Croatia Rally Neuville Leads After Day One

The first day of the Croatia Rally kicked off round 4 of the WRC championship. Sebastien Ogier took an early lead in stage 1 but was quickly overtaken in the following stages on the day. Below we out like the stage position finishes. Thierry Neuville finished the day with a 5.7-second lead over Elfyn Evans.

SS1, MALI LIPOVEC – GRDANJCI 1

Sebastien Ogier started off the day in good form taking the stage win, beating Thierry Neuville by 2.6 seconds. WRC Sweden winner Ott Tänak would place third on the stage, 7.9 seconds behind Neuville. Kalle Rovanperä finished ahead of Tänak by a small margin of 0.8 seconds. Elfyn Evans would round out the top five on the stage, finishing 1 second behind Rovanperä.

SS2, STOJDRAGA – HARTJE 1

Stage two would see Thierry Neuville take his first stage win of the event, beating Elfyn Evans by 4.2 seconds. Esapekka Lappi would place third on the stage, 1.4 seconds behind Evans. Ott Tänak would place fourth on the stage, 6.5 seconds behind Lappi. Takamoto Katsuta would round out the top five on the stage, finishing 5 seconds behind Tänak. 

SS3, KRAŠIC – VRŠKOVAC 1

Stage three would see Sebastien Ogier take his second stage win of the event, beating Thierry Neuville by 0.8 seconds. Elfyn Evans would place third on the stage, 2.5 seconds behind Neuville. Ott Tänak would place fourth on the stage, 0.5 seconds behind Evans. Takamoto Katsuta would round out the top five on the stage, finishing 0.7 seconds behind Tänak.

SS4, PECURKOVO BRDO – MREŽNICKI NOVAKI 1

Stage four would see Sebastien Ogier take yet another stage win at the event, beating Ott Tänak by 1.3 seconds. Elfyn Evans would place third on the stage 0.5 seconds behind Tänak. Thierry Neuville would place fourth on the stage, 2.1 seconds behind Evans. Esapekka Lappi would round out the top five on the stage, finishing 2.4 seconds behind Neuville.

SS5, MALI LIPOVEC – GRDANJCI 2

Stage five would see Sebastien Ogier take yet another stage win, beating Elfyn Evans by 4.8 seconds to take that stage win. Ott Tänak and Kalle Rovanperä would tie for third on the stage, both drivers would finish 1 second behind Evans. Thierry Neuville would round out the top five on the stage, finishing 1.4 seconds behind Tänak and Rovanperä. 

SS6, STOJDRAGA – HARTJE 2

Stage six would see Esapekka Lappi take the stage win, beating Elfyn Evans by 0.7 seconds. Sebastien Ogier would place third on the stage, 1.2 seconds behind Evans. Thierry Neuville would place fourth on the stage, 4.5 seconds behind Ogier. Kalle Rovanperä would round out the top five on the stage, finishing 5.9 seconds behind Neuville. 

SS7, KRAŠIC – VRŠKOVAC 2

Stage seven would see Ott Tänak take the stage win, beating Thierry Neuville by 0.3 seconds. Elfyn Evans would place third on the stage, 0.4 seconds behind Neuville. Kalle Rovanperä and Sebastien Ogier would tie for fourth on the stage, with both drivers finishing 1.3 seconds behind Evans. 

SS8, PECURKOVO BRDO – MREŽNICKI NOVAKI 2

Stage eight would see Elfyn Evans take the stage win, beating Kalle Rovanperä by 0.9 seconds. Ott Tänak would place third on the stage, 1.6 seconds behind Rovanperä. Takamoto Katsuta would place fourth on the stage, 0.8 seconds behind Tänak. Thierry Neuville would round out the top five on the stage, finishing 0.3 seconds behind Katsuta. 

Toyota Troubles

The Toyota Gazoo World Rally Team has been off to a decent start. With the team winning five out of eight stages on day one. Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for Toyota. As both Ogier and Rovanperä would suffer punctures on SS2. This pushed both drivers back substantially. Ogier has pushed to gain time back but still sits in fifth, 50.3 seconds back from Esapekka Lappi who sits in fourth. Rovanperä sits eighth, 47.4 seconds back from Pierre-Louis Loubet who sits seventh. It couldn’t get much worse for Toyota, right? Wrong. Toyota only selected two drivers to score Manufacturers points in Croatia. This came as a sportsmanship move after Hyundai’s third driver Craig Breen would pass away during pre-event testing. Toyota would ultimately select Rovanperä and Ogier to score points. This as a result would leave Evans ineligible to score manufacturers’ points this weekend.