Belgian rally driver Thierry Neuville bolstered his FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) title bid on Friday by taking the lead at the Central European Rally. Driving a Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID, Neuville finished the day with a 6.4-second advantage over Toyota GAZOO Racing’s Sébastien Ogier, while teammate Ott Tänak trailed closely in third.
After Thursday’s opening stages, Ogier had held a narrow lead. However, Friday’s fast-paced asphalt stages through the Czech Republic allowed Neuville to surge ahead. Ogier, struggling with a few wide moments on the greasy, leaf-covered roads, admitted he simply wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the Belgian.
Neuville, focused on securing his maiden world title, knows the stakes are high. To clinch the championship by the end of this penultimate round, he must outscore Tänak by two points and not lose more than 10 to Ogier and 15 to Elfyn Evans.
“I’m happy to finish the day,” Neuville said. “It was easy to make a mistake, and we knew the goal was to make it to the end safely. The last stage was slippery, but we played it safe.”
Hyundai has a strong position, with two cars in the top three. However, the team faced a setback when Andreas Mikkelsen crashed his i20 N on SS5, hitting fence posts and sustaining heavy damage. Despite this, Hyundai remains in contention for the manufacturers’ title.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans finished fourth, trailing Tänak by just 7.3 seconds, while Takamoto Katsuta took fifth after a strong showing. Sami Pajari, on his first Rally1 asphalt event, faced hybrid issues but secured sixth overall. M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster placed seventh and eighth respectively, while Rally2 leader Nikolay Gryazin and Oliver Solberg completed the top 10.
Saturday promises more action with six challenging stages across Germany and Austria, covering 123.46 kilometers of competitive distance.
Friday Classification:
- T. Neuville / M. Wydaeghe (BEL) Hyundai i20 N – 1h 4m 40.0s
- S. Ogier / V. Landais (FRA) Toyota GR Yaris +6.4s
- O. Tänak / M. Järveoja (EST) Hyundai i20 N +7.8s
- E. Evans / S. Martin (GBR) Toyota GR Yaris +15.1s
- T. Katsuta / A. Johnston (JPN) Toyota GR Yaris +38.6s
- S. Pajari / E. Mälkönen (FIN) Toyota GR Yaris +1m 28.2s
Source: WRC
This article was crafted with assistance from Chatgpt
