The first day of WRC Rally Chile delivered drama in spades. Through it all, Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria headed a Hyundai one-two with one second in hand over Thierry Neuville and Martin Wydaeghe after six stages and 113km of hard, fast racing.
Sebastien Ogier and Vincent Landais led the Toyota attack, ending the day in third position overall with the top three covered by just 2.3 seconds.
Kalle Rovanperä came out guns blazing and won the first two stages on Friday morning but suffered a puncture in stage three after clipping a bank. He lost 72 seconds (still less than a fast tyre change) and plummeted to ninth.
Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin had a solid start despite opening the road; conditions helped with somewhat damp stages in the morning loop and the championship leader headed the scoreboard by 0.5 seconds over Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja following Kalle’s demise.
After the service break, Tanak was flying and took the rally lead with 6.9 seconds over Evans after stage four (won by Sami Pajari) and opened it further after Evans had a shocking stage five, dropping to fourth behind Fourmaux and Neuville after the roads dried out and the Welshman had to re-sweep the stages.
The final stage of the day, won by Ogier, saw Tanak pull over to the side of the road after 5.6 kilometers with engine failure.
Josh McErlean was oh-so-lucky to escape a high-speed spin in the opening stage of the rally; the Puma’s bumper was ripped off, which affected his performance over the rest of the morning loop with no front downforce from the missing aero.
WRC2 runners were not spared: Yohan Rossel suffered his first mechanical failure in five years when his Citroen C3 developed an oil leak and an engine fire after completing stage four. Gus Greensmith had overheating issues in his Skoda in stage four and after attempting a fix, started SS5 but rolled to a stop after his engine made very unhealthy noises.
Oliver Solberg did what he must do to wrap up the title in South America – leading WRC2, despite a half spin in the opening stage, but is being chased hard by his remaining title rival Nikolay Gryazin who is 10.4 seconds adrift.
Top six after stage six:
- 1. Fourmaux 57:48.5
- 2. Neuville +1.0
- 3. Ogier +2.3
- 4. Pajari +11.2
- 5. Evans +13.1
- 6. Katsuta +41.0
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