WRC Central Europe: Sebastian Ogier hangs on as Kalle Rovanpera closes gap

Sebastien Ogier managed to fend off a charging Kalle Rovanpera to hold onto the lead at the Central European Rally by 0.6s after a demanding Friday leg.

The WRC points leader held onto his overnight lead throughout six tricky asphalt stages spread across Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, but was pushed hard through the afternoon loop by title rival and Toyota team-mate Rovanpera.

Fellow title contender Elfyn Evans managed to recover to third, 29.5s back, after starting the day in eighth having been hit with a five-second penalty for hitting a hay bale in Thursday’s opening stage.

A frustrated Ott Tanak led Hyundai’s charge in fourth, 32.8s off the lead, ahead of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta [+35.7s], Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux [+46.1s] and Toyota’s Sami Pajari [+56.0s].

Crews had feared the second pass through the Czech stage Col de Jan [stage six]  which created huge gaps through the field and induced errors from Neuville and Munster. Although the road was much dirtier, the margins between the drivers were noticeably closer.

Ogier had dominated the morning run and on the second pass he was 0.1s faster than his previous benchmark, but it wasn’t enough to take the stage win.

Rovanpera emerged at the top of the timesheets having pipped Ogier by 1.5s across the 23.37km test, reducing the gap to the rally leader to 2.4s.

But again it was Ogier and Rovanpera in a different league, with Evans posting the next best time some 8.1s adrift of the pace. Tanak also improved upon his morning showing having made improvements to his i20 N during midday tyre fitting zone before the afternoon loop.

Tanak was however 0.9s slower than Evans that left the former hanging onto third overall by 0.5s.

Neuville’s hopes of clawing back some of the time lost to puncture on the first pass were hampered by a loose bonnet that restricted his vision, resulting in a 26.6s loss. Team-mate Adrien Fourmaux also dropped time as he struggled with the stability of his i20 N on a road that had become increasingly slippery, with dirt being dragged onto the surface by earlier runners.

As the crews moved back into Austria, Rovanpera stepped up his assault on Ogier lead by winning stage seven [Bohmerwald 2 – 15.27km]. The Finn made the most of a return to much cleaner asphalt posting a time 2.1s faster than Ogier to cut the gap down to 0.3s ahead of the day’s final test.

Evans also managed to pip title rival Ogier by 0.1s with a committed run that was enough to leapfrog Tanak into third overall.

Fourmaux was the closest to Rovanpera’s benchmark just 0.5s slower than the Finn, as the Hyundai driver felt much more comfortable on cleaner tarmac. The same could be said for fifth-placed Katsuta, who ended the stage 2.4s behind Tanak in the overall standings.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Another curveball was thrown in Neuville’s direction when something had come loose in the footwell of his car during the stage. The Belgian battled through, losing only 2.8s, but had already declared the day was a development event after his stage five puncture in the morning. The struggles continued in the final stage, held in Germany, after making wholesale set up changes to his i20 N and he ended the day in eighth [+1m55.8s].

Headlight reflections from anti cut poles in the dark conditions caused issues for many of the drivers in the final stage. Evans emerged the fastest in the challenging conditions to win the stage by 1.1s, while Ogier stemmed the loss of time to Rovanpera by beating the Finn by 0.3s.

It proved to be a tough day for M-Sport-Ford, with Josh McErlean struggling for confidence in ninth. Team-mate Gregoire Munster was the only Rally1 retirement from the day after suffering right-rear suspension damage and a double puncture in stage five.

Six more stages, punctuated by a midday tyre fitting zone, await the crews on Saturday.

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– The Motorsport.com Team