Neuville in control of WRC Croatia Rally after Pajari’s victory hopes are dashed

Thierry Neuville moved into the Croatia Rally lead on Saturday after a brutal afternoon loop on the FIA World Rally Championship’s first pure asphalt rally of the season ripped a potential first WRC win from Sami Pajari’s grasp and transformed the shape of the fight for victory.

Hyundai Motorsport ace Neuville (above) had started the day 13.7s behind 24-year-old Finn Pajari’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, but ended it with a commanding 1m14.5s advantage over Takamoto Katsuta’s Toyota after chaos unfolded on the second pass through the debris-strewn asphalt of the 13.97-mile Generalski Stol-Zdihovo stage. Pajari, who’d controlled the rally since Friday morning, dropped to third after stopping to change a wheel and reached the overnight halt 1m46.4s off the lead in third.

It was a savage twist on a day that had begun with Pajari still firmly in charge. On the morning loop, the Finn coped well with leaf-covered roads, heavy road pollution from pulled on gravel and dirt, and wildly inconsistent grip to keep a tenable gap over Neuville’s i20 N Rally 1 and Toyota teammate Katsuta. Although Katsuta briefly grabbed second overall on the morning’s second stage, Neuville hit back on the first run through the all-new Generalski Stol-Zhidovo test to reclaim the place.

At the midday regroup, Pajari still led by 12.4s from Neuville, with Katsuta a further 12.7s back in third. Hyundai factory squad part-timer Hayden Paddon held a strong fourth on his Croatia Rally debut, while Adrien Fourmaux’s difficult weekend worsened when he crashed out on the final morning stage after running wide and damaging the left-rear corner of his i20 N Rally1.

But if the morning had been about management, the afternoon became a straight survival test.

Katsuta opened the post-lunch loop of four repeated stages with the fastest time on 5.66-mile Pecurkovo Brdo-Mreznicki Novaki 2, reducing Neuville’s advantage over him in the fight for second, while Pajari remained calm and measured at the front. But that all changed spectacularly on Generalski Stol-Zdihovo 2.

Running on roads that had deteriorated into something resembling a gravel rally, tire dramas struck throughout the leaderboard. Among the Rally1 runners, Jon Armstrong stopped to change a wheel on his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1, Hayden Paddon’s Hyundai picked up a front-left deflation, and Katsuta did likewise on his GR Yaris. Yet the biggest blow landed on Pajari’s Toyota. The Finn was forced to stop on the stage to bolt on a spare, shipping more than two minutes and handing the lead directly to Neuville.

Finnish Toyota driver Sami Pajari looked to have a first overall WRC win in his grasp before tire dramas on a rough afternoon dashed his hopes.

“It just clicks this weekend,” said 2024 WRC champ Neuville after the eighth and final stage of the leg. “The car was from the beginning feeling better than the other rallies [so far this season]. We were able to build step-by-step [and] improve it in the beginning of the event. The conditions are very challenging, but we were somehow able to go with good speed.”

Katsuta’s second place also owed much to discipline. The Japanese driver had been frustrated to lose ground in the podium battle in the afternoon, but kept his head while others unraveled and now finds himself best placed to challenge Neuville on Sunday, albeit 1m14.5s back.

“It’s a bit of a shame, because we were trying to manage it,” Katsuta said. “It was a proper lottery. Even on gravel rallies we don’t have that many stones.”

Before the afternoon’s drama, the driver leading the way on raw pace was well out of the points-paying positions. Oliver Solberg, who’d restarted on Saturday after crashing out of Friday’s opening test, was fastest through all four morning stages in his factory GR Yaris Rally1 and looked set for a clean sweep of the day before a puncture halted that run on the afternoon opener.

Elfyn Evans, also out of the overall fight after his Friday crash in the fifth of the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Yaris fleet, ended the leg with a stage win on the last stage of the leg, while M-Sport Ford rookie Armstrong again underlined his growing confidence with a string of top times despite suffering his own troubles. But Armstrong’s teammate, Josh McErlean, endured a torrid day featuring a cockpit fire, repeated punctures and electrical issues that left him cajoling the second Puma Rally1 to the overnight halt.

M-Sport Ford rookie Jon Armstrong had his share of issues, but still put in some eye-catching times in his Puma Rally1.

Paddon, who managed to nurse his earlier puncture to the stage end without stopping, kept out of serious trouble amid the chaos and consolidated a fine fourth overall, 3m28.2s off the lead.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Yohan Rossel is on the cusp of earning an historic maiden class victory for Lancia on its return to world championship-level rallying. The Frenchman has built a lead of more than one minute after mastering Saturday’s wildly varying conditions.

On a day of frustration for almost all his class rivals, Rossel produced a masterful performance in only the second WRC start for Lancia’s Ypsilon HF Rally2, picking up early stage wins before backing off as conditions worsened to maintain and ultimately grow his lead as his closest chasers faltered.

Among those most impacted on the most challenging day of asphalt rallying in recent memory were his teammate Nikolay Gryazin, and Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver Alejandro Cachon, who’d begun the day in second and third respectively.

Gryazin dropped from second to fourth when he arrived at the end of the second pass of Generalski Stol-Zhihovo with a turbocharger issue, while Cachon picked up a puncture in the same test, having already dropped 29.1s to the leaders on the first pass of the stage.

The main benefactor was Rossel’s brother, Leo. The younger Rossel showed similar temperament to his older sibling, avoiding unnecessary risks to move to second overall in his Citroen C3, 15.5s clear of third-placed Roope Korhonen’s GR Yaris Rally2.

Yohan Rossel is within sight of earning a first WRC2 victory for Lancia on its return to top-tier rallying. Red Bull Content Pool

Back to the sharp end of the leaderboard, and four stages adding up to just 35.7 miles of competitive action are now all that stand between a first victory of the season for Neuville and his Hyundai Motorsport team. For the rest, it’s a risk vs. reward approach of going for the bonus points available on Sunday, including in the rally-ending, 9.05-mile Alan-Senj 2 Wolf Power Stage, or keeping it steady and holding station in the overall pecking order.

WRC Croatia Rally, positions after Saturday/Leg Two, SS116
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 2h20m20.8s
2 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m14.5s
3 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m46.4s
4 Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3m28.2s
5 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Lancia Ypsilon HF – WRC2 leader) +5m14.1s
6 Leo Rossel/Guillaume Mercoiret (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +6m17.3s
7 Roope Korhonen/Anssi Viinikka (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +6m32.8s
8 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Lancia Ypsilon HF – WRC2) +6m45.8s
9 Alejandro Cachon/Borja Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +6m56.2s
10 Roberto Dapra/Luca Gugliemetti (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +7m52.4s

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