WRC
Solberg withstands Ogier charge to retain Rally Chile lead
Oliver Solberg resisted a fierce Saturday morning charge from Sébastien Ogier to preserve a 10.1sec Rally Chile BIOBÍO lead over championship leader Elfyn Evans at midday service.
Solberg began the rally's longest day with 10.1sec in hand but saw that cushion shrink as defending Chile winner Ogier stormed through the opening two stages, winning both to briefly move within 9.3sec of the rally lead.
The response came on the morning’s decisive 28.31km María las Cruces test. Despite describing the feeling aboard his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 as far from perfect, Solberg managed his tyres through the opening kilometres before attacking towards the finish and won the stage by 2.9sec from Evans.
That restored his overnight advantage almost perfectly and sent him back to service 10.1sec clear.
“I’m happy. It felt horrendous,” Solberg admitted. “I tried to take care of the tyres at the beginning and try to push at the end. It was not a perfect morning but a clean morning.”
His measured approach proved valuable on a loop where the dry, loose roads presented a very different challenge to Friday’s wet opening stages.
Ogier had initially looked the man most likely to upset the order. The nine-time world champion was fastest on Pelún by 3.4sec from Adrien Fourmaux and then produced an emphatic performance on Lota, beating the Hyundai driver by another 2.5sec.
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After SS8 he was only 2.1sec behind second-placed Evans and 9.3sec from Solberg, having started Saturday 19.7sec off the lead. But road cleaning and tyre strategy turned the equation again on María las Cruces.
Running hard tyres, Ogier conceded 10.7sec to Solberg there and also lost third place to Fourmaux, whose decision to run softer rubber paid dividends. The Frenchman now holds the final podium position by just 1.9sec.
Evans, meanwhile, remains firmly in the victory fight despite struggling to find the balance he wanted from his Toyota.
“Not good still,” he said after Lota. “I wasn’t super happy yesterday and today I’m still struggling. We need to find something. I’m struggling with balance.”
Even so, the championship leader kept his morning clean and sits exactly 10.1sec behind Solberg, with an 8.0sec buffer over Fourmaux.
The picture is less encouraging for Evans’ closest title rival Sami Pajari. The winner of the previous three WRC rounds struggled for confidence in the loose conditions and survived a sizeable moment against a bank on Lota before reaching service fifth, 50.5sec from the lead and 40.4sec behind Evans. Pajari arrived in Chile trailing Evans by 20 championship points.
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Saturday morning also delivered significant attrition.
Thierry Neuville’s rally came to an abrupt halt on Pelún when he ran wide at speed 8.3km into the stage and rolled his Hyundai i20 N Rally1. Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe were unhurt, but their car could go no further.
Jon Armstrong then rolled his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 onto its side after hitting a bank on SS8. The Northern Irishman managed to reach the finish despite significant damage but subsequently retired from Saturday’s leg.
That promoted Esapekka Lappi to sixth, albeit more than three minutes behind, with Josh McErlean seventh.
Drama also struck WRC2 overnight leader Nikolay Gryazin, who rolled 9.9km into Pelún. His Lancia caught fire following the accident, although the blaze was quickly extinguished and the crew escaped unharmed. Yohan Rossel inherited the category lead after Robert Virves also suffered a puncture during the same stage.
