The Belgian immediately took center stage at the start of the fourth round of the world championship: he slips 5 seconds ahead of Evans’ Toyota and already half a minute ahead of Tanak’s Ford
– ZAGREB (CROATIA)
The fourth round of the World Rally Championship in Croatia started in memory of Craig Breen, who tragically died on these roads during last week’s reconnaissance. Despite the mourning, the Hyundai team did not want to hold back, fielding the i20 N Rally1s of Thierry Neuville and Esa-Pekka Lappi with commemorative liveries. And Neuville immediately made it clear that he wants to win this rally, to commemorate in the best possible way his teammate who is no longer with us.
resists evans
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As always well supported by Martijn Wydaeghe, the Belgian led with a decision not seen for some time. After the first eight special stages, Neuville has already considerably detached his opponents: the only one who resists is Elfyn Evans with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, who complains of a gap of “only” five seconds. For all the others it was the middle of the night: Ott Tanak, third with the M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1, complained about a clear half minute of disadvantage on Neuville. Moreover, the 2019 world champion sees his position threatened by Esa-Pekka Lappi, just three seconds and four tenths behind. For the other Yaris of Sebastien Ogier, Takamoto Katsuta and reigning world champion Kalle Rovanpera there are only crumbs: the three occupy respectively the fifth, sixth and eighth provisional place. Rovanpera complains of a delay of two minutes and forty seconds and the comeback in the next two stages will be difficult for him.
well rossel in wrc2
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The rest of the absolute Top Ten, as per tradition, is occupied by the cars fighting for supremacy in WRC2. At the moment the “squadron” of the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 is kept behind by the Citroen C3 Rally2 of the French crew formed by Yohan Rossel and Arnaud Dunand, capable of inflicting almost half a minute behind the very good Nikolay Gryazin on Skoda. The “neutral” pays for a high-risk spin in a hairpin bend in the second special stage. However, he finished the stage as leader of the WRC2 Challenger subclass, with a narrow lead of almost eight seconds over the “old” Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 of Nicolas Ciamin. Returning to WRC 2 proper, some favorites such as Oliver Solberg -who with his Fabia is twelfth overall-, Emil Lindholm, Ford official Adrien Fourmaux and ex-M-Sport standard bearer Gus Greensmith were also in the shadows. Everyone pays dues to two new “rising stars”: Alejandro Cachon fourth with the Citroen C3 Rally2 and the Finnish Sami Pajari fifth with yet another Fabia RS Rally2.
masters
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Absent prominent local drivers in WRC2, the attention of Italian fans is concentrated on the WRC Masters Cup reserved for “Over” drivers. Hard fight for supremacy between the Skodas with the Germans Armin and Ella Kremer who cannot consider themselves safe from the pressure of our Mauro Miele and Luca Beltrame. “Anaesthetised” a hit suffered in the shakedown, Miele went on the attack at the end of the first stage and now complains of a delay of just one minute and fifty from the Kremers, a margin that is certainly not reassuring on a route that does not tolerate the slightest mistake. Third among the Masters is the Austrian Johannes Keferbock with Ilka Minor to the notes of his Fabia.
so the wrc3
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Irishman William Creighton is unrivaled between WRC 3 cars and JWRC competitors. Both in the “young” classification and in that of the category, the only one to keep up with the Irishman is the Frenchman Laurent Pellier, nine seconds off. In JWRC third place is occupied by the Paraguayan Diego Dominguez while in WRC 3 third place goes to another Irishman, Eamonn Kelly. As per tradition, all the cars in this class are Ford Fiesta Rally3: note also the presence in the race of the German Fabio Schwarz, son of the ex-protagonist of the WRC in the Nineties Armin, and the Kenyan Hamza Anwar: both are defending themselves a lot Well.
difficult specials
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However, the roads around Zagreb prove to be difficult for the participants. The Czech Erik Cais, who ended up in an escarpment with his Skoda already in the first special stage, and the Estonian Georg Linnamae, victim of an accident on the fifth stage, humiliating Hyundai’s ambitions in WRC 2, know something about it. tomorrow with the Super Rally. Finally, in addition to Miele, it should be noted the presence of another Italian crew made up of Marco Oldani and Pietro D’Agostino, currently thirty-fifth with a Peugeot 208 Rally4. The second stage will start tomorrow at 07:54 with the ninth stage of Kostanjevac – Petrus Vrh.
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