The Finn Kalle Rovanpera (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) firmly and authoritatively occupies the lead of Rally Croatia, the third round of the World Rally Championship, at the end of the eight stages contested this Friday.
The championship leader took full advantage of his first position in the starting order (in very rainy and very tricky conditions, the road deteriorated as the passages progressed) and set a whopping six best times in the race. space of eight specials.
Although he was only 12.5 seconds behind Kalle Rovanpera at the finish of the fourth and last special of the morning loop, Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) has encountered a mechanical problem (alternator) on the road before joining the service park at the end of the morning. He had to, together with his co-pilot Martijn Wydaeghepush the car a distance of 800 meters.
Both men arrived completely exhausted and were given a 40-second penalty for clocking in four minutes late.
His repaired Hyundai, TN managed to move up from fourth to second place, quite far however (1:04.0) from the authoritative leader of this Rally Croatia, while scoring a scratch on the way through the last special of the day.
Ott Tanak (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) is third at 1:23.3, Craig Breen (Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1) fourth at 1:35.2, Oliver Solberg (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) fifth at 2:38.5.
Elfyn Evans (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1), sixth overall at 2:49.1, had two punctures during the day. The Welshman however managed to deprive his teammate Kalle Rovanpera of the scratch on SS3.
The rally ended very early for Esapekka Lapland (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1), which hit a large stone on the side of the road and was forced to retire on the first special, while Pierre Louis Loubet (Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1) suffered three punctures in the space of two specials and was forced to retire.
In ES3, Adrien Fourmaux (Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1) made a mistake at the first corner and damaged his car, which forced him to stop there for the day.
On Saturday, two new loops of four stages and 116.98 kilometers to be covered against the clock will be on the menu for the crews. These eight specials will be followed live with commentary, and four of them will be live on video on Auvio.