WRC
Evans’ rain wish pays off, but Solberg takes early WRC Chile lead
Oliver Solberg holds a slender 2.3sec lead over Elfyn Evans after a treacherous opening loop at Rally Chile BIOBÍO, where overnight rain dramatically reshaped the expected road-order battle.
Championship leader Evans had feared being first onto Friday’s loose gravel roads, but the rain he had hoped for after shakedown arrived and instead handed the early starters a valuable advantage as conditions became progressively muddier.
Solberg made the most of it, winning the opening Turquía test before reclaiming top spot on SS3 Hualqui to head the field into midday service.
“It’s a new day for everyone and that helps me,” said the Toyota driver. “I love these stages but it was very sketchy conditions out there. You have to have a good flow but not push too hard.
“I’m happy with the clean morning. I’m happy the rain came as otherwise Ogier would have been dangerous.”
Evans was only 1.4sec slower than Solberg on the opening 22.94km Turquía stage and then struck back by winning Nuevo Rere, briefly moving 0.4sec ahead overall.
Solberg responded on Hualqui, beating Evans by 2.7sec to retake the rally lead.
For Evans, the change in weather had already delivered exactly what he wanted.
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“It has helped massively to even things out and play to our advantage,” he said. “I was pleased to see the rain after so many dry rallies. It is an okay start. There is a lot to go in this rally.”
The conditions proved far less comfortable for championship challenger Sami Pajari.
The Finn dropped 17.8sec on the opener after struggling to build confidence as grip levels changed constantly, admitting afterwards: “In the narrow places I couldn’t find the confidence to go. It is not good.”
Set-up changes improved matters on the following stages, but Pajari reached service sixth overall, 23.0sec behind Solberg and 20.7sec adrift of Evans.
Adrien Fourmaux occupies third, 17.7sec from the lead, despite a technical problem on Nuevo Rere which forced the Hyundai driver to manage his way through the stage.
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“I’m pleased to be at the end of the loop as we had a technical issue in the previous stage,” Fourmaux explained after SS3. “It is positive we got back with the minimum time lost. This afternoon we can push.”
Thierry Neuville produced the standout performance on Hualqui, winning the stage outright to climb from sixth to fourth overall. The Belgian sits 20.4sec behind Solberg and just 2.7sec adrift of Fourmaux.
Sébastien Ogier is only half a second further back in fifth after a frustrating opening stage in which he struggled for grip as the surface deteriorated further down the running order.
“It was very muddy and I struggled for grip,” Ogier said after SS1, later admitting that the opening test had been costly as both the conditions and his set-up worked against him.
There was early heartbreak for Takamoto Katsuta, who stopped 6.2km into Turquía after losing the rear of his Toyota on a left-hander and becoming beached off the road. Katsuta and stand-in co-driver James Fulton were unhurt.
Behind the leading six, Josh McErlean heads M-Sport Ford team-mate Jon Armstrong in seventh and eighth, while Esapekka Lappi is ninth after surviving contact with a bank on SS2.
In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin leads Robert Virves by 8.1sec after setting the pace on the first two stages, despite describing the muddy Hualqui test as particularly difficult.
