The second stage of the Rally Poland got off to a flying start! On the ultra-fast special stages made up of long straight lines at the bottom of 5th 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 drive hard without really knowing what awaits us behind a bump or a bend. “
The Finn who saw his teammate Elfyn Evans pounce on 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 midday break. A Welshman finally in spirit, 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 moved back to just over 2 seconds from the lead, suggesting a close-quarters battle for this afternoon.
Returning to 6th position from the 2nd special of the day by gaining 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 pretty good on these specials where it is difficult to make up much ground. It is difficult to know at what pace we can ride based on new notes. But we must remain cautious and not make any mistakes.”
With 17 seconds left 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 look for Adrien Fourmaux on a regular basis will be impossible,” our compatriot further underlined. It must be said that the French driver had an exceptional first part of the rally in Poland, setting impressive times at the wheel of the Ford Puma, and was just over 13 seconds behind the leading trio.
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