOO Racing rival Sébastien Ogier to claim the lead at Central European Rally.
The Belgian, who drives an i20 N Rally1 HYBRID car for Hyundai Motorsport, reached the overnight halt with a slender 6.4sec lead over Ogier and 7.8sec clear of his third-placed team-mate Ott Tänak after a flat-out day of tricky asphalt stages which weaved their way through the Czech Republic and back towards the service park near Bad Griesbach in Germany.
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID star Ogier had topped the standings after Thursday’s opening pair of speed tests, but the eight-time world champion slipped behind Neuville after today’s third stage at Šumavské Hoštice, his cause not helped by a couple of wide moments on the greasy leaf-covered roads.
While the pair remained closely matched across the leg, Frenchman Ogier admitted that he simply was “not fast enough” as he finished the day trailing Neuville.
A maiden world title is now another step closer for Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe. They must outscore Tänak by two points whilst dropping no more than 10 to Ogier and 15 to Elfyn Evans to clinch the crown at this penultimate round, which concludes on Sunday.
"I am happy to be at the end of the day,” Neuville said. “It is easy to make a mistake and I knew the only thing that was important to us was to make it to the end. It was quite greasy in [the last stage], we so played it safe and came through.”
While having two cars inside the top three bodes well for Hyundai, the pressure is on for the Korean marque to consolidate its manufacturers’ series lead after Andreas Mikkelsen crashed his i20 N on SS5. The Norwegian understeered wide on a leafy left-hander, hitting a series of fenceposts which caused heavy damage.
Just 15.1sec blanketed the leading quartet with Elfyn Evans ending Friday in fourth overall, 7.3sec back from Tänak. The Welshman claimed a sole stage win, as did fellow Toyota driver Takamoto Katsuta who trailed him by 23.5sec in fifth.
A hybrid issue put a slight dampener on Sami Pajari’s first Toyota Rally1 outing on asphalt, but the Finn survived a few hairy moments to round out the top six with trusty co-driver Enni Mälkönen by his side. Adrien Fourmaux was also without hybrid power which, when coupled with set-up struggles, restricted the Frenchman to seventh.
Fourmaux’s M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID partner Grégoire Munster was eighth while Rally2 runners Nikolay Gryazin (DG Sport Competition Citroën C3) and Oliver Solberg (Toksport WRT Škoda Fabia RS) completed the top 10. Gryazin led the WRC2 category, for which Solberg is not scoring points.
Six more stages, taking in both Germany and Austria, lie in wait on Saturday for a total competitive distance of 123.46km
