Thierry Neuville extended his Central European Rally lead over Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier to edge another step closer to sealing a maiden World Rally Championship title.
Neuville produced an impressive drive through six tricky asphalt stages held in the Czech Republic to increase his advantage over the eight-time world champion to 6.4s.
The Hyundai driver took the rally lead in stage five, the third test of the day, and was able to make the most of starting first on the road to lead an event that could decide the world championship, with Neuville needing only to outscore Ogier by 10 points and Hyundai’s Ott Tanak by two points to clinch a maiden world title this weekend.
Tanak struggled to find the ideal set-up, ending Friday in third [+7.8s] ahead of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans [+15.1s] and the returning Takamoto Katsuta [+38.6s].
Rally1 rookie Sami Pajari [+1m28.2s] and M-Sport-Ford duo Adrien Fourmaux [+1m33.4s] and Gregoire Munster [2m27.4s] rounded out the top eight. Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen crashed out of the rally after clattering into a fence in stage five, having held sixth position.
A third pass through the Klatovy, 11.78km test kicked off the afternoon before crews headed to a remote service.
The stage win went to Katsuta who managed to navigate what had become a very dirty road, 0.4s faster than rally leader Neuville.
Takamoto Katsuta, Aaron Johnston, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: M-Sport
“I enjoyed it a lot, tough conditions but I was confident to push,” said Katsuta.
Ogier was a second adrift of Katsuta as the Frenchman’s deficit to Neuville grew to 3.3s.
Tanak also dropped time with Estonian reporting that he was still “dreaming” of a good set-up on his i20 N.
However, he was faring much better than Fourmaux as he tried to tame his Ford Puma with the added disadvantage of a malfunctioning hybrid unit.
“It is very frustrating honestly, I try my best but the car is so hard to drive, under braking the car is moving a lot. We are trying many things in the road section and it’s not working,” said Forumaux.
It didn’t get much better for the Frenchman after the remote service as the shock suffered by his hybrid unit from a jump landing was too severe and it was unable to be reset for the final two stages. Set-up tweaks made in service did at least improve the handling to some extent.
Neuville claimed his first fastest time of the day after winning stage…
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