Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja took the lead of Rally Chile BioBío after stage five, bumping Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin down to second place after the Welshman lead the 11th round of the FIA World Rally Championship up until the first stage after the midday service. The Estonian ended the opening day a mere 0.4 seconds ahead of Evans who fought back over the final stage.
As the top drivers settled into the day’s remaining five stages after SS1 was cancelled, Evans laid down his marker, firing off a stage winning time that saw the Toyota Gazoo racing driver shade his teammate Sebastian Ogier/Vincent Landais by 6.6 seconds.
The slippery roads claimed their first victim in stage three when Ogier made a slight mistake running wide into a bank which punctured a tyre at km 4.4. The time loss changing the tyre saw the eight time champion plummet from the lead to 15th overall.
The same stage saw the end of Martins Sesks and Renars Francis who also went wide in their M-Sport Puma Rally1 and picked up two punctures after hitting a bank and with only one spare wheel, they couldn’t get back to the service park which was 130km away and were forced to retire for the day.
Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm also picked up a puncture in the same stage, even though they never hit anything unlike their rivals.
After the morning loop of three stages, Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen were in third place in the fourth (non-points scoring) GR Yaris Rally1, a brilliant effort from the 22-year-old Finn.
Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen ended the day in third place, 2.2 seconds up on Pajari in fourth, in turn 1.4 seconds ahead of Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka in their M-Sport Ford Puma, a brilliant effort from the Luxembourger.
The second Puma of Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria would have been one second off the lead but for a one minute penalty for arriving late for stage five after stopping in the open section to change an alternator belt. In the process he damaged a pipe which he also had to repair. He stormed through the stage 0.2 seconds behind the scratch time off Ogier’s time.
The Ford driver wrung the Puma’s neck in the day’s final stage, taking the win by 1.8 seconds from Ogier.
Championship leader Thierry Neuville/Martin Wydaeghe brought their Hyundai i20 N home in sixth after opening the road all day, as he has done on every event since leading the title chase back in Monte Carlo.
Lappi ended the day in seventh ahead of a frustrated Fourmaux with Ogier having dragged himself back into the points in ninth, in spite of running without hybrid power in the final stage.
Nikolay Gryazin leads WRC2 after oh-so-nearly rolling his Citroen C3 in the final stage. 10.2 seconds behind is the champion elect Oliver Solberg in his Skoda Fabia RS with Yohan Rossel breathing down his neck 1.2 seconds away in third.
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