Drama on SS7: Former world champion Neuville forced to retire after rollover in Chile

Neuville and his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe had started the second day in sixth place overall. On the 15.65-kilometre Special Stage 7 (“Pelun”), the first special stage of the day, Neuville veered off the ideal line in fifth gear whilst negotiating a fast right-hand bend in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1, crashed into the embankment and rolled violently. The two Belgians escaped uninjured, but their car was no longer roadworthy.

Just one special stage later, M-Sport driver Jon Armstrong crashed. After the Northern Irishman crashed into the barriers, his Ford Puma ended up on its side. Despite significant damage, he managed to make it to the finish, but had to withdraw from Saturday’s loop.

Thierry Neuville und Co-Pilot Martijn Wydaeghe: Überschlag in WP7

Foto: Red Bull

Solberg consolidated the lead he had built up the previous day and, at the midday service, held a 10.1-second lead over his Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans.

Reigning World Champion Ogier dominated the first two special stages with two fastest times and briefly closed the gap to Solberg to 9.3 seconds.

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Oliver Solberg weiter an der Spitze

Foto: Red Bull

Monte Carlo winner Solberg, however, was able to fight back on the 28.31-kilometre ‘María las Cruces’ stage (SS6). The Swede was careful with his tyres over the first few kilometres before pushing hard towards the finish and winning the stage with a 2.9-second lead over Evans.

His cautious approach proved to be the right one on today’s dry gravel surface.

“The morning wasn’t perfect, but I can be satisfied,” said Solberg, summing up his performance at the halfway point on Saturday.

Sebastien Ogier mit zwei Bestzeiten am Samstagvormittag

Foto: Red Bull

After SS8, Ogier was just 2.1 seconds behind second-placed Evans and 9.3 seconds behind Solberg. However, due to a different tyre strategy involving hard tyres, the Frenchman lost over ten seconds to Solberg on SS9 and is currently in fourth place at the halfway stage. Sandwiched between Evans and Ogier, Adrien Forumaux held on to third place.

Toyota youngster Sami Pajari survived a heavy impact with an embankment and reached the service park 50.5 seconds behind Solberg. With Neuville and Armstrong out of the race, Esapekka Lappi moved up to sixth place, whilst Josh McErlean (M-Sport Ford) is in seventh.

M-Sport Ford-Pilot Joshua McErlean auf Platz sieben

Foto: Red Bull

Yesterday’s leader in the WRC2 category also retired on SS7. Lancia works driver Nikolay Gryazin rolled his car, and his Ypsilon HF subsequently caught fire. The fire was quickly extinguished and Gryazin and his co-driver Konstantin Aleksandrov escaped unharmed. Team-mate Yohan Rossel took the lead in WRC2 after Robert Virves (Škoda) suffered a puncture on the same special stage.