Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe snatched the Rally Italia Sardegna lead from Hyundai teammate Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria by four tenths of a second after 120km of tough, dusty stages on Friday. Three stage wins from six moved Neuville ahead, securing a Hyundai 1-2.
Fourmaux, chasing his maiden WRC win, led after SS3 and extended his advantage to 8.2 seconds after midday service. But Neuville fought back, using superior tyre management. "I was there, our tyre management and our tyre choice paid off. So, I was at the moment tempted to make a similar choice to him (Fourmaux), but at the end I was pretty confident that my feeling was the good one, and I’m happy with that," Neuville said.
He added: "But anyhow, good for Hyundai and for Adrien as well, so it’s a nice battle, and hopefully, yeah, we can continue tomorrow. It’s a bit of work to do to get me still more comfortable in the car. I feel like I can drive fast, but I still miss this person I was before to push hard and just be more relaxed. At the moment I’m stressing a bit too much."
Meanwhile, Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson set the benchmark on Thursday’s opening super special, but a puncture near the end of Friday’s first stage dropped him to seventh, 11.2 seconds off the lead. A mesmerizing drive saw the young Swede fight back to fourth overall on the next stage, then win SS4 to pass Pajari for third.
Pajari was reasonably satisfied: "There was one narrow lonely line there, which I really tried to follow. But yeah, I think overall today we did pretty much what we could have done. It’s still two more days to go, and I hope we are ready for the fight."
On the final stage, Sebastien Ogier, who suffered a puncture in SS3, clawed back to demote Pajari to fifth. Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were brutally hampered opening the road, slipping to sixth overall, over a minute down. It is probably the only time Evans hopes Hyundai win to deny his rivals big points. "We’re here. Let’s see. I guess tomorrow will be the test how we are going to respond to the road position," was Evans’ deadpan comment.
Josh McErlean, Jon Armstrong, Takamoto Katsuta and Martins Sesks rounded out the top ten, with the latter three all suffering punctures. Day one of Rally Italia Sardegna delivered two distinct battles: one for the rally win and one for the WRC title. With a knife-edge fight at the top and rivals struggling, the championship is balanced on a knife edge.
Baca Juga
Thierry Neuville rebut pimpinan Rally Italia Sardegna dari Adrien Fourmaux, Hyundai 1-2. Pertarungan gelar WRC makin sengit setelah hari pertama.
Sami Pajari lebih cepat dari Elfyn Evans di WRC, tapi kecewa usai disalip Sebastien Ogier di stage terakhir. Simak analisis dan komentarnya.
Thierry Neuville merebut pimpinan Rally Sardinia dari Adrien Fourmaux dengan selisih tipis 0,4 detik. Elfyn Evans tetap memimpin klasemen WRC sementara.
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