Driving mistakes by Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans give Sebastien Ogier victory at the 2024 Rally Croatia after a thrilling three-way battle
Toyota driver Sebastien Ogier has won the Rally Croatia, the fourth round of the 2024 World Rally Championship (WRC), to celebrate his first victory of the season. The eight-time world champion prevailed in a thrilling three-way battle against his team-mate Elfyn Evans and Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville, who handed him victory on a silver platter with driving errors on the 18th special stage on Sunday.
After 20 special stages covering a total of 283.28 kilometers, Ogier had a 9.7-second lead over Evans at the finish. Neuville was 45.8 seconds behind Ogier, for whom it was his 59th victory and 100th podium finish in the World Rally Championship. “Who would have thought that 15 years ago? It’s nice to see that we are still fast,” said Ogier.
“We knew that the starting position [on Friday] was a problem here and that it would be difficult. But we never gave up and kept pushing throughout the weekend. I have never experienced so many moments at a rally. I’m happy that we were able to secure victory for the team,” said Ogier, who is the fourth different winner at the fourth round of the 2024 season.
Ott Tänak (Hyundai), who was not within striking distance of the top three throughout the weekend, finished fourth. Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) finished fifth ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) and Gregoire Munster (Ford). With Nikolai Gryasin, Yohan Rossel (both Citroen) and Sami Pajari (Toyota), the three fastest WRC2 drivers completed the top 10
Neuville gets off to the best start
In initially difficult weather conditions with rain and snow showers on Friday, Neuville got the best start and made the most of his first position on the grid. The Belgian won four of the first five special stages and quickly pulled away from Evans and Ogier, who was 26.9 seconds behind at one point.
However, Ogier turned up the heat on Friday afternoon, taking around ten seconds off his rivals on the eighth special stage alone and closing the gap to Neuville and Evans, who finished Friday in equal first place, to 6.6 seconds.
The three-way battle at the front continued on Saturday. Evans briefly took the lead on the 13th special stage, but Neuville struck back just one stage later. The Belgian also finished Saturday in first place in the overall standings, securing 18 WRC points. Only 11.6 seconds separated the top 3 before the final day
Errors by Neuville and Evans on the 18th special stage
The preliminary decision was made on the 18th special stage, the first passage of “Zagorska Sela – Kumrovec”, which was also held as a power stage at the end of the rally. Evans first touched an embankment with the left rear of his GR Yaris, spun and lost 19.6 seconds. “It was just a slippery spot. I hit the rear hard on the left-hand side, then the car lifted off and I spun,” said Evans, describing the incident.
A little later, Neuville skidded off the road in the same section of the track and crashed into a tree. The right rear fender was damaged and the upper part of the rear wing was torn off. Neuville blamed his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe for the incident. “There were a lot of corners where I got the pace notes far too late,” said the Belgian. “We lost 20 seconds on Ogier. That’s a shame, because things were going so well. “
Lucky escape for @ElfynEvans / @scottmartinat on SS18 Zagorska Sela – Kumrovec 1
Second run – Wolf Power Stage – live now on https://t.co/bVNpLD93WoWRC I CroatiaRally pic.twitter.com/nshZGL4Mmh
– World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) April 21, 2024
With the damaged car, Neuville no longer had a chance and finished seventh in Sunday’s classification, scoring just one more WRC point. “It was a great two days, but things didn’t go so well today,” said Neuville at the finish. “We wanted to push harder in the Power Stage, but these cars are undriveable without a rear wing. “
Tänak is busy scoring points
Evans reduced his gap to Ogier to 6.4 seconds before the Power Stage, but was unable to catch his team-mate. “I’m a bit disappointed about the spin and my tire choice. It was a good weekend, but today was disappointing,” said Evans, who collected a total of 19 WRC points with second place on Saturday, fifth place in Sunday’s classification and fifth place in the Power Stage, thus maintaining the gap to Neuville in the overall standings.
However, the 2019 world champion was lucky that a slip-up on the 18th special stage, in which the car was leveraged out, had no consequences.
Another beneficiary of the new points system was Tänak, who missed out on the podium but collected a total of 20 points. Katsuta secured the maximum score of seven points in the “Super Sunday” classification, while Adrien Fourmaux (Ford) won the Power Stage
SS18 was
Good luck everyone on the Wolf Power Stage!
Live at 13:15 (CET) on https://t.co/bVNpLD93Wo WRC I CroatiaRally pic.twitter.com/FCo4t8p63w– World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) April 21, 2024
Next stop: Portugal
The Frenchman, who was in fifth place overall, touched an “anticut device” on the 18th special stage, which is designed to prevent the car from cutting corners. The right front wheel was damaged and Fourmaux lost over 16 minutes as a result of the repair.
After four of 13 rallies, Neuville continues to lead the WRC standings with 86 points. His closest rival remains Evans with 80 points. Fourmaux maintains third place in the WRC with 59 points, but Tänak (53) has closed the gap. In the manufacturers’ standings, Toyota (176 points) leads ahead of Hyundai (169) and M-Sport-Ford (96).
The World Rally Championship continues with the Rally Portugal from May 9 to 12, 2024
