2024 FIA World Rally Championship
Round 04, Croatia Rally
18 – 21 March 2024
The exciting battle between three competitors continued on Saturday as the team faced another eight stages and 108km of challenging tarmac racing.
With rain predicted, the strategy for choosing the right tires became crucial. All the cars in the top category opted for wet tires in the morning, but the weather remained dry throughout the first loop.
After a day full of unexpected twists and turns, Thierry Neuville, the star of the Hyundai i20 N, held a 4.9sec lead over his Toyota rival Elfyn Evans. This provisional lead gave Neuville 18 points, boosting his chances in the championship against Evans. Eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier also performed well, securing the third spot, just 11.6sec behind the leader.
Neuville’s advantage in the morning was thanks to his careful preservation of his four soft compound Pirelli P Zero tires. Evans, on the other hand, struggled with only three softs, two wets, and one hard tire, losing 4.7sec in the loop. In the absence of rain, all three Toyota crews decided to carry four soft and two wet tires for the afternoon loop. Neuville, however, chose a more diverse package with two hards, two softs, and two wets.
If Neuville completes Super Sunday, he will earn 18 points. Evans will receive 15 points, while Ogier will get 13 points.
“It’s not a significant lead, but we had a fantastic day,” said Neuville with a smile. “Despite not making the perfect tire choice this afternoon, we were able to defend our lead. We need to continue attacking and make the right tire choice [on Sunday]. It wasn’t easy to judge the weather conditions.”
Evans commented, “It’s been a good day and enjoyable behind the wheel. The margins have been very close here, and we just couldn’t quite match Thierry, who was consistently fast throughout the day. We had a good start in the afternoon and took the lead. We made the right tire choice for that stage in particular. After that, it’s hard to say what the best choice was, as the feeling in the car was pretty good. Unfortunately, we fell short at the end of the day. We’ll face another difficult tire choice to cover the entire final day, but we’ll try to make well-informed decisions and give it our best.”
Ott Tänak finished fourth, more than a minute behind in another i20. He was fortunate to escape with only a slightly bent rear wheel after running wide on a left-hander and hitting a curb.
Tänak had a 19.9sec advantage over Adrien Fourmaux’s Ford Puma in fifth place. Fourmaux once again impressed with his performance in the M-Sport machine, setting the fastest time at Smerovišće – Grdanjci and increasing his lead over Toyota’s third driver, Takamoto Katsuta.
Andreas Mikkelsen, in seventh place, experienced another time-consuming mishap but felt more comfortable in his Hyundai by the end of the day. Grégoire Munster gained valuable experience in his Puma, finishing eighth, while WRC2 stars Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel completed the leaderboard.
Sunday’s finale awaits with four more stages and a chance to earn up to 12 championship points. A total of 54.78km remains before the race concludes in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.