Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais triumphed following an incident-filled Sunday that noticed the pair inherit the lead after Hyundai driver Neuville and Toyota’s Evans both crashed in stage 18 of 20.
Ogier took the primary win of his 2024 partial marketing campaign from Evans by 9.7s, whereas Neuville needed to accept third [+45.9s] after his expensive error.
The battle for victory developed right into a three-way battle from Friday’s opening leg as Neuville began strongly and took benefit of opening the street to surge into the lead.
After stage six Neuville opened up a ten.1s benefit over Evans earlier than witnessing his lead scale back to 0.1s after choosing up a entrance proper puncture brought on by a rock in the midst of the street in direction of the top of the stage.
Evans managed to edge into the lead on stage seven however Neuville fought again on the day’s ultimate take a look at to extremely finish Friday tied for the rally lead with Evans after 119.74 aggressive kilometres.
The stage nonetheless belonged to Ogier, who was 9.2s faster than his nearest rival, a time that hauled himself into the victory battle to take a seat 6.6s behind Neuville and Evans.
The extreme battle for the lead continued into Saturday when the anticipated heavy rain didn’t arrive and tyre selections performed an element. Neuville’s choice to take extra exhausting tyres in comparison with Evans and Ogier, who took extra softs in anticipation of rain to reach, proved the marginally appropriate name.
Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Picture by: Toyota Racing
Nevertheless, the lead swapped between Neuville and Evans earlier than the previous produced blistering tempo to win the ultimate two phases of the day to maneuver right into a slender 4.9s lead. Ogier remained in third, 11.6s adrift after surviving two wild moments that might have led to drama.
However the battle took one other activate Sunday when Evans reduce the deficit to 2.6s earlier than the pair each made errors and bumped into totally different grass banks on stage 18. Evans misplaced 19.6s following his impression that pitched the automobile right into a spin, whereas Neuville shipped 23.3s after rising from the financial institution with a broken rear wing and no hybrid energy on his i20 N. Neuville attributed the error to a late pacenote name.
The unfolding drama handed Ogier the benefit and regardless of a short go to to the grass financial institution in stage 19, the eight-time world champion held his nerve to assert a 59th WRC victory and his one hundredth podium.
Evans managed to safe factors to 19 factors the identical quantity as Neuville. Evans continues to path championship chief Neuville, who took 9 stage wins this week, by six factors.
Hyundai’s Ott Tanak completed a distant fourth total [+58.6s] after combating the setup of his i20N. The Estonian did nonetheless stroll away with a formidable 20 factors after ending second within the Tremendous Sunday standings and setting the second quickest time on the Energy Stage.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta completed fifth [+1m55.5s] and ended Sunday’s classification quickest to assert seven factors on prime of two extra from the Energy Stage.
M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux had held fifth for almost all of the rally earlier than clipping an anti-cut machine in stage 18, which price the Frenchman 16 minutes to restore his steering. Fourmaux reached the end to financial institution his eight factors for ending fifth on Saturday, after which snatched an additional 5 factors from profitable the Energy Stage, to take care of third within the championship.
Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, M-Sport Ford World Rally Staff Ford Puma Rally1
Picture by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
Andreas Mikkelsen’s second Rally1 hybrid look for Hyundai led to sixth [+4m01.0s] forward of M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster [+5m11.0s], who loved a clear rally.
In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin took a cushty 38.2s victory from Citroen team-mate Yohan Rossel.