Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe are on track to claim Hyundai’s first win of the year after Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen suffered a fateful puncture in stage 14, having managed a reasonable lead since stage three.
The Belgian 2024 WRC Champions have a very comfortable 1’14.5” lead at the end of the second day of action in Croatia.
“It has just clicked this weekend. We have something we are comfortable with and we are able to fight with the guys. This weekend I really feel good in the car and I’m enjoying it,” Neuville said.
Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston were locked in a fierce battle with Neuville for P2 for most of the day, and despite losing 1½ minutes to a puncture in stage 14, find themselves in second on the overall leaderboard.
Pajari is still on the podium, just over half a minute behind his Japanese teammate. “We are still on the podium, we should be happy for that. I’m not able to find many positives about this afternoon. Tomorrow is another day. Never know, of course I’m gutted.”
Hayden Paddon and John Kennard brought their i20 N home in fourth overall, having also suffered tyre problems in stage 14, which most drivers described as a lottery.
Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson as well as Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin and Jon Armstrong and Shane Byrne, all rejoined under super rally rules and found themselves opening the road and facing the best of the road conditions.
Solberg was on fire, winning six of the day’s eight stages and suffering two punctures on the two tests he didn’t win.
M-Sport Ford’s day was a mixture of emotions, with Armstrong in particular showing stage winning pace setting several top two and three stage times and matching Evans on occasion. He too, suffered a puncture and survived a wild off road moment in SS14.
Luck deserted Josh Mcerlean and Eoin Treacy again as they had to deal with a small fire in the cabin, losing seven minutes, and joined the long list of competitors with two punctures in successive stages.
Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria crashed out of fifth place in stage 12 after hitting a pole which damaged their Hyundai’s suspension.
Remarkably, six WRC2 cars filled the top ten with Yohan Rossel leading a Stellantis one-two in fifth position overall for Lancia with his brother Leo moving into sixth overall in his Citroen C3, just over a minute behind.
Roope Korhonen survived a wild ride through a farm to hold seventh in his Toyota GR Yaris, 13 seconds up on Nikolay Gryazin in the second Lancia Ypsilon.
Alejandro Cachon and Roberto Dapra rounded out the top ten.