Thierry Neuville's hopes of clinching his maiden FIA World Rally Championship title at Central European Rally took a significant hit after a dramatic Saturday saw him fall from first to fourth.
The Belgian had made a near-perfect start, leading by 6.4sec after Friday's first full leg. However, today - the penultimate day of the penultimate round of the season - he suffered not one, but two off-road incidents within the span of a minute.
No sooner had he recovered from the first spin during this morning's German-Austrian boundary-straddling Beyond Borders stage, Neuville found himself wide on the grass again. The second off proved particularly costly as he struggled to extract his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID from a concrete drainage ditch and lost nearly 40sec.
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID star Sébastien Ogier found himself back in the lead for the first time since Friday morning, but the eight-time world champion had Ott Tänak's Hyundai hot on his heels. Tänak, who had briefly headed Ogier after the opening stage of the day, claimed two benchmark times compared with Ogier's three and trails the Frenchman by 5.2sec heading into Sunday's four-stage finale.
Today's events have made it increasingly likely that the championship will be decided at FORUM8 Rally Japan next month. With Saturday's provisional points in hand, Neuville has surrendered eight to Ogier and three to Toyota's Elfyn Evans, who currently sits 25.8sec ahead of him in third place.
Crucially, he's lost five points to Tänak — his closest championship rival — and he needs to outscore the Estonian by two to secure the title this weekend.
"There is disappointment for sure, but the rally isn't over and tomorrow is an exciting day," Neuville said. "We paid the price. It was definitely a mistake in the recce with the pace notes. The note was too fast, and I am a bit disappointed about that, but it is what it is."
Takamoto Katsuta trailed Neuville by 52.0sec in fifth, the Japanese driver's cause not helped by the 16sec time penalty he incurred on SS9. He exceeded the target speed in a virtual chicane area by 8kph and was penalised by 2sec per kph as a result.
Sixth went the way of Katsuta's fellow Toyota pilot Sami Pajari, while M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID hotshot Grégoire Munster placed eighth.
It was a disappointing day for Munster's team-mate Adrien Fourmaux, who retired following SS10 with a front differential issue that compromised his car's handling, leading to two off-road excursions.
Nikolay Gryazin led the WRC2 category by almost two minutes from Czech driver Filip Mareš, with Oliver Solberg – not eligible for WRC2 points this weekend – slotting between them in ninth overall.
End of day three (Saturday):
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 2h10m12.7s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +5.2s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +14.0s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +39.8s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m31.8s
6 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2m07.3s
7 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +3m22.7s
8 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) +7m39.6s
9 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m10.6s
10 Filip Mareš/Radovan Bucha (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9m30.4s ...
(Results as of 17:45 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
Sunday’s last day is made up of a pair of stages on German roads to be run twice before the rally finish in the city of Passau. The second pass of Passauer Land hosts the rally-ending Power Stage, where up to five bonus points are available in addition to the seven on offer for the Super Sunday classification.
