Thierry Neuville gives an encore signing the second consecutive scratch of the day at Rally Italia Sardegna. The Belgian won SS9 Su Filigosu 1 of 19.57 kilometres, still making up seconds on the riders preceding him in the general classification.
With a time of 12’45″0, the Hyundai Motorsport driver beat teammate Esapekka Lappi by 2″2 and Sébastien Ogier by 4″2, moving to 13″5 off the lead in the sixth event of the 2023 WRC.
Neuville seems to have the pace to further close the gap to the leaders. But SS10 will be important to really understand his chances of recovery and to be able to get back into the fight for victory in this weekend’s event.
The most important aspect, however, is that yet another change of leadership in the general classification took place in this race. Thanks to the second time of the stage and the simultaneous 2″ delay by Sébastien Ogier, Esapekka Lappi is back in command of Rally Italia Sardegna.
However, the Finnish driver from Hyundai Motorsport has a very thin margin over Ogier, just 3 tenths. This means that everything can still change during the next 2 special stages that will complete today’s morning lap.
Behind the top 3 the positions froze. Kalle Rovanpera is fourth, but more than half a minute behind Neuville. Elfyn Evans completes the Top 5, but he too is half a minute behind his teammate. Ott Tanak recovered one position due to Takamoto Katsuta’s missed start after the engine trouble caused by the impact in the ford occurred in the previous race.
However, the M-Sport driver had a problem himself when he faced a ford a few tens of meters from the end of SS10. The engine of his Ford Puma stalled for several seconds and he was forced to use all-electric mode to cross the finish line. This cost him several seconds to the Toyotas.
Change of leader also in WRC2, with Adrien Fourmaux who took advantage of a certainly not unforgettable internship by the young Sami Pajari to climb to the top. However, the fastest driver continues to be Andreas Mikkelsen. The Norwegian of the TokSport Skoda team won the race and moved just one tenth from Fourmaux after overtaking Pajari. The general classifications of the two main categories of the WRC have never been so open and uncertain…
Rally Italia Sardegna – WRC 2023 – Classification after SS9
Pos. Pilota/navigatore Vettura Tempo/distacco 1 Lappi/Ferm Hyundai 20 N Rally2 1h54’40”5 2 Ogier/Landais Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +0″3 3 Neuville/Wydaeghe Hyundai 20 N Rally2 +13″5 4 Rovanpera/Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +48″8 5 Evans/Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1’24″0 6 Tanak/Jarveoja Ford Puma Rally1 +1’59″1 7 Fourmaux/Coria Ford Fiesta Rally2 +4’59″7 8 Mikkelsen/Eriksen Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 +4’59″8 9 Pajari/Malkonen Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 +5’04″8 10 Lindholm/Hamalainen Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 +5’30″2
