2024 Central European Rally (spherical 12/13)
Sébastien Ogier led Central European Rally by nine-tenths of a second from Thierry Neuville on Thursday night after two difficult velocity assessments within the Czech Republic.
The penultimate spherical of this yr’s FIA World Rally Championship kicked off in fashion with a vibrant begin ceremony at Prague Fortress, the place Czech president Petr Pavl flagged the automobiles away. Opponents then tackled two demanding asphalt levels south of the capital, with solely 2.1sec protecting the highest 5 drivers on the shut of play.
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID ace Ogier drew first blood by successful the brief and sharp Velká Chuchle tremendous particular check on the outskirts of Prague. A 3rd-best time on the night-time Klatovy stage was sufficient to maintain him in entrance of Hyundai’s championship chief Neuville as Andreas Mikkelsen made it two i20 N Rally1 HYBRID automobiles within the prime three, trailing his team-mate by 0.8sec in a single day.
“It was fairly slippery,” Ogier mirrored. “All okay, however nothing particular. It’s usually like this on a Thursday – tomorrow there will probably be extra motion.”
Neuville, who can safe his first world title this week, was left pissed off after clipping a straw bale on SS1, damaging the bodywork of his Hyundai. To lock down the championship, the Belgian should outscore colleague Ott Tänak by two factors whereas guaranteeing he doesn’t lose greater than 10 to Ogier and 15 to Elfyn Evans.
Friday’s leg consists of two distant service stops within the Czech city of Janovice nad Úhlavou, however rules stipulate that bodywork might not be modified throughout these halts.
“I took off the aero on the entrance proper by stupidly touching a straw bale and it’ll handicap me tomorrow,” he mentioned. “I can’t be blissful, to be honesty”
Takamoto Katsuta marked his return to the Toyota squad after being benched in Chile with a formidable second-fastest time on SS1. He dropped again to fourth after SS2 however completed the day simply 0.3sec behind Mikkelsen. Tänak, in the meantime, was one other tenth of a second behind in fifth, with Adrien Fourmaux finishing the highest six in his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID.
Elfyn Evans, Sami Pajari and Grégoire Munster stuffed the following three positions as Oliver Solberg accomplished the highest 10. The Swede is competing for outright Rally2 honours in his Škoda Fabia RS having already began the utmost seven point-scoring rounds in WRC2.
There was drama for Yohan Rossel, one in all Solberg’s primary rivals for this yr’s WRC2 title. The Frenchman should win this rally with a view to keep in competition for the crown however arrived on the end of SS2 with a damaged rear-right wheel on his Citroën C3 Rally2, dropping round half a minute. Rossel’s team-mate Nikolay Gryazin due to this fact led the class from Filip Mareš.
