Oliver Solberg maintained his Rally Chile lead over Elfyn Evans after a wild Saturday morning that included rolls for Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and M-Sport-Ford’s Jon Armstrong.
Solberg kicked off the morning with a 10.1s lead over Evans but struggles finding the feeling behind the wheel of his Toyota GR Yaris meant that margin was reduced to 7.2s heading into the final stage of the loop.
The lead came under threat in stage nine (Maria las Cruces 1, 28.31km) as Evans put down a marker that looked set to take the stage win. However, Solberg blitzed the final section of the test to end up 2.9s faster than Evans, and in doing so restored his lead to 10.1s.
Incredibly the pair set identical times across the morning loop that feature tyre punishing dry rough gravel stages.
“I’m happy [with the stage win]. It felt horrendous,” said Solberg, who was stunned to claim the win in stage nine. “I tried to take care of the tyres at the beginning and try to push at the end. It was not a perfect morning but a clean morning.”
Only 20 seconds separated the top four at the end of the loop as Sebastien Ogier and Adrien Fourmaux emerged as the pacesetters as they looked to catch Solberg and Evans.
Ogier moved ahead of Hyundai’s Fourmaux into third overall after winning stage seven. Ogier repeated the feat in stage eight, this team beating Fourmaux by 2.5s to create a 4.2s margin between the pair.
The charging Ogier sat 9.3s adrift of the lead and only 2.1s behind Evans. But road cleaning and tyre strategy turned the equation again in María las Cruces. Running hard tyres, Ogier conceded 10.7s to Solberg there and also lost third place to Fourmaux, whose decision to run softer rubber paid dividends.
“I feel really good. It was quite a nice stage to drive, it was very flowing with a lot of corners. I was really enjoying the car. I feel confident in the car so that is good,” said Fourmaux, who headed to midday service, 18.1s from the lead.
The picture was less encouraging for Evans’ closest title rival Sami Pajari. The winner of the previous three WRC rounds struggled for confidence in the loose conditions and survived a sizable moment against a bank in stage eight, before reaching service in fifth, 50.5s from the lead and 40.4s behind Evans.
Pajari arrived in Chile trailing Evans by 20 championship points.
Neuville, Armstrong unscathed after dramatic rolls
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Hyundai
While the fight at the front was enthralling, there was plenty of drama behind.
Neuville’s rally came to an abrupt halt on stage seven (Pelun) when he ran wide at speed 8.3km into the stage, which pitched his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 into a series of high speed rolls. Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, who were sitting in sixth, were unhurt, but their car could go no further.
“Basically I came into a compression slightly too fast and I got kicked out of the line and we ended up in a roll,” said Neuville. “Luckily me and Martijn are fine. We had tried to push this morning to claim back the positions, that was our target and there was nothing to lose. We went for it but obviously we were a little bit too fast.
“We need to evaluate if there is any reason to restart [on Sunday]. We have to see how much the damage is and I think the main thing is to do a reset and focus on Sardinia.”
Armstrong then rolled his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 onto its side after hitting a bank on SS8. The Northern Irishman managed to reach the finish despite significant damage to the front of the car but subsequently retired from Saturday’s leg.
“The car understeered and we went to the outside and hit a bank and we rolled on our side,” said a despondent Armstrong. “I don’t know what to do anymore because I’m trying to be careful and still having problems. It’s very, very difficult at the moment.
That promoted Esapekka Lappi to sixth, albeit more than three minutes behind, with M-Sport-Ford’s Josh McErlean in seventh after losing time to a left rear puncture in stage seven.
Drama also struck WRC2 overnight leader Nikolay Gryazin, who rolled 9.9km in stage seven. His Lancia caught fire following the accident, although the blaze was quickly extinguished and the crew escaped unharmed.
Lancia’s Yohan Rossel inherited the category lead after Robert Virves also suffered a puncture during the same stage.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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