TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team’s Sébastien Ogier reclaimed the lead in tricky conditions at the Central European Rally on Saturday, with Elfyn Evans gaining third to complete a strong day for the team’s championship ambitions.
Following on from the first part of rally in the Czech Republic, Saturday would have crews crossing the border between Germany and Austria for the longest day in terms of competitive distance, at 123.46 kilometres. While the stages were expected to be smoother and cleaner than those on Czech roads, the autumnal weather still brought significant challenges with fog and damp conditions in the morning.
The battle remained close between the leading drivers but both Ogier and Evans performed strongly aboard the GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID in the inconsistent and slippery conditions. Evans won the second stage of the day as Ogier closed to within two seconds of the lead of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). Ogier then claimed the lead when he went quickest in an especially treacherous last stage of the morning in which Neuville was among those to get caught out.
Ott Tänak (Hyundai) kept the pressure on at the start of the afternoon when he closed to within 1.1s of Ogier, but the eight-time world champion responded with stage wins in each of the day’s last two tests to finish with a lead of 5.2s.
A consistent day from Evans brought him up to third overall, 8.8s from Tänak and 25.8s in front of Neuville.
With its top two cars in first and third overall at the end of Saturday, TGR-WRT is on course to further reduce the gap to the lead in the manufacturers’ championship.
The team also continues to have all four of its cars inside the top six, with Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari continuing their solid performances in fifth and sixth respectively.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It’s been a very exciting day. The conditions were not easy with the changing grip levels, and we saw many drivers making mistakes and sliding off the road and into the fields. Neuville made a small mistake and that’s opened up an opportunity for us in the championship. Now we are on for good points from Saturday, but tomorrow is going to be crucial as well because if we want to keep the fight on, we really need to do well in terms of Super Sunday points and in the Power Stage. It’s been impressive that there have not been more mistakes among the top three drivers given their pace, fighting for tenths of a second, it’s been amazing to watch their performances. Considering that, we can also be pleased with the way that both Taka and Sami are driving too.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“I think it’s been a solid day for us in more very mixed conditions. The morning especially was pretty difficult with a bit of fog bringing quite a lot of moisture onto the road, and this evolved between our route-note crews going through and us driving the stage. Therefore we had to use our own judgement and it seems from the times that this wasn’t so bad. In the afternoon it was drier but the road was quite polluted with mud and we didn’t seem to cope with that so well. The margins were only small but we lost a bit of ground there. Still, it’s been a strong day for the team and we’ll keep fighting for more points tomorrow.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“I’m happy with my day. It’s been a very close fight for the whole day. The conditions were tricky this morning but we were quite consistent. Ott was really fast on the opening stage on both passes and we had to react to that, especially this afternoon in order to rebuild our lead. We tried to push even more on the last two stages, but five seconds is not that much of an advantage so the same kind of approach will be needed tomorrow. So far it’s been a good weekend and the car is working well considering it’s our first asphalt rally for six months. With these positions after Saturday we’re catching up in the manufacturers’ championship and let’s try to get some more points tomorrow.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Today my target was again to have a clean day. This morning it went well except for this last stage, which was quite tricky with surface changes and bits of gravel on the road. I realised under braking for this one corner there was not enough grip so I decided to go straight. It felt like a long time sliding on the grass but we got back on the road without any issues. This afternoon the conditions were much drier and easier and we could have a clean loop. Tomorrow I’ll aim for a good run through the first stages and see if I can do anything in the Power Stage, but my main job is to be there for the team.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It has been quite fun today. The conditions were a bit different from the morning to the afternoon as it was getting drier and more grippy, and that was a different kind of a challenge with new things to learn: when it’s like that you need to try and go for it and that’s quite demanding with a Rally1 car. The pace that the top guys are doing is so high, but it’s quite nice to see that we can be as close as we have been in our first rally on asphalt, and I have many ideas where I can improve. Already the improvement during the rally has been quite good and the confidence is growing nicely. I’m looking forward to doing four more stages with this car tomorrow.”
End of day three (Saturday):
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 2h10m12.7s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +5.2s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +14.0s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +39.8s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m31.8s
6 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2m07.3s
7 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +3m22.7s
8 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) +7m39.6s
9 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m10.6s
10 Filip Mareš/Radovan Bucha (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9m30.4s
(Results as of 17:45 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
Sunday’s last day is made up of a pair of stages on German roads to be run twice before the rally finish in the city of Passau. The second pass of Passauer Land hosts the rally-ending Power Stage, where up to five bonus points are available in addition to the seven on offer for the Super Sunday classification.
Follow us!
Follow TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT:
∇Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TOYOTAGAZOORacingWRC
∇X: https://x.com/TGR_WRC (@TGR_WRC)
∇Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tgr_wrc/ (@TGR_WRC)
∇YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TOYOTAGAZOORacingJPchannel
Rd.12 Central European Rally
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC 2024 Official Partners
