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2021 WRC - RallyRACC Catalunya - T. Neuville/M. Wydaeghe (Red Bull Content Pool / Jaanus Ree)

Thierry Neuville dominated Saturday’s 2d leg of RallyRACC Catalunya – Rally de España to shut on a 2d FIA World Rally Championship victory of the season.

He was nearly untouchable on the flowing asphalt flee assessments within the Costa Daurada hills to prolong a slim 0.7sec overnight lead into a 16.4sec advantage over Elfyn Evans with one day remaining of this penultimate spherical.

After successful the leisure three particular stages of Friday’s opening leg, the Hyundai i20 pilot added 5 extra consecutive fastest instances to his tally sooner than a rejuvenated Sébastien Ogier broke the Belgian’s successful accelerate. Neuville rounded off the day with some other stage get.

Evans, who led on Friday sooner than Neuville hit high equipment, could perhaps presumably make nothing nonetheless retained defend an eye on of 2d with a 22.3sec advantage over Toyota Yaris team-mate and championship chief Ogier. That could perhaps be sufficient to take grasp of their wrestle for the drivers’ title to the leisure spherical in Italy.

As Evans floundered, Ogier prospered. The Frenchman struggled for tempo this morning as Dani Sordo came inner two-tenths of snatching third, nonetheless a raft of adjustments at mid-leg provider transformed his efficiency.

He rebuilt his advantage over Sordo’s i20 ultimate to gaze it diminished to 1.2sec after stalling his engine within the leisure stage.

Kalle Rovanperä was 32.4sec at the support of Sordo in fifth. The young Finn was lucky to construct up away a big ‘2d’ this morning when his Yaris speared into a field at high flee.

Rovanperä had room to breathe after Adrien Fourmaux lost bigger than 10 minutes when he clipped a barrier and punctured a tyre on his Ford Fiesta. After changing the wheel, he battled on with a broken driveshaft, a broken guidance arm and suspension problems.

Crew-mate Gus Greensmith conceded bigger than a minute with a morning puncture and an engine sensor anxiousness this afternoon. The M-Sport Ford duo’s dramas allowed Oliver Solberg up to sixth, nonetheless a remaining stage take grasp of anxiousness delayed the Swede and the pair swapped positions, separated by seven-tenths.

Nil Solans ended eighth on his first high-tier pressure, FIA WRC2 chief Eric Camilli, driving a Sports and You-entered Citroën C3 Rally2, was ninth with Movisport’s Nikolay Gryazin ending the leaderboard in a Škoda Fabia Evo.

In eleventh overall, Emil Lindholm edged closer to Spanish success after tightening his defend on the WRC3 lead on Saturday. He arrived support at the evening provider in Salou having bigger than doubled his advantage to 31.4sec over Kajetan Kajetanowicz.

Within the Junior WRC class, Sami Pajari moved into the lead after the title battle was grew to turn out to be on its head, when his major championship rival went off twice and was finally now not in a position to continue. If Pajari stays on the road and maintains his tempo on Sunday, then the championship will be his by a gratified margin.

Sunday’s finale contains two laps of the effectively-identified Santa Marina and Riudecanyes assessments, the main cross of Santa Marina extra now not easy in darkness. Mid-leg provider divides the loops, with the 2d cross of Riudecanyes forming the bonus-gains paying Wolf Energy Stage. The four assessments duvet 50.90km.

The provisional outcomes could also be consulted here.


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