After morning loop, Thierry Neuville and co-driver Maritjn Wydaeghe hold an advantage of 8,6 seconds at the top of the standings of the WRC Croatia Rally and are the leaders in the championship. Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin are second, while Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais are third, although still 7th overall in the world standings.
Mixed conditions with melting snow at the side of the road provide the sort of conditions in which Neuville usually performs strongly. He crashed out of the lead on this stage in 2023 but in 2024 it is business as usual, setting a time of 5m49,6s.
„It’s probably the cleanest stage but I don’t know. I can’t attack. I have to be so smooth and clean and there’s no way for me to push otherwise it doesn’t work. I would like to go a bit faster but it is what it is and it’s still tricky conditions so I try to be as careful as I can but if the feeling isn’t there it’s tough“, said Neuville after first four stages.
Ogier continues to deliver on his promise of pushing as hard as he can, being the fastest of all except Neuville at the halfway point of the stage. Drops a little time at the end of the stage to finish 0.1s behind team-mate Evans but still firmly in third place overall at the end of the morning loop.
„It’s been a good run, I think I can be happy with my loop. Unfortunately like expected we lose some ground but hopefully will be a bit better in the afternoon. Soft tyres was definitely the wrong choice but I’m happy with my mixed choice this morning“, sad the 8-time world champion.
Nikolay Gryazin and co-driver Konstantin Aleksandrov lead WRC2 by 12,4 seconds in the Citroën C3 Rally2. Yohan Rossel and co-driver Arnaud Dunand are second in the standings after the morning loop, and 34,2s behind them are Pepe López and David Vázquez.
In the JWRC category, Romet Jürgenson and Siim Oja in Ford Fiesta Rally3 are the fastest with a lead of 56,3 seconds, followed by Tom Rensonnet and Manon Deliot in the same car. Among the Croatian drivers, the best is Viliam Prodan in 35th place in Ford Fiesta Rally3.
In the morning loop, the drivers drove through three counties: Zagrebačka, Karlovačka and Primorsko-goranska, on the Krašić-Sošice, Jaškovo – Mali Modruš Potok, Ravna Gora – Skrad and Platak stages. The regrouping is in Rijeka on Korzo.
