The second leg of the Rally Poland got off to a flying start! On the ultra-fast special stages made up of long straights at the bottom of 5th gear where the drivers were close to 200 km/h, the three leaders engaged in an intense battle of seconds, even tenths of a second.
Having taken the lead again in SS10, Kalle Rovanperä did not seem to be having much fun at the wheel of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid. Called back at the last minute to replace Ogier at short notice, he had much less time than the others to prepare for this event, which has a 90% new track.“I’m not having fun at all,” explained the double world champion. “We’re driving flat out without really knowing what’s waiting for us behind a bump or a bend.”
The Finn who saw his teammate Elfyn Evans close behind him by 1 tenth of a second before the return to Mikolajki and the third pass on the rally-cross track of the Super Special, before the lunch break. A Welshman finally in form, very happy to be able to take back big points in the championship from Ott Tanäk and Thierry Neuville. Behind these two, Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) was far from admitting defeat. Signing the scratch in SS11, the Norwegian got back to just over 2 seconds from the lead, suggesting a tight battle for this afternoon.
Moving back into 6th position from the 2nd special of the day, taking back 14 seconds in two exercises from Grégoire Munster and Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 Hyrbrid), Thierry Neuville, although not very satisfied with the settings of his Hyundai, set himself a simple objective: “The top 5 will already be quite good on these special stages where it is difficult to make up a lot. Difficult to know at what pace we can ride based on new notes. But you have to be careful and not make mistakes.”
With 17 seconds to make up on the afternoon loop on Latvian prodigy Martins Sesks and his non-hybrid Ford Puma Rally1, Thierry Neuville and Martin Wydaeghe set themselves a realistic goal. “Going to find Adrien Fourmaux in the regular way will be impossible,” our compatriot stressed. It must be said that the French driver had an exceptional first part of the rally in Poland, posting impressive times at the wheel of the Ford Puma, and is just over 13 seconds behind the leading trio.
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