At the end of the morning loop of Friday, Thierry Neuville tops the overall classification in Croatia with Elfyn Evans and Ott Tanak following him.
Thierry Neuville grabbed the lead of Croatia Rally from Sebastien Ogier at the end of Stage 2 as he set the fastest time there despite the fact that he hit a bale in that stage resulting in damaging the front end of his i20N. Finally, he admitted at the end of SS4 that he was struggling to control his car and changed the set-up all the time.
Elfyn Evans gained three places at the end of SS2 and climbed to second from fifth place overall, but his gap from the leader Hyundai driver is at 16,1 seconds. Last but not least, he was lucky in SS3 as he suffered from a slow puncture towards the end and he did not lose so much time.
Ott Tanak completes the top three despite the fact that his Puma carried a steering issue on the road section before SS1 and his aim was to return back to the service area with the intention of getting his car fixed. In addition to that, he stalled a hairpin left on the opening stage of the day, but he managed to get some time back and is now 6,1 seconds behind Evans.
Esapekka Lappi is in fourth place overall and is in the fight for the podium as his gap from the Estonian was at six seconds at the end of SS2. Furthermore, there was damage to one of his front wheels, but it has not affected the tyre.
Takamoto Katsuta and Pierre-Louis Loubet are fifth and sixth overall respectively and it was difficult for them to find pace with their cars.
Sebastien Ogier dropped from first to seventh position after SS2 as he stopped 12Km into stage to change a puncture resulting in dropping more than one minute there. However, he was the fastest driver in three stages while he went a little wide into some branches in SS4.
Kalle Rovanpera is outside the top ten as he stopped to change a wheel at the same spot that Ogier stopped in SS2 while he said at the end of SS3 that he was struggling with his car on the cuts.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after SS4:
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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