Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia inched closer to their Toyota Gazzo Racing team-mates Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin, and to the front of the rally on the afternoon loops opening stage, on Stage Six. It was only on Stage Eight, the final of today, that Ogier was able to outpace his team-mate, and to hold a sleder lead of only 1.2s.
Ogier’s speed through Stage Six was shadowed by Belgian rivals Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT), who was but only 5.3s off the pace through the repeat of the 20.02km stage. The pace at the front is extraordinarily fierce on the afternoon’s thre stages, and this was illustrated by the this: from the first pass this morning for Stage 3/6, Ogier was only two seconds quicker than Evans’ winning time on the first loop. The WRC drivers weren’t holding back any punches on the first stage of the day… Gambles on a fresh set of tyres and a cup of coffee at lunchtime have renewed the brave WRC drivers for an afternoon of heroics.
Mads Ostberg blitzed the stage in his Citroën C3 R5 by nearly eight seconds over his WRC2 rivals as the Norwegian ace clawed his way back up the overall leaderboard after suffering a puncture in the morning’s loop. He leads Ole Christian Veiby by just ten seconds. Frenchman Eric Camilli and his Citroën C3 R5 still dominate the RC2 Category standings, leading the field by more than a minute too – and growing.
The fight between the R5 Class cars – the Citroën C3 R5 versus Ford Fiesta R5 MkII versus Hyundai i20 R5 versus Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 – has seen the French constructor thus far dominate the top of the time sheets through each stage. In fact, the top five places are held by Citroën C3 R5s.
Stage 6 – Top 5:
01) S. Ogier – 13m20.8s; 02) T. Neuville +5.3s; 03) E. Evans +6.4s; 04) S. Loeb +7.3s; 05) E. Lappi +12.6s
Stage Seven, which presented Ogier with another scratch time, saw the Frenchman squeak closer to team-mate Evans’ lead. With team-mate Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja sidelined after their high-speed off on on this same stage in the morning loop, Neuville and colleague Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena were left to battle the Toyota Yaris WRC machines. The roads were dirtier, muddier and offered far less grip, and the winning stage time in the afternoon’s run was actually six seconds slower than in the morning.
By all accounts, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s all-new line-up for the 2020 season is already settling in with Evans and Ogier splitting the stage wins thus far and Kalle Rovanperä growing in confidence in the WRC class with each completed kilometre. Takamoto Katsuta also pushed strongly too and earned his WRC stripes through solid and consistent stage performances today
Adrien Fourmaux clinched his first fastest WRC2 stage time in his Ford Fiesta R5 MkII in 2020, edging out the hard-charging Ostberg by one second with Veiby five seconds slower through Stage Seven. That put Veiby nearly 15 seconds down on the category leader…
Stage 7 – Top 5:
01) S. Ogier – 11m52.0s; 02) E. Evans +0.6s; 03) T. Neuville +2.9s; 04) K. Rovanperä +6.7s; 05) T. Sunninen +7.6s
Clear skies and somewhat drier weather conditions made for a tricky run through day’s final speed test. With worn tyres and grubby roads, the Toyota Gazoo Racing squad have much reason to smile about this evening as their crews returned unscathed to the Service Park in Gap. With two of their four cars on the overnight podium and all their crews within the top seven overall, the team’s onto a strong start to their 2020 season.
Meanwhile, Neuville pushed as he might in the afternoon loop but the Belgian wasn’t able to overcome Ogier nor Evans. The fight is now truly on, and with only 6.4s covering the top three, a wrong pacenote or dirty line could change the leaderboard. With half of the rally still to contest, anything can happen.
The most impressive performance of rthe day? Undoubtedly, Evans in the Toyota Yaris WRC. He went toe-to-toe with Ogier and Neuville, not faltering for one second. Ogier’s march to the front was inevitable, given his six-times winning record on this unique rally, but to match and outpace at times a six-times World Rally Champion in equal machinery, is telling of his maturing talent and confidence.
The Welshman commented, in the biggest understatement of the rally world thus far in 2020: “Not a bad day overall.”
And the nine-times World Rally Champion Loeb echoed those sentiments too: “It was okay – the two drivers in front are very fast and I could not match the speed.”
Unfortunately, the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team have experienced a character-building weekend. The lone Fiesta RS WRC of Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm posted consistent stage times, but Lappi’s mental approach to the stages and his performance therein perhaps hampered his outright speed.
Ostberg, in WRC2, shone on today’s tough tests to lead the way in a close fight with Veiby, now with only 13.9s between them. For context, Nikolay Gryazin and his Hyundai i20 R5 are nearly two minutes down the road on this duel up front.
Stage 8 – Top 5:
01) T. Neuville – 13m 13.1s; 02) S. Ogier +1.0s ; 03) E. Evans +4.9s ; 04) S. Loeb +13.0s; 05) K. Rovanperä +14.1s
Day Three’s action is played out over four stages divided into a morning and afternoon loop by a midday Service.
Classification After SS8:
1. Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota Yaris WRC) – 01h 43m31.5s
2. Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +1.2s
3. Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +6.4s
4. Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1m 06.9s
5. Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1m 57.2s
6. Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota Yaris WRC) +2m19.2s
7. Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota Yaris WRC) +5m 18.7s
8. Eric Camilli/François-Xavier Buresi (Citroën C3 R5) +8m 06.2s
9. Nicolas Ciamin/Yannick Roche (Citroën C3 R5) +9m04.0s
10. Mads Ostberg/Torstein Eriksen (Citroën C3 R5) + 9m37.2s
