Zagreb (AFP)
French Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) leads Rally Croatia, third round of the World Championship (WRC), just ahead of Briton Elfyn Evans (Toyota) and Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) after the second and penultimate day on Saturday.
Leader on Friday, Neuville lost precious seconds on Saturday morning, the fault of a poor choice of tires, he explained.
But the Belgian picked up some time in the afternoon and is only 10.4 seconds behind Ogier before the last four stages on Sunday.
And the match will be played three: Evans is interspersed in 2nd place, 6.9 seconds behind Ogier.
Estonian Ott Tänak (Hyundai), still 4th, is 37.8 seconds behind the leader, followed by Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford), impressive for his first rally in the premier class.
The 3rd Frenchman on the field, Pierre-Louis Loubet (Hyundai), had a beautiful morning before going out of the way in the trees and giving up, at least for the day, when he had climbed back to 6th place.
Seventh, the 28-year-old Japanese Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), won the 2nd and then the 3rd special of his career (SS10 and 14).
Four specials are scheduled for Sunday, for 77.06 kilometers timed out of a total of 300.32 in the mountain ranges around the capital Zagreb.
For this first Rally Croatia in the history of the WRC, Ogier, Neuville and Evans are fighting for the position of leader of the world championship, abandoned by the Finnish Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) after his spectacular exit from the road on Friday.
© 2021 AFP