At the end of the first day of this Central Europe Rally, Thierry Neuville slightly increased his lead over Sébastien Ogier.
Thierry Neuville kept his title hopes alive by taking the lead in the Central Europe Rally on Friday, ahead of his rival Sébastien Ogier.
Central Europe, Neuville increases its lead
The Belgian finished the day with a lead of 6.4 seconds over Ogier and 7.8 seconds over his teammate Ott Tänak, in third position. The day took place on difficult asphalt stages crossing the Czech Republic and finishing near the Service Park in Bad Griesbach, Germany.
Ogier led after the first two stages on Thursday. However, he lost his place to Neuville after the third stage at Šumavské Hoštice, making several small errors on slippery, leaf-covered roads. Although the two drivers remained close, Ogier admitted he was “not fast enough” in finishing behind Neuville.
A first world title is getting closer for Neuville and his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe. To win the title in this penultimate round, they must beat Tänak by two points, while not losing more than 10 points to Ogier and 15 to Elfyn Evans.
“I’m glad I made it to the end of the day,” Neuville said. “It’s easy to make a mistake, and the only important thing for us was to finish the day. It was quite slippery on the last stage, so we played it safe.”
With two cars in the top 3, Hyundai is in a good position, but the pressure remains on to maintain their lead in the manufacturers’ standings after Andreas Mikkelsen’s accident during stage 5. The Norwegian went wide in a corner, heavily damaging his car by hitting poles.
Just 15.1 seconds separate the top four, with Elfyn Evans in fourth 7.1 seconds behind Tänak. The Welshman won a special stage, as did his Toyota teammate, Takamoto Katsuta, fifth at 23.5 seconds.
A hybrid system problem disrupted Sami Pajari, but the Finn finished in sixth position, accompanied by his co-driver Enni Mälkönen. Adrien Fourmaux, also deprived of a hybrid system, finished seventh. His teammate Grégoire Munster took eighth place, followed by Rally2 drivers Nikolay Gryazin and Oliver Solberg, completing the top 10. Gryazin leads the WRC2 category, where Solberg does not score any points.
Six special stages, crossing Germany and Austria, are on the program on Saturday, covering a distance of 123.46 km. The first stage will start at 7:58 a.m. local time.
© WRC
