Solberg stars on drying stages to extend lead over Evans

Oliver Solberg pulled further clear of World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans to head into Saturday’s leg of Rally Chile with a 10.1s lead.

The Monte Carlo winner thrived in the morning’s muddy conditions caused by overnight rain, trading times with Evans, before heading to midday service with a 2.3s lead over his Toyota team-mate.

As the stages began to dry out for the afternoon loop, Solberg was able to take time out of Evans, disadvantaged by opening the road, on each of the three afternoon tests. Solberg ended the day by winning the final stage of the loop by 0.3s from Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux.

“I think it was an important afternoon to stay clean. I’m happy,” said Solberg.

After fearing that a completely dry day would render his Friday a “disaster” due to the road cleaning effect, Evans was pretty happy to sit in second spot. “It has been an okay day really. We had a good start in tricky conditions. The afternoon maybe didn’t feel so satisfying in a way,” said Evans, who also remained ahead of his nearest championship rival, Sami Pajari.

“Of course, we have given a bit of time away to the guys behind. It is difficult to know if that was down to road position or not. It was a clean day and to be in second is a good road position for tomorrow, which will help.”

Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Hyundai

Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux was hampered by an electronic issue across the morning but that was rectified in the midday service. In the afternoon loop, the Frenchman impressed on worn tyres to hold off nine-time world champion Sébastien Ogier, retaining third by 0.7s.

“It is unbelievable. To drive this car in those stages is one of the best things in the world. It is so nice to drive,” said Fourmaux.

After losing 17.8s struggling in the mud of the opening stage, Pajari fought back on the afternoon’s much drier stages. The Finn won stage four which was enough to climb to P5 overall before closing to within 3.7s of Fourmaux in third.

“I feel the fight is really tight with most of the guys. I think everyone is quite flat out. It was a better afternoon and I was able to enjoy the driving and we are only 3.7s from third so we are well in the game,” said Pajari.

Moving in the opposite direction was Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who struggled to find the confidence to push in his i20 N that also carried a leaking rear damper. The 2024 world champion dropped from fourth to sixth across the afternoon loop.

“It is disappointing for us. We were in the worst position this morning on the road,” said Neuville. “We were not consistent enough and we are carrying a small damper leak this afternoon. In the end I’m just not fast enough. When the feeling is not there you cannot do anything.”

Josh McErlean edged the intra-team M-Sport-Ford battle to end the day in seventh, 2.4s clear of team-mate Jon Armstrong. Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi completed the Rally1 order, who was at a loss to find ways to improve his confidence and speed behind the wheel.

“Tomorrow the road order will be important and we lost that. There are going to be bigger losses than today,” said Lappi.

Esapekka Lappi, Enni Malkonen, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Hyundai

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta was the only Rally1 driver who failed to compete the day, after losing control and beaching his GR Yaris on the opening stage.

“Obviously, there has been quite a rain overnight, so the stages are quite muddy in places and changing a lot of grip and surface and all the gravel materials are different, so the grip level is changing a lot,” said Katsuta, who crashed twice during Rally Paraguay last time out. . “Unfortunately one of the corners, kind of downhill corner, there was quite a muddy corner and I was just not able to slow down enough. Actually the speed was not very, very high but we just went wide on the outside and then hit the bank and unfortunately we were stuck after.