Elfyn Evans never gives up, even when it seemed like the title had slipped away. The Welsh driver seems determined to make life difficult for Sébastien Ogier after winning Rally Finland and reducing the battle for the WRC title to a direct duel between the two Toyota drivers. In fact, Evans has started the RACC de Catalunya Rally in the same state of grace and he has positioned himself as the first leader on Spanish asphalt after the first three stages of the event. Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Ogier himself close the provisional podium, while Dani Sordo occupies the fifth place.
In fact, Elfyn Evans started the rally with a brilliant scratch on SS1 and the Welshman surpassed Thierry Neuville by 5.1 seconds. The small understeer problems of the Belgian driver and his Hyundai i20 WRC Coupé did not serve to justify this margin, making good the enormous performance of Evans. With everything, Toyota Gazoo Racing could not enjoy the good start of its driver fully and not so much for the 8.1 seconds given by Sébastien Ogier as for the accident of Takamoto Katusta. The Japanese hit the guardrail, causing serious damage to his Toyota Yaris WRC. Although I managed to reach my goal, the rally ended for the Japanese.
Although Thierry Neuville managed to answer Elfyn Evans in SS2, the Belgian’s scratch was not enough to take the lead of the rally. As if it were a mirror effect, Hyundai was not able to enjoy Neuville’s best time either, since Ott Tänak suffered a spin that made him lose almost half a minute. All in all, Evans broke the fast-time tie by scoring the scratch in SS3, a result that served the Welshman to close the morning loop of Friday’s stage with 7.9 seconds ahead of Neuville. Despite opening track, Sébastien Ogier could not match the push of both.
With three sections contested, Elfyn Evans has a 7.9sec lead over Belgian Thierry Neuville. On the other hand, Sébastien Ogier was located 12.6 seconds behind his teammate Evans, unable to stop the Welshman offensive for the RACC Rally and for the WRC title. Behind the three leaders is Dani Sordo, although the Cantabrian pilot has yielded 16 seconds compared to the leader. For his part, Kalle Rovanperä closes the provisional ‘top 5’ ahead of Ott Tänak and Adrien Fourmaux. Briton Gus Greensmith is eighth, while Oliver Solberg and Spaniard Nil Solans complete the top ten positions with the Hyundai 2C Compétition.
Regarding the rest of the categories, Eric Camilli is the first leader in WRC2 in the Citroën key duel he has with the Norwegian Mads Ostberg. The difference between the two pilots competing with the ‘Rally2’ of the French firm is 0.4 seconds. For his part, Teemu Suninen is third and completes the podium in the silver category. In the image of the event leader, Emil Lindholm has also reaffirmed his great form after winning in Finland and is at the top of the WRC3 class standings. The Finn has a narrow lead on Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Spaniard Pepe López.
Classification after SS3 of the 56th RACC de Catalunya Rally
The RACC de Catalunya Rally continues this Friday (3:00 p.m.) with the celebration of the last three sections of the first stage of the test. Drivers and co-drivers face a total of 56.01 kilometers during the day.