Thierry Neuville extended its lead in the Central European Rally about Sébastien Ogierof Toyota, to move even closer to his first World Rally Championship (WRC) title.
The Belgian driver performed impressively throughout the six asphalt stages of the Czech Republic to increase his advantage over the eight-time world champion to 6.4 seconds.
The Hyundai driver took the lead of the rally from the fifth stage, the third of the day, and was able to take advantage of the fact of opening the road to lead an event which could decide since Neuville only has to beat Ogier by 10 points from now on Ott Tanakhis teammate, for another two points to win his first title this weekend.
Tanak struggled to find the ideal settings and finished third on Friday. [+7.8s] in advance Elfyn Evans [+15.1s] and the returnee Takamoto Katsuta [+38.6s].
Sami Pajari, Rally1 debutant [+1m28.2s] and the M-Sport-Ford duo Adrien Fourmaux [+1m33.4s] And Grégoire Munster [2m27.4s] They complete the first eight places. Andreas Mikkelsenof Hyundai, retired after hitting a fence in the fifth stage while in sixth position.
A third passage by Klatovy [11,78 km] The afternoon began before the teams headed to remote assistance. The stage victory went to Katsuta, who managed to negotiate a road that had become very dirty while being 0.4 seconds faster than rally leader Neuville.
“I enjoyed it a lot, the conditions were difficult, but I had confidence to attack,” Katsuta said.
Takamoto Katsuta, Aaron Johnston, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo: M-Sport
Ogier is one second behind Katsuta and the Frenchman's gap with Neuville increases to 3.3 seconds. Tanak was also losing time and the Estonian said he was still “dreaming” of being able to have a good setup for his i20 N.
However, he did much better than Fourmaux, who tried to tame his Ford Puma with the disadvantage of the defective hybrid unit.
“It's really very frustrating. I'm doing everything I can, but the car is very difficult to drive, when braking it moves a lot. We try a lot of things on the asphalt and nothing really works,” said Forumaux. .
Things did not improve much for the Frenchman after remote assistance, as the shock to his engine upon landing after a jump was too strong and could not be readjusted for the final two stages. Adjustments to the setup have improved handling to some extent. Neuville finally achieved his first best time of the day after winning the seventh stage (Strasin, 26.69 km).
The second pass through the longest stage of the rally was much drier than expected, with the Belgian setting a time 0.6 seconds faster than Evans, who would have preferred to have fitted hard tyres.
Tanak seemed to have made some progress in the settings of his i20 N and set the third fastest time, while Ogier surprised himself by losing 3.6 seconds on his time.
“We're not fast enough, it was a clean stage but we're lacking a bit of pace. The car is nice to drive, but you have to check it,” said Ogier, who was 1.2 seconds faster than Katsuta .
The fourth Toyota, driven by Pajari, had a small collision with a hedge, but reached the end of the stage faster than the Fords of Fourmaux and Munster.
A light drizzle affected the last stage of the day (Sumavske Hostice 2, 16.85 km) to further increase the difficulty of the technical test. However, Ogier was able to react to the time lost during the previous stage by setting the tone.
The Toyota driver was 0.5 seconds faster than Neuville and was able to reduce his deficit to 6.4 seconds.
“I'm happy to have reached the end. It's easy to make a mistake and I knew the only important thing for us was to go to the end,” Neuville said.
Evans lost ground in the top three after what he described as “a bit of a weird feeling” towards the end of the stage left him 7.3 seconds behind third-placed Tanak.
In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin completed the six stages 3.1 seconds ahead of Oliver Solberg, who did not score this weekend. Yohan Rossel's title hopes took another blow after a scare in the final stage. The Frenchman, who must win to maintain his chances, ends the day 1'36''7 behind Gryazin.
Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo: Toyota Racing
