Evans' fragile lead at Rally Chile, Ogier's hopes fade

• It's in very British weather that Elfyn Evans enjoys himself at the wheel of his Toyota Yaris in South America. Under thick fog, accompanied by a few drops of rain, the Welshman remained in the lead at the end of the first loop of the day this Saturday. The Toyota driver even slightly increased his lead, with now 11″3 of margin on his new runner-up, Kalle Rovanperä.
• The Finn tried to put pressure on his teammate by attacking on SS8 and posting a blistering time, closing in on less than two seconds overall… but the Welshman responded on SS9 with an even bigger attack and increasing his lead by almost ten seconds. The reigning double world champion can, however, be satisfied with having overtaken Ott Tänak and to point to 2nd place overall.
• Ott Tänak lost precious seconds throughout the morning despite an interesting pace. The Estonian lost time in particular in SS8, at fault from the first kilometers of the course. A mistake at the start of the stage with a "half" spin that forced him to engage reverse gear before setting off again. He is now 17″4 behind the general leader.
• This second stage of the Rally from Chile will have claimed one victim: Sébastien Ogier saw his day come to a premature end this Saturday morning. The Frenchman, forced to attack after losing time on Friday with a puncture, was the victim of a new mishap on SS8: the eight-time world champion broke his suspension after hitting a rock, just a few hundred metres from the finish. Forced to retire, he will not score any points this Saturday evening, and sees his title chances – already weak at the start of the Chilean round – almost reduced to nothing…
• And this particularly benefits Thierry Neuville who, freed from his task as opener, is gradually moving up the general classification. The Belgian finished the first loop strongly and finds himself 4th, distanced from the Top 3 certainly, but now ahead of Sami Pajari and Grégoire Munster. Adrien fourmaux is in 7th place, just four tenths behind his teammate, still on a very good pace since Friday.
• The battle is also raging in WRC2 between Oliver Solberg, Yohan Rossel and Nikolay Gryazin! The Frenchman had started the morning excellently by taking the lead in Rally Chile after SS7, but the Swede came back and then took back the lead at the end of SS9. The two men are separated by 4 seconds before the start of the second loop.

WRC – Rally Chile
General ranking after ES9

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