Neuville nibbles at Pajari’s lead, Fourmaux crashes out

Toyota’s Sami Pajari continues to lead Rally Croatia, but his overnight advantage has been cut to 12.4s over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, while Takamoto Katsuta lost ground in the victory fight.

Pajari took an overnight lead into Saturday for the first time in his WRC career, and the Finn continued to show pace and maturity to hold on to the top spot through Saturday morning’s loop of four asphalt stages.

Neuville started the day 13.7s behind Pajari, with that gap growing by 0.1s after stage nine, the day’s first stage, as the pair locked horns at the front. 

With the road order reversed, the leading runners faced conditions that became increasingly dirty with gravel being dragged onto the surface by the early runners. Katsuta didn’t expect to face such dirty conditions in stage nine and dropped time to Pajari and Neuville.

However, the Japanese issued an impressive response in stage 10, taking 3.8s out of Neuville to leapfrog the Hyundai driver into second overall. Katsuta was 1.1s slower than the returning Oliver Solberg following his retirement from stage one yesterday.

Solberg, starting first on the road, had the luxury of clean roads, but nobody could match his pace. The Swede had already beaten team-mate Elfyn Evans, also on the recovery trail after a Friday retirement, by 7.3s in the first test before going on to win stage 10. 

The 22.48km Generalski Stol – Zdihovo 1 stage had been earmarked as a key moment of the rally given its relentless twists and turns, and the fact it was a brand-new test for the crews to tackle. 

Despite low grip from the dirty and slippery conditions, Neuville pulled out an impressive time that was 16.9s faster than Katsuta and 2.9s quicker than leader Pajari. The effort was enough for the 2024 world champion to jump back into second overall, with a 15.7s margin over Katsuta, and move to within 11.8s of the rally lead. 

“I’m just annoyed about the last one. I really have to bring the car back. The situation is not easy. Bringing the car back is the most important thing. If I have a chance to go for [the win], I will, but I have more important things to do this weekend,” Katsuta said, referring to scoring manufacturer points as the last remaining Toyota in the running.

Neuville added: “It was a nice stage, honestly, and I was feeling comfortable in the car. The road is super dirty and I think we did the best with our road position.”

Pajari was able to fight back in the final stage of the loop to beat Neuville by 0.6s and push his lead out to 12.4s. Katsuta also managed to find some pace to post a time 0.8s shy of the ultimate pace to sit 12.7s behind Neuville in third, as the crews headed to the midway tyre-fitting zone.

“So far we are feeling quite comfortable and it’s feeling pretty under control. Of course, it is tricky conditions with the pollution on the road, but overall it feels comfortable and I will try to keep it that way,” said Pajari. 

The star of the morning was without question Solberg, who completed a clean sweep of stage wins, highlighting what could have been if he had avoided crashing out yesterday. Championship leader Evans, next on the road, was rarely able to match Solberg’s pace after opting to experiment with tyres during the loop in preparation for a fight for Super Sunday points. 

“I feel very happy about the performance today for sure, but still extremely disappointed after yesterday,” said Solberg.

Oliver Solberg, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

The loop wasn’t without drama. Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, sitting in fifth, lost the rear of his i20 N in the final stage of the loop and clattered a pole. The impact forced the Frenchman into an immediate retirement.

Fourmaux’s demise left only two Hyundais running, with Hayden Paddon in fourth overall [+1m35.8s] after the New Zealander managed to complete the loop safely.   

Lancia’s Yohan Rossel ended the loop in fifth overall [4m11.5s] with a 36.7s lead over team-mate Nikolay Gryazin in the fight for the WRC2 honours.

Elsewhere, M-Sport Ford’s Jon Armstrong continued to show impressive speed on his return after a Friday retirement, the Northern Irishman’s highlight being a time 1.5s adrift of Solberg in stage 12. 

Bad luck continued for team-mate Josh McErlean though, as a fire broke out in the cockpit of his Ford Puma in stage 10. McErlean and co-driver Eoin Treacy lost seven minutes putting out the fire, which stemmed from a wiring loom, but managed to reach the midday tyre-fitting zone in 20th position.

Crews will repeat the loop of stages this afternoon to conclude Saturday’s action.  

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