WRC
Pajari leads dramatic Croatia Rally after chaotic Friday morning
Sami Pajari emerged with a slender lead at Friday’s midday service after a bruising opening loop of Croatia Rally ripped through the frontrunners and turned the leaderboard on its head.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver won the morning’s final test, Učka, to move 8.4sec clear of team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, with Thierry Neuville just 0.3sec further back in third. But the margins told only part of the story after a punishing first four stages around Istria claimed two Rally1 retirements and left several others counting the cost of mistakes and punctures.
Championship leader Elfyn Evans had looked firmly in control early on. First on the road in dry conditions, the Welshman made full use of the cleaner surface to win both SS1 and SS2 as those behind grappled with changing grip and increasing pollution from cuts. After 27.90km, he had built a 15.8sec advantage over Pajari and appeared to have the morning under control.
That all unravelled on SS3, Beram - Cerovlje. Evans went off heavily after misjudging a right-hander, ending his charge in dramatic fashion and opening the door for those behind. It came just one stage after Oliver Solberg’s rally had already ended on the opener, the Swede spinning and beaching his GR Yaris Rally1 off the road after clipping a bank.
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Pajari kept his head while chaos unfolded around him. The Finn had been second fastest on the opener and again on SS2, despite admitting he was not fully satisfied with his driving. Evans’ demise on SS3 moved him to the top of the leaderboard while a stage win on SS4 extended the buffer to Katsuta.
“Maybe not the position I was expecting after the first loop, but I’m not complaining,” Pajari said. “I still feel I can improve on the other stages. It’s not easy, but I was confident we had a good plan to go with the hard tyre.”
Katsuta remains firmly in the fight after a cautious but tidy morning. The Safari Rally Kenya winner backed off in SS1 after seeing Solberg’s stricken car, then built into his rhythm as the loop progressed.
Neuville, meanwhile, survived a difficult opening loop to stay right in contention. The Hyundai Motorsport driver topped SS3 and sits just 8.7sec from the lead despite continuing to battle the balance of his i20 N Rally1.
“The car balance,” he said after SS4. “These stages are a real struggle for me. Understeering like hell. I don’t get the rotation to get a good corner exit. We’re in a good position at the moment and we need to keep fighting.”
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Hyundai part-timer Hayden Paddon holds fourth overall on his Croatia Rally debut. Last of the Rally1 runners on the road order, the Kiwi never looked entirely comfortable in the low-grip conditions, but stayed out of trouble while others fell away and trails Neuville by 32.7sec. Josh McErlean also benefited from a clean run and held fifth at the break, 50.8sec off the lead.
Adrien Fourmaux’s morning was far more costly. The Frenchman lost more than a minute with a front-right puncture on SS2, dropping out of contention before recovering to sixth overall. M-Sport Ford’s Jon Armstrong had been one of the standout performers early on, running as high as third after SS1 and staying in the fight despite a puncture on SS2, but his rally ended on SS4 when he ran wide at high speed and hit a bank.
Behind the depleted Rally1 field, Yohan Rossel led WRC2 at midday in seventh overall, heading Nikolay Gryazin and Romet Jürgenson, with the category also hit by a string of dramas during the morning loop.
