TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team had all four of its cars inside the top six as they completed a challenging Friday on Czech stages at the Central European Rally, with Sébastien Ogier best-placed in second overall.
After the cross-border event started from Prague on Thursday with the opening two stages, it continued on bumpy, technical and fast Czech roads on Friday for a total of six stages.
Leading overnight, Ogier began the day with a stage win in a rerun of last evening’s Klatovy test, before Elfyn Evans set the pace in the damp Strašín stage that followed. The third stage of the loop, Šumavské Hoštice, became dirtier as mud and leaves were dragged onto the road with each passing car. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) took over the lead but Ogier was just 3.3 seconds behind after a third visit to Klatovy for SS6, which was followed by a 30-minute remote service prior to the last two stages of the day.
Although Ogier dropped some more seconds on the second pass of Strašín, he ended the day with another stage win in the repeat of Šumavské Hoštice, meaning he is within 6.4s of the lead overnight. Evans had a contrasting afternoon, coming close to the best time in SS7 before conceding almost 8s in SS8, leaving him 15.1s from the lead in fourth overall.
Takamoto Katsuta continued to make a solid return to action, posting the second-best time in SS3 before taking a stage win on SS6. Experiencing dirtier conditions running further back on the road, he also took a more careful approach in more slippery sections and ended the day in fifth overall.
Sami Pajari is one position further back in sixth after safely completing his first full day of asphalt stages aboard a Rally1 car. He was matching Ogier’s pace in the opening stage of the morning before he lost the extra boost of the hybrid system for the rest of the day – putting further emphasis on getting cleanly through the stages and gaining valuable experience.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“I think we can generally be satisfied at the end of today: you can’t win the rally on Friday, but you need to be in touch and in a position where you can fight for the win and the top positions on Saturday and Sunday when the points are given out. For Seb to be within seven seconds of the lead is good, and Elfyn was also in there and driving well until the last stage, when he was maybe just a bit too cautious. Taka is doing exactly what we want him to do here, showing he has performance but managing it well. Lastly, Sami had to drive most of the day without hybrid, but we could still see good split times from him even though he wasn’t taking risks.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s been an OK day for us overall. It was a little bit up and down: some stages were really good and others were a little bit average. This morning the grip was very changeable, it was quite damp in the two longer stages, and there were sections that did get a bit dirtier with passing cars. After remote service this afternoon, the following stage went quite well but in the last stage we seemed to drop quite a lot of time, especially in the dirty sections, so I’m a bit frustrated with that. Tomorrow we expect the stages to be a bit cleaner and the profile changes a bit as well, so we’ll focus on adapting to that.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“I think today has been a positive first full day for us. We know the conditions here can be difficult when you don’t start right at the front, but the organisers have done a good job with the anti-cut devices to help this and give us a good battle so far between the top cars. This morning there were two little overshoots which cost us some seconds, and in SS5 we expected to lose time because there was more dirt and a lot of leaves on the road. This afternoon, we lost a few seconds towards the end of SS7 which was frustrating, but in the last one we took more risk and managed to stay close to the lead tonight. So we’re in the fight for the win and we’ll try our best tomorrow.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Overall it went pretty well today. The conditions were difficult in some stages but the car was working well and I had good confidence. I just followed what I had planned before the rally: when the conditions were more consistent I could push, and when they were not I just backed off a bit. Of course, that meant that I sacrificed some time but I would say it was quite a clever drive. Now I have to try and keep this position until the end of the rally. Tomorrow will hopefully be cleaner but I’m sure it will still be tricky. I just need to stay focused and do my best.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“I think I have been able to enjoy today more than I was expecting. To be without hybrid since the first stage this morning was a bit of a pity, not so much in terms of result because I am not focused on that this weekend, but it could have been nice to compare my times more to the other drivers to know where I’m at. Still, the feeling in the car has been quite nice, it’s been a clean day and I’m looking forward to tomorrow, when our road position should be better and the stages should also be cleaner. I’ll just try to have a good flow and enjoy the stages.”
End of day two (Friday):
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) 1h04m40.0s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +6.4s
3 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +7.8s
4 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +15.1s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +38.6s
6 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m28.2s
7 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +1m33.4s
8 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +2m27.4s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) +3m53.3s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3m56.4s
(Results as of 18:00 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
Saturday is the longest day of the rally with 123.46 competitive kilometres to be driven across two loops of three stages spanning Germany and Austria, where the roads are generally more flowing with a cleaner and smoother surface. New for this year, the middle stage of the loop, Beyond Borders, actually begins in Germany and ends in Austria.
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