Neuville as boss on the Ypres Rally, disaster for M-Sport

The stage local rolled up his sleeves. Thierry Neuville showed his muscles on Saturday morning and adopted a great pace on the first loop of the day. At the end of the four special stages of the morning, the Belgian is still leading the Rally of Ypres, now more than 16 seconds ahead of his closest pursuer, Ott Tänak. The native of Saint-Vith moved into second at the end of the morning, setting the two best times on SS11 and SS12 to escape into the lead of his home event.

The Estonian lost a lot of time on the last two stages. Less comfortable than his teammate and suspecting a transmission problem on his Hyundai i20 N, the 2019 world champion finds himself threatened by Elfyn Evans for 2nd place. The gap at the start of the second loop is only 5 seconds, while the Welshman regained a good pace on Saturday morning.

A fatal Ypres Rally for M-Sport

The start of the day was hectic in Belgium. If the weather left the drivers alone on the Ypres Rally – with radiant sunshine over the Flemish region – it was the drivers themselves who were at fault. Two victims to note: Craig Breen and Gus Greensmith.

The two pilots M-Sport were trapped in the same special stage during SS10. The Briton first, with a turn exit a little too wide, hit the left rear of his Ford Puma. Greensmith managed as best he could to finish the morning and rejoin the audience with a damaged mount, but he lost more than fifteen minutes in the process.

Then next, Craig Breen. The Irishman, disturbed by a bale of straw moved during the passage ofAdrien fourmaux before him, fell into a ditch and ended up on the roof. SS10 was then interrupted under a red flag, as the Ford was poorly positioned and even started to catch fire. Greensmith and Lappi came to the aid of the M-Sport driver to put out the fire, fortunately not serious.

From now on, all of M-Sport's hopes only focus on Adrien Fourmaux. Left behind in the fight for the podium, the Frenchman still took advantage of his teammates' setbacks to move up to 5th place, overtaking Oliver Solberg in the process. The Lille resident, who races almost at home, around forty kilometers from home, remained cautious on Saturday morning despite a big scare on SS10. 

WRC2: Lefebvre still in the lead, but Mikkelsen threatens

As for the WRC2 category, our two French people are still well placed for victory. Stéphane Lefebvre still has a 4″6 lead over the Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen. The Citroën driver lost more than ten seconds on the first two stages of the day, but then made up for it by setting the two best times during SS11 and SS12. Yohan Rossel, 3rd, was a little behind and found himself more than 30 seconds behind his compatriot.

The general classification after SS12: 

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