Thierry Neuville continues to command the Ypres Rally, although he is not having it easy at all against the push of Craig Breen. The local hero has 6.8 seconds of income over the Irishman, eight tenths less than he had at the end of the first stage. Elfyn Evans is now third, since Hyundai has received its first setback in the eighth round of the WRC in the form of a puncture from Ott Tänak, a setback that leaves the South Korean firm without the treble it had until that moment. The very strong accident of Takamoto Katsuta has marked the development of the loop Saturday morning. Pierre-Louis Loubet is also out of the running.
In one of the faster sections of the SS10, Takamoto Katsuta lost control of his Toyota Yaris WRC on a bumpy left-hand corner. The Japanese driver’s World Rally Car hit an electric pole to end up destroying the infrastructure of a greenhouse. Katsuta and his co-pilot emerged unscathed from the mishap, not his Toyota. What’s more, the power pole had ended up falling on the road, preventing the normal development of the section. The special started 20 minutes later and the organization only had to set the time of Sébastien Ogier, the only rider who completed the stage during its neutralization.
Craig Breen got the second scratch of the morning to place himself 3.5 seconds behind the leader in an SS10 in which Sébastien Ogier finally received the same time as Elfyn Evans. By then, the Welshman was already in third position on the podium, as Ott Tänak suffered a puncture in the first stage of the day. This circumstance spurred the Toyota driver as the morning progressed, to the point of signing his first scratch of the rally. Elfyn Evans prevailed in SS11 against Thierry Neuville, although the result was favorable to the Belgian since for the first time in the morning he surpassed Craig Breen.
The last stage of the morning was perhaps the only one that passed with a certain normality, even if it started late due to the situation experienced in the SS10. Within this most common course, Thierry Neuville recovered his pulse to sign his first scratch of the day and make up for some of the lost ground with Craig Breen. For its part, Kalle Rovanperä scored second place in SS114, a result that places him at the gates of the podium after being 2.1 seconds behind Elfyn Evans. Despite maintaining a discreet profile, Sébastien Ogier is not far from both and remains in the fight for the podium.
With 12 stages already contested, Thierry Neuville maintains a 6.8-second lead to Craig Breen. A duel for the victory that has no more actors, since Elfyn Evans is 39.2 seconds behind the leader. In fact, the Welshman has the difficult task of maintaining that third place against the push of Kalle Rovanperä and Sébastien Ogier. For its part, Ott Tänak is sixth after suffering a puncture that is the umpteenth chapter of his particular book of misfortunes. Behind the Estonian pilot, the ‘Rally2’ take command, although with protagonists who do not respond to the initial forecasts.
In fact, Sébastien Bedoret occupies the seventh position after taking the top of the WRC3 category. The local rider is maintaining a nice pulse with Yohan Rossel, a duel that for the moment is defined in half a second. For his part, Pieter Jan Michiel Cracco closes the podium of the bronze category, which is worth him to occupy the ninth absolute place of the rally. The ‘top 10’ is closed by the Swedish Oliver Solberg, since the Hyundai driver has no need to force to his comfortable leadership in the WRC2 category. In fact, Solberg is betting on containment to secure the Hyundai i20 N Rally’s first World Championship win.
Classification after SS12 of the 56th Ypres Rally
The Ypres Rally continues this Saturday (14: 11h) with the celebration of the last four sections of the second stage. Drivers and co-drivers will compete a total of 119.92 kilometers against the clock.