The Rally of Croatia kicked off this morning with the first two special stages and these immediately gave sensational twists. The two flagship Toyota GR Yaris Rally1s, those entrusted to Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera, played a negative role.
The 8-time world champion got off to a strong start, winning the 19.20 km SS1 Mali Lipovec – Grdanjci 1 ahead of Thierry Neuville and already inflicting heavy gaps on everyone (except the Belgian).
Kalle Rovanpera, on the other hand, despite setting the fourth fastest time, was already 11″3 from the leader due to an asphalt that became dirty after a few laps. We recall that, by virtue of the current Drivers’ World standings, the world champion in charge enters practice third behind Ogier and Neuville.
However, the scenario was completely changed by the SS2, the Stojdraga – Hartje 1 of 25.67 kilometres. Both Ogier and Rovanpera punctured the front left tire taking a hole in a cut – the same one – of a left-hand corner 4 minutes apart.
It was probably the compression that crushed the Yaris in that corner, favoring the puncture that slowed both. However, Ogier and navigator Vincent Landais put up a spectacular tire change: just 1’09” to replace the damaged tyre.
This led them to lose 1’32” from Thierry Neuville, winner of the race and new leader of the general classification of the event. Rovanpera, on the other hand, was not as fast as his teammate. In fact, he lost more than 2 minutes, almost 50″ longer than Ogier.
Elfyn Evans took advantage of the situation, second in the special and now also second in the general classification. The Toyota Welshman is already 13″9 behind Neuville, while Ott Tanak is 6″1 behind him in the first Ford Puma Rally1. The Estonian stalled his car’s engine in an uphill grapple on SS1 and also pointed out some steering problems even on the transfer between the Service Park and SS1.
Although Neuville took the lead in the race, he too made a mistake in a chicane bounded by 3 hay bales. The Belgian complained from the first practice that his rear was unstable and on the occasion he ended up losing it, hitting one of the three hay bales that created a chicane to slow down the cars on a long straight. Luckily for him the damage from the impact is largely cosmetic, but he will have to do without part of the front splitter for the next 2 races.
Esapekka Lappi moved up to fourth position and is 6 seconds behind Tanak, while the Top 5 is at stake between Takamoto Katsuta and Pierre-Louis Loubet. The two are just 1″8 apart.
