At the end of the Friday afternoon, Thierry Neuville remains the leader of Croatia Rally with Elfyn Evans and Ott Tanak still following him.
Thierry Neuville remains the top driver of the overall classification in Croatia, but he dropped time in comparison with the second Elfyn Evans as he had two soft tyres on the rear and his car was moving a lot in Stage 5. Moreover, he made some changes to the dampers ahead of SS7 and managed to be the second fastest driver in that stage and to take 0,4 seconds from Evans.
Elfyn Evans follows the Hyundai driver for 5,7 seconds and stayed out of trouble in this loop while he managed to cut his rival's lead from 16,1 to 8 seconds after SS6. Last but not least, he set the benchmark in Stage 8 and end his day in a positive way.
Ott Tanak completes the top three and lost his place over Esapekka Lappi after SS6 who was the fastest driver on the longest stage of the day. The Finn was ahead of Tanak for 2,2 seconds, but the last one retook his third place back at the end of Stage 7. Finally, it must be mentioned that M-Sport Ford changed the whole steering system on Tanak's Puma at the midday service, therefore he managed to set a fastest time in Stage 7.
Sebastien Ogier gained two places after Stage 6 and climbed to fifth overall leaving Pierre-Louis Loubet and Takamoto Katsuta behind him. Finally, the Frenchman suffered from a puncture on the final stage of Friday which happened towards the end.
The Japanese driver had a spin in a narrow section in SS5 resulting in dropping behind Loubet. The last one lost the hybrid power in SS8 resulting in losing his place from Katsuta.
Kalle Rovanpera is now in eighth position overall and was happier with his Yaris as he said at the end of the penultimate stage of the day.
Rovanpera and Ogier were the only two Rally1 drivers who did not take wet weather tyres with them while Tanak said at the end of SS7 that it was wrong choice to run with that tyres in Stage 6.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after SS8:
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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