The second day of competition in Croatia was a head to head between Sébastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville, so much so that in PS15 the two even signed the same time trial. To play in favor of the Toyota driver was therefore consistency as well as a few fewer problems. A puncture for him in PS13, while for the Belgian from Hyundai there was trouble with the brakes and then with the jack before the last special when he wanted to change tires.
Elfyn Evans benefited from these setbacks. Séb’s teammate won in SS11 and now, with four races to go, he is traveling just 6 ”9 from the top. Position that the Welshman claimed to aim for.
Fourth place for the Hyundai of the 2019 champion Ott Tänak, then the Ford Fiesta of Adrien Fourmaux at 1’29 “and the other Fiesta of Gus Greensmith at 2’23”. The Englishman was battling with Pierre-Louis Loubet’s Hyundai for most of the time, until the Frenchman went off the road during the SS14 and heavily damaged his i20.
Seventh at 2’46 “from the top a wild Takamoto Katsuta on Yaris, the fastest in SS 10 and 14, followed at 3’51” by a Craig Breen far from feeling at ease behind the wheel of the i20 and also slowed down by a puncture in stage 9.
Ninth position for the leading crew of the WRC2 Mads Ostberg – Torstein Eriksen on Citroen C3 Rally 2 , with a good margin on rival Teemu Suninen in the Ford Fiesta R5 MkII, tenth.
In WRC3 the Polish Kajetan Kajetanowicz leads the Skoda Fabia Rally 2 EVO, twelfth overall.
Rally classification of Croatia after SS 16:
1 Ogier S. / Ingrassia J. Toyota Yaris WRC
2 Evans Elfyn/ Martin Scott Toyota Yaris WRC +06”9
3 Neuville Thierry/ Wydaeghe M. Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +10”4
4 Tänak Ott / Järveoja M. Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +37 ”8
5 Fourmaux Adrien/ Jamoul Renaud Ford Fiesta WRC +01’29”5
6 Greensmith Gus/ Patterson Chris Ford Fiesta WRC +02’23”8
7 Katsuta T./ Barritt Daniel Toyota Yaris WRC +02’46 ”5
8 Breen Craig/ Nagle Paul Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +03’51”8
9 Østberg Mads / Eriksen T. Citroën C3 Rally2 + 07’0620
10 Suninen Teemu / Markkula Mikko Ford Fiesta R5 MkII + 08’09 ”6
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