WRC: Tanak wins Central European Rally, Neuville recovers to P3

10/20/2024 09:32 AM

Ott Tanak took the win in Central European Rally ahead of Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville, as the WRC title fight heads to the final event.

Thursday –

Sébastien Ogier led Central European Rally by nine-tenths of a second from Thierry Neuville on Thursday evening after two tricky speed tests in the Czech Republic. The penultimate round of this year's FIA World Rally Championship kicked off in style with a vibrant start ceremony at Prague Castle, where Czech president Petr Pavl flagged the cars away. Competitors then tackled two demanding asphalt stages south of the capital, with only 2.1sec covering the top five drivers at the close of play.

Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID ace Ogier drew first blood by winning the short and sharp Velká Chuchle super special test on the outskirts of Prague. A third-best time on the night-time Klatovy stage was enough to keep him in front of Hyundai's championship leader Neuville as Andreas Mikkelsen made it two i20 N Rally1 HYBRID cars in the top three, trailing his team-mate by 0.8sec overnight.

Neuville, who can secure his first world title this week, was left frustrated after clipping a straw bale on SS1, damaging the bodywork of his Hyundai. To lock down the championship, the Belgian must outscore colleague Ott Tänak by two points while ensuring he doesn't lose more than 10 to Ogier and 15 to Elfyn Evans. Friday's leg includes two remote service stops in the Czech town of Janovice nad Úhlavou, but regulations stipulate that bodywork may not be changed during these halts.

Takamoto Katsuta marked his return to the Toyota squad after being benched in Chile with an impressive second-fastest time on SS1. He dropped back to fourth after SS2 but finished the day just 0.3sec behind Mikkelsen. Tänak, meanwhile, was another tenth of a second behind in fifth, with Adrien Fourmaux completing the top six in his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID. Elfyn Evans, Sami Pajari and Grégoire Munster filled the next three positions as Oliver Solberg completed the top 10. The Swede is competing for outright Rally2 honours in his Škoda Fabia RS having already started the maximum seven point-scoring rounds in WRC2.

There was drama for Yohan Rossel, one of Solberg's main rivals for this year's WRC2 title. The Frenchman must win this rally in order to stay in contention for the crown but arrived at the finish of SS2 with a broken rear-right wheel on his Citroën C3 Rally2, dropping around half a minute. Rossel's team-mate Nikolay Gryazin therefore led the category from Filip Mareš.

Friday –

Thierry Neuville kept his FIA World Rally Championship title aspirations on track on Friday by overtaking Toyota GAZOO Racing rival Sébastien Ogier to claim the lead at Central European Rally. The Belgian, who drives an i20 N Rally1 HYBRID car for Hyundai Motorsport, reached the overnight halt with a slender 6.4sec lead over Ogier and 7.8sec clear of his third-placed team-mate Ott Tänak after a flat-out day of tricky asphalt stages which weaved their way through the Czech Republic and back towards the service park near Bad Griesbach in Germany.

Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID star Ogier had topped the standings after Thursday's opening pair of speed tests, but the eight-time world champion slipped behind Neuville after today's third stage at Šumavské Hoštice, his cause not helped by a couple of wide moments on the greasy leaf-covered roads. While the pair remained closely matched across the leg, Frenchman Ogier admitted that he simply was "not fast enough" as he finished the day trailing Neuville.

A maiden world title is now another step closer for Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe. They must outscore Tänak by two points whilst dropping no more than 10 to Ogier and 15 to Elfyn Evans to clinch the crown at this penultimate round, which concludes on Sunday. While having two cars inside the top three bodes well for Hyundai, the pressure is on for the Korean marque to consolidate its manufacturers' series lead after Andreas Mikkelsen crashed his i20 N on SS5.

The Norwegian understeered wide on a leafy left-hander, hitting a series of fenceposts which caused heavy damage. Just 15.1sec blanketed the leading quartet with Elfyn Evans ending Friday in fourth overall, 7.3sec back from Tänak. The Welshman claimed a sole stage win, as did fellow Toyota driver Takamoto Katsuta who trailed him by 23.5sec in fifth. A hybrid issue put a slight dampener on Sami Pajari's first Toyota Rally1 outing on asphalt, but the Finn survived a few hairy moments to round out the top six with trusty co-driver Enni Mälkönen by his side.

Adrien Fourmaux was also without hybrid power which, when coupled with set-up struggles, restricted the Frenchman to seventh. Fourmaux's M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID partner Grégoire Munster was eighth while Rally2 runners Nikolay Gryazin and Oliver Solberg completed the top 10. Gryazin led the WRC2 category, for which Solberg is not scoring points.

Saturday –

Thierry Neuville's hopes of clinching his maiden FIA World Rally Championship title at the Central European Rally took a significant hit after a dramatic fall from first to fourth on Saturday. The Belgian had made a near-perfect start, leading by 6.4sec after Friday's first full leg. However, today – the penultimate day of the penultimate round of the season – he suffered not one, but two off-road incidents within the span of a minute.

No sooner had he recovered from the first spin during this morning's German-Austrian boundary-straddling Beyond Borders stage, Neuville found himself wide on the grass again. The second off proved particularly costly as he struggled to extract his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID from a concrete drainage ditch and lost nearly 40sec. Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID star Sébastien Ogier found himself back in the lead for the first time since Friday morning, but the eight-time world champion had Ott Tänak's Hyundai hot on his heels.

Tänak, who had briefly headed Ogier after the opening stage of the day, claimed two benchmark times compared with Ogier's three and trails the Frenchman by 5.2sec heading into Sunday's four-stage finale. Today's events have made it increasingly likely that the championship will be decided at FORUM8 Rally Japan next month. With Saturday's provisional points in hand, Neuville has surrendered eight to Ogier and three to Toyota's Elfyn Evans, who currently sits 25.8sec ahead of him in third place.

Crucially, he's lost five points to Tänak — his closest championship rival — and he needs to outscore the Estonian by two to secure the title this weekend. Takamoto Katsuta trailed Neuville by 52.0sec in fifth, the Japanese driver's cause not helped by the 16sec time penalty he incurred on SS9. He exceeded the target speed in a virtual chicane area by 8kph and was penalised by 2sec per kph as a result.

Sixth went the way of Katsuta's fellow Toyota pilot Sami Pajari, while M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID hotshot Grégoire Munster placed eighth. It was a disappointing day for Munster's team-mate Adrien Fourmaux, who retired following SS10 with a front differential issue that compromised his car's handling, leading to two off-road excursions. Nikolay Gryazin led the WRC2 category by almost two minutes from Czech driver Filip Mareš, with Oliver Solberg – not eligible for WRC2 points this weekend – slotting between them in ninth overall.

Sunday –

The fight for this year's FIA World Rally Championship is set to go down to the wire after Ott Tänak claimed a dramatic victory at Central European Rally on Sunday. In yet another twist to what has been a thrilling 2024 season, Tänak took the win by 7.0sec after Sébastien Ogier crashed his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID on a left-hand corner in the penultimate stage. Ogier had been trailing the Estonian by just 1.5sec at the time of his incident.

Tänak's triumph, his second of the year, has set up a final-round showdown with Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID team-mate Thierry Neuville at next month's FORUM8 Rally Japan. Neuville, who had been on course to secure his maiden drivers’ title before a costly spin on Saturday morning, saw his championship lead cut from 29 to 25 points. He ended the rally in third place, 25.8sec behind GR Yaris pilot Elfyn Evans.

Despite Ogier's misfortune, strong Super Sunday performances from Toyota men Evans and Takamoto Katsuta helped trim Hyundai's advantage in the manufacturers' championship to 15 points. Katsuta was the fastest driver on the final day, including the Wolf Power Stage, ensuring a tense finale in Japan where, for the first time since 2021, both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles will be decided at the final round.

Neuville, Ogier, and Tänak all took turns at leading the rally, which kicked off in Prague on Thursday and featured challenging asphalt stages spread across the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany. Tänak struggled with his car’s set-up on Friday morning and initially languished in fifth place, but his pace improved as the event progressed, culminating in his 21st career victory.

Katsuta's strong Sunday run, combined with Ogier's exit, saw him finish fourth overall, and 41.2sec behind Neuville – a solid finish for the Japanese runner before his home event next month. Across the service park, Grégoire Munster climbed to fifth in his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID, equalling his career-best result after Sami Pajari rolled his GR Yaris on SS15.

Sixth overall went to WRC2 winner Nikolay Gryazin, who finished 26.1sec ahead of Oliver Solberg. Although Solberg wasn't scoring points this week, he remains in contention for the WRC2 title, which will also be decided in Japan. Filip Mareš, Miko Marczyk, and Kajetan Kajetanowicz rounded out the top 10 after four days of competition and more than 300km of timed stages.

Result: https://www.wrc.com/live-timing?liveTimingMenu=overall_livetiming&stage=FINAL&championshipId=245

[Note: The story is as per press release]

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