The first morning of the Croatia Rally is over, and Thierry Neuville leads this fourth round of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The margins at the top are still small.
The rally started with the first pass in the Krašić-Sošice stage, with Neuville (Hyundai) setting the fastest time 6.6s ahead of Elfyn Evans (Toyota), with Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) in third 14.5s behind.
Evans fought back in SS2 (Jaškovo-Mali Modruš Potok 1), but as he only took 1.7s off Neuville, the Belgian remained in the lead. Ott Tänak (Hyundai) set the third fastest time ahead of Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford) and Ogier, but nothing changed in the overall standings.
This was followed by Ravna Gora-Skrad, where Neuville once again set the fastest time, this time 3.5s ahead of Evans. SS4 in Platak closed the morning and, once again, it was the Belgian setting the pace, beating Evans by 0.2s.
It was a particularly close stage, as Ogier was third just 0.3s behind… after 16.63km timed. Tänak and Fourmaux finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
In the overall standings, after four stages, Neuville leads with an 8.6s advantage over Evans, while Ogier is in third 21.5s behind. Tänak is fourth, already over half a minute behind the leader, with the top five completed by Fourmaux.
In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin (Citroën) leads with a 12.4s advantage over Yohan Rossel (Citroën) after winning three of the four morning stages in the class. Rossel was ahead in the other stage. Gryazin is dominating in the WRC2 Challenger, where his main pursuer is Pepe López (Skoda) 46.6s behind.
As for WRC3, Romet Jürgenson (Ford) is dominating, leading by 56.8s ahead of Tom Rensonnet (Ford). He was not the fastest in the category in SS1, where Ali Türkkan (Ford) set the pace. However, the Turkish driver encountered issues and was out of contention in SS3.
