Sébastien Ogier has surged to the front of the Central European Rally after championship leader Thierry Neuville experienced a disastrous run, going off the road not once, but twice, on a single stage. Neuville’s mishaps occurred during the Schärdinger Innviertel stage, which proved to be the toughest test so far, catching out many Rally1 drivers with its slippery conditions.
Neuville’s troubles began with a minor error—dropping two wheels onto the grass on the exit of a corner, causing his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 to spin, losing only a few seconds. However, the real drama unfolded when Neuville misjudged another corner, sending his car careening into a field. Stuck in a ditch while trying to rejoin the road, he struggled to find traction on the wet grass. After a tense few moments, his tires finally bit into the surface, pulling the car back onto the stage, but not before losing a costly half-minute.
“My pacenotes were too fast,” Neuville admitted after the stage. “It’s a wide road, and in dry conditions, maybe they would have worked. But the car didn’t turn on the greasy surface, so I had to go into the field, and I got stuck in a ditch.”
Ogier capitalized on Neuville’s blunders, now holding a 4.6-second lead over Ott Tänak. With this advantage, the 2019 world champion is poised to close the gap on Neuville’s championship lead if positions hold through the weekend. Elfyn Evans remains in third, trailing by 8.3 seconds, while Neuville sits a distant fourth, 25.3 seconds off the pace after his eventful run.
Takamoto Katsuta, who also went off the road in SS11 after outbraking himself into a hairpin, sits fifth, roughly half a minute behind Neuville. Sami Pajari holds onto sixth in his Toyota, rounding out the top six.
It has been a particularly brutal rally for M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux. After facing front differential issues in his Ford Puma, which rendered the car “undriveable,” Fourmaux went off the road three times in two stages. The final off proved catastrophic, as he hit a post, damaging the rear of his car. Forced to stop for five minutes to change a wheel mid-stage, Fourmaux ultimately retired due to damage to the car’s hybrid system, promoting his teammate Grégoire Munster to seventh place.
Andreas Mikkelsen, who had crashed into a fence and retired on Friday, returned on Saturday but also had a tricky day. Despite clipping an anti-cut marker and spinning off, he managed to continue without major damage, benefiting from the more open fields on the day’s stages.
With Ogier now in control and Neuville scrambling to recover, the battle for victory in the Central European Rally promises more drama as drivers push to the limit on challenging roads.
