Saturday morning provided another dose of WRC drama at Rally Chile BioBio.
The first major scalp to fall was that of Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe who rolled 8.3km into the first stage of the day. The crew was unharmed, but the Hyundai i20 N was damaged beyond immediate repair and Neuville will not re-start on Sunday.
Josh McErlean picked up left rear tyre damage in the same stage and lost 46.1 seconds, dropping one position to eighth overall.
Nikolay Gryazin rolled his Lancia Ypsilon Hf 9.9km into the stage after he clipped a bank and ran wide off the road. A small under bonnet fire was quickly extinguished.
SS8 saw Jon Armstrong roll 11.7km into the stage. The Irishman managed to nurse his car to the end of the stage but his day was done. “We just completely understeered and hit a bank and rolled on our side. I don’t know what to do anymore as I tried to be careful. It is very difficult at the moment. We will try and continue if we can.”
Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson continue to lead Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin while Sebastien Ogier took third off Adrien Fourmaux. The French Hyundai driver re-took the position back on the final stage of the morning loop.
Yohan Rossel picked up the WRC2 lead after his teammates retirement.
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