Thierry Neuville is very close to victory in the Central Europe Rally, just as Kalle Rovanperä is in sight of the World Rally Championship (WRC) title. Both are leading the race before the closing Power Stage, with a clear advantage for the Belgian.
The final day of the race began with SS 15 (Böhmerwald 1), in which Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) was the fastest, 1.8s ahead of Elfyn Evans (Toyota) – who had no hopes of fighting for the overall lead after yesterday’s incident in SS 12. Third place served Neuville (Hyundai) well to solidify his overall lead, as his main pursuer, Rovanperä (Toyota), finished only seventh.
This was followed by the first pass through Passauer Land, which will later host the Power Stage. The roles were reversed compared to the previous stage, with Evans in first and Ogier in second. Neuville only set the sixth fastest time, but still gained over seven seconds on Rovanperä, who finished eighth. This increased his lead to 37.8s. Notable was the third fastest time of Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), who reinforced his fifth place overall ahead of the fifth time of Teemu Suninen (Hyundai). Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford), fourth in the stage, remained in the lowest spot on the podium.
The penultimate stage of the race saw the drivers return to Böhmerwald. Ogier once again finished as the fastest, this time 3.3s ahead of Katsuta, and Neuville was third, solidifying his lead once again. With Rovanperä in seventh, the Belgian managed to increase his lead to 43.9s over his rival in the fight for victory. Tänak, fourth in the stage, remains in third, 1m48.9s behind the leader and with an 18.3s advantage over Ogier. Katsuta closes the top five overall.
In WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger, Nicolas Ciamin (Skoda) is the leader. The Frenchman was already leading in WRC2 Challenger and took advantage of Emil Lindholm’s retirement with problems in the Skoda during SS 15 to also take the lead in WRC2. He is 24.4s ahead of Erik Cais (Skoda) in both classes, with Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Skoda) in third, 1m45.2s behind. Fabio Schwarz won all three stages in WRC3, but Filip Kohn is the only one in the category who has not retired and therefore comfortably leads.
Top ten overall after SS 17:
