Hyundai’s Ott Tanak has laid the groundwork for a potential third consecutive Rally Chile triumph for the Estonian ace, ending Friday’s opening leg with a narrow 0.4s advantage over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans.
It was a day of contrasting fortunes for Tanak, who has won every WRC round previously held in Chile (2019 for Toyota, and last year with M-Sport Ford). He struggled in the morning, sitting only fifth overall at the lunchtime regroup after grappling with a lack of confidence and balance in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 during the first pass of the three gravel stages south of Chile’s second city, Concepcion.
However, setup tweaks at service rejuvenated his performance and helped him to overhaul Evans on the days penultimate stage, the 8.29-mile Rere 2, to claim that wafer-thin overnight lead.
Despite Tanak’s strong afternoon, Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier appeared the most potent contender throughout day one. The eight-time WRC champ, who began this season on a limited schedule, but has morphed into Toyota’s best shot at the 2024 drivers’ crown, won three stages in his GR Yaris Rally1 and would have led the rally by almost 30 seconds, had he not run wide and hit a bank on the morning’s final stage, forcing him to stop and change a wheel.
Tanak was encouraged by the afternoon turnaround and remains poised to close the points gap to his WRC drivers’ championship-leading teammate, Thierry Neuville, who ended down in sixth after starting first on the road and enduring the worst of the loose gravel on the hard-packed dirt roads
Evans, who’s been slow out of the blocks on recent events, delivered a more aggressive start in Chile, but struggled with confidence on the afternoon loop, admitting: “I’m a bit lost with the feeling, in all honesty. It’s not feeling natural at the moment.”
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans admitted to not feeling fully comfortable, but still ended Friday just 0.4s off the lead. Image via Toyota GAZOO Racing WRT
Two-time and reigning world champion Kalle Rovanpera, who’s also chosen a limited schedule for Toyota this season, completed the top three, 6.7s adrift of Evans in his GR Yaris, but voiced frustrations after overshooting and hitting a gate on the afternoon’s opening stage.
“I don’t feel comfortable on these roads,” Rovanpera explained. “When it’s dry like this, it doesn’t suit my usual driving style. I’m fighting the car and my driving a lot.”
Back at the event where he made his top-tier Rally1 debut last year, Gregoire Munster put in his best performance of the season, but tire damage on the final stage saw the M-Sport Ford driver drop to fifth behind Toyota’s Sami Pajari, who’s making only his second Rally1 start. Just 1.4s separated the pair at day’s end, with Pajari in turn trailing Rovanpera by only 2.2s.
M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster put in the best performance of his debut Rally1 campaign, ending Friday in fifth overall. Image via Red Bull Content Pool
For Munster’s M-Sport Ford teammates, it was a more challenging day. Martins Sesks retired his non-hybrid Puma Rally1 car in the morning after hitting a bank and damaging two tires while only carrying one spare wheel. Adrien Fourmaux fell from fourth to eighth after incurring a one-minute time penalty for arriving late to the start of the penultimate stage. The delay stemmed from roadside repairs, first to his alternator and then to a water pipe damaged in fixing the alternator issue.
WRC points leader Neuville ended the day sixth in his i20 N Rally1, more than a half minute off the pace. Opening the road, he struggled with loose conditions but still led teammate Esapekka Lappi by 5.8s.
“There wasn’t much more I could do,” Neuville admitted, while Lappi described his Friday performance as “a disaster of a day.”
The delayed Fourmaux brought his Puma home in eighth overall, just ahead of the recovering Ogier in ninth.
In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Nikolay Gryazin holds the overnight lead, despite almost rolling his Citroen C3 on the final stage of the day.
Oliver Solberg is second, 10.2s behind in his Toksport Skoda Fabia RS, but the Swede is putting a degree of pressure on himself to close down the gap to Gryazin as a win would guarantee him this season’s WRC2 championship.
Second could still be enough for Solberg to take the title, but he’d be reliant on the performance of others on the final two WRC rounds of the season to do so – not a situation he feels comfortable with.
Citroen C3 driver Nikolay Gryazin (above) leads WRC2, but Oliver Solberg is homing in on both him and the class title. Image via Red Bull Content Pool
Saturday will be a true test of endurance and tire management, with six stages totaling nearly 87 miles to get through, and the road surfaces expected to be even more abrasive than Leg One’s tests.
WRC Rally Chile, positions after Leg One, SS6
1 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 58m06.9s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +0.4s
3 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +7.1s
4 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +9.3s
5 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +10.7s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +30.3s
7 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Fern (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +36.1s
8 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria Ford Puma Rally1) +1m01.0s
9 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m24.9s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroen C3 – WRC2 leader) +2m14.9s
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