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<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nIt 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 and wildly inconsistent grip to keep Neuville and Katsuta at arm\u2019s length. Although Katsuta briefly grabbed second overall on SS10, Neuville hit back on the new Generalski Stol test to reclaim the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At midday, Pajari still led by 12.4sec from Neuville, with Katsuta a further 12.7sec back in third. Hayden Paddon held a strong fourth on his Croatia Rally debut, while Adrien Fourmaux\u2019s difficult weekend worsened when he crashed out on SS12 after running wide and damaging the left-rear of his Hyundai i20 N Rally1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if the morning had been about management, the afternoon became a straight survival test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Katsuta opened the second loop with the fastest time on SS13, trimming Neuville\u2019s advantage over him in the fight for second, while Pajari remained calm and measured at the front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That changed spectacularly on SS14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Running on roads that had deteriorated into something resembling a gravel rally, tyre dramas struck throughout the leaderboard. Jon Armstrong stopped to change a wheel, Hayden Paddon picked up a front-left deflation and Katsuta did likewise. Yet the biggest blow landed on Pajari\u2019s Toyota. The Finn was forced to stop, haemorrhaging more than two minutes and handing the lead directly to Neuville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt just clicks this weekend,\u201d Neuville said at day\u2019s end. \u201cThe car was from the beginning feeling better than the other rallies. We were able to build step-by-step [and] improve it in the beginning of the event. The conditions are very challenging and we were somehow able to go with good speed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Katsuta\u2019s second place also owed much to discipline. The Japanese driver had been frustrated to lose ground in the afternoon, but kept his head while others unravelled and now finds himself best placed to challenge Neuville on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA bit of a shame because we were trying to manage it,\u201d Katsuta said. \u201cIt was a proper lottery. Even on gravel rallies we don\u2019t have that many stones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the afternoon\u2019s drama, headlines on raw pace had belonged elsewhere. Restarting after Friday\u2019s early exit, Oliver Solberg won every stage from SS9 to SS12 and looked set for a clean sweep of the day before a puncture halted that run on SS13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elfyn Evans, also out of the overall fight after his Friday crash, ended the day with a stage win on SS16, while Armstrong again underlined his growing confidence with a string of top times despite suffering his own troubles. For M-Sport Ford, though, Josh McErlean endured a torrid day featuring a cockpit fire, repeated punctures and electrical issues that left him nursing the Puma home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paddon, who managed to nurse his earlier puncture without stopping, kept out of serious trouble amid the chaos and consolidated a fine fourth overall, 3min 28.2sec off the lead, while Yohan Rossel completed Saturday fifth and continued to head the WRC2 fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four stages totalling just under 60km of competitive action are now all that stand between a first victory of the season for Neuville and his Hyundai Motorsport team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Standings after Saturday (SS16\/20):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. T Neuville \/ M Wydaeghe BEL Hyundai i20 N Rally1 2h 20m 20.8s
2. T Katsuta \/ A Johnston JPN Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1m 14.5s
3. S Pajari \/ M Salminen FIN Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1m 46.4s
4. H Paddon \/ J Kennard NZL Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +3m 28.2s
5. Y Rossel \/ A Dunand FRA Lancia Ypsilon HF Rally2 +5m 14.1s
6. L Rossel \/ G Mercoiret FRA Citro\u00ebn C3 Rally2 +6m 17.3s The World Rally Championship (WRC) is the FIA\u2019s premium rally series. It showcases high-performance cars and the world\u2019s best drivers competing in dramatic surroundings, ranging from Sweden\u2019s freezing winter to Kenya\u2019s heat and rocky tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cshow.php?s=3447440&v=16767&q=358935&r=1229872\")
\n<\/a>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heartbreak for Pajari puts Belgian driver ahead approaching final day Thierry Neuville stormed into the Croatia Rally lead on Saturday after a brutal afternoon loop ripped the rally from Sami Pajari\u2019s grasp and transformed the shape of the fight for victory. The Hyundai Motorsport driver had started the day 13.7sec behind the Toyota Gazoo Racing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68235,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68230\/revisions\/68235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}