Neuville leader in Croatia, Toyotas stay in touch

The man to beat this weekend definitely seems to be Thierry Neuville. Forcément prétendant à la victoire avant le début de l’épreuve, le pilote Hyundai a démarré ce Rally from Croatia on top of their game.

After a first scratch during SS1, the 32-year-old Belgian scored two new special stage victories (SS2 and SS4), clearly showing his current good form on the Croatian asphalt.

Thanks to his very good morning, Thierry Neuville forged a small lead of 7” over Elfyn Evans while Sébastien Ogier settled for 3rd position, 12 from the lead.

In retreat, Ott Tänak is already suffering the blow with 25 seconds behind his teammate at the end of the morning loop. The Estonian is currently in 3th place in this Croatian Rally.

French side, Adrien fourmaux et sa Ford Fiesta de M-Sport sont 6e à 44“4 de la tête. Pierre-Louis Loubet (2C Competition) est installé à la 8e position à un peu plus de 55 secondes du leader.

Outre la domination de Thierry Neuville, la matinée a été marquée par la sortie de piste de Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota). Premier à partir lors de l’ES1, le leader du championnat du monde s’est retrouvé dans le ravin à quelques centaines de mètres de l’arrivée seulement.

It's already over for Kalle Rovanpera, the Championship Leader!
He came out in the first special of this #CroatiaRally #WRC pic.twitter.com/RKq0VesAAF

— Burgrid⑦ (@Burgrid7) April 23, 2021

Luckily, the Finn and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen escaped unscathed but were unable to return to the road. Their Croatia Rally is over.

In WRC2, Mads Østberg (TRT World Rally Team) dominates the debates ahead of Nikolay Gryazin (Movisport) and Teemu Suninen (M-Sport). Frenchman Yohan Rossel is currently leader of the WRC3 category ahead of Polish Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Austrian Niki Mayr-Melnhof.