WRC
Neuville strikes as Saturday drama turns Croatia Rally on its head
Thierry Neuville stormed into the Croatia Rally lead on Saturday after a brutal afternoon loop ripped the rally from Sami Pajari’s grasp and transformed the shape of the fight for victory.
The Hyundai Motorsport driver had started the day 13.7sec behind the Toyota Gazoo Racing youngster, but ended it with a commanding 1min 14.5sec advantage over Takamoto Katsuta after chaos unfolded on the second pass through Generalski Stol - Zdihovo. Pajari, who had controlled the rally since Friday morning, dropped to third after stopping to change a wheel and reached the overnight halt 1min 46.4sec off the lead.
It was a savage twist on a day that had begun with Pajari still firmly in charge. On the morning loop, the Finn coped well with leaf-covered roads, heavy road pollution and wildly inconsistent grip to keep Neuville and Katsuta at arm’s length. Although Katsuta briefly grabbed second overall on SS10, Neuville hit back on the new Generalski Stol test to reclaim the place.
At midday, Pajari still led by 12.4sec from Neuville, with Katsuta a further 12.7sec back in third. Hayden Paddon held a strong fourth on his Croatia Rally debut, while Adrien Fourmaux’s difficult weekend worsened when he crashed out on SS12 after running wide and damaging the left-rear of his Hyundai i20 N Rally1.
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But if the morning had been about management, the afternoon became a straight survival test.
Katsuta opened the second loop with the fastest time on SS13, trimming Neuville’s advantage over him in the fight for second, while Pajari remained calm and measured at the front.
That changed spectacularly on SS14.
Running on roads that had deteriorated into something resembling a gravel rally, tyre dramas struck throughout the leaderboard. Jon Armstrong stopped to change a wheel, Hayden Paddon picked up a front-left deflation and Katsuta did likewise. Yet the biggest blow landed on Pajari’s Toyota. The Finn was forced to stop, haemorrhaging more than two minutes and handing the lead directly to Neuville.
“It just clicks this weekend,” Neuville said at day’s end. “The car was from the beginning feeling better than the other rallies. We were able to build step-by-step [and] improve it in the beginning of the event. The conditions are very challenging and we were somehow able to go with good speed.”
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Katsuta’s second place also owed much to discipline. The Japanese driver had been frustrated to lose ground in the afternoon, but kept his head while others unravelled and now finds himself best placed to challenge Neuville on Sunday.
“A bit of a shame because we were trying to manage it,” Katsuta said. “It was a proper lottery. Even on gravel rallies we don’t have that many stones.”
Before the afternoon’s drama, headlines on raw pace had belonged elsewhere. Restarting after Friday’s early exit, Oliver Solberg won every stage from SS9 to SS12 and looked set for a clean sweep of the day before a puncture halted that run on SS13.
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Elfyn Evans, also out of the overall fight after his Friday crash, ended the day with a stage win on SS16, while Armstrong again underlined his growing confidence with a string of top times despite suffering his own troubles. For M-Sport Ford, though, Josh McErlean endured a torrid day featuring a cockpit fire, repeated punctures and electrical issues that left him nursing the Puma home.
Paddon, who managed to nurse his earlier puncture without stopping, kept out of serious trouble amid the chaos and consolidated a fine fourth overall, 3min 28.2sec off the lead, while Yohan Rossel completed Saturday fifth and continued to head the WRC2 fight.
Four stages totalling just under 60km of competitive action are now all that stand between a first victory of the season for Neuville and his Hyundai Motorsport team.
