The opening day of the WRC Central European Rally delivered a thrilling start with two stages and 14.33km of action, as Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais led the field in their Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Yaris. Ogier finished the day just 0.9 seconds ahead of championship contender Thierry Neuville, whose aggressive pace in the Shell Mobis Hyundai i20 N kept him right on Ogier’s tail.
For Neuville, the stakes are sky-high—he needs to outscore his Hyundai teammate and title rival Ott Tänak by two points to clinch his long-awaited WRC crown. After day one, Neuville is doing just that, sitting comfortably ahead of Tänak, who is currently fifth overall.
However, Neuville’s day wasn’t without its challenges. He kissed a hay bale during SS2, damaging some of his car’s front-right aero components. “I can’t be happy to be honest. I took off the aero in the front right by stupidly touching a straw bale. I didn’t know it, but it will handicap me for the whole morning tomorrow. Even here, we touched some, but we have nothing to lose anymore, it is gone already,” Neuville admitted post-stage. Despite the damage, Neuville still managed to win the stage by one second.
Andreas Mikkelsen and co-driver Torstein Eriksen sit in third, 0.8 seconds behind Neuville, while a returning Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston are a close fourth, just 0.3 seconds back. Tänak rounds out the top five, 0.1 seconds behind Katsuta.
Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria hold sixth position in their M-Sport Ford Puma, followed by Elfyn Evans, Sami Pajari (making his Rally1 tarmac debut), and Grégoire Munster in the second Puma.
In WRC2, Oliver Solberg and co-driver Elliot Edmondson lead the charge, though they are not eligible to score points. Meanwhile, WRC2 title contender Yohan Rossel and Florian Barral had a disastrous day, nearly rolling their Citroën C3 after hitting a hay bale in SS2. The impact broke a wheel, leaving Rossel 32.5 seconds off Solberg’s pace and in 10th place, with a daunting task ahead over the next two days if he hopes to keep his championship challenge alive.
As the rally heads into its second day, Neuville will need to manage the aero damage while maintaining his aggressive push for the title, while Ogier looks to extend his slim lead at the top. With Tänak still in the hunt and Rossel fighting to stay in the WRC2 title race, the Central European Rally is shaping up to be a thrilling contest.
