At the end of Saturday morning, Elfyn Evans is the new leader of Croatia Rally with Ott Tanak and Esapekka Lappi following him.
Elfyn Evans tops the overall classification of Croatia Rally at the end of Stage 11 when his rival, Thierry Neuville, had a crash there and is now leading from the second Ott Tanak for 22,6 seconds.
The Estonian driver felt more comfortable with his Puma this morning after the difficulties he faced on Friday morning and this fact can be proved by his times in SS9 and SS10 as he took some time back from Evans. Last but not least, he mentioned at the end of SS12 that he lost a tyre in SS9 meaning that he did not have the choice for a right choice for the rest of the loop.
Esapekka Lappi completes the top three and was not able to be close to the frontrunners as the i20N was more difficult to be driven in comparison with Friday as he stated at the end of Stage 10. Finally, the Finn driver said that his mechanics should do some changes to the set-up of his car at the midday service with the intention of feeling more comfortable to push for the rest of the rally.
Pierre-Louis Loubet is in fourth place overall and lost time in comparison with his rivals as he was struggling to find confidence in the fast sections with the softs on the rear.
Sebastien Ogier comes right behind him for 1,4 seconds and took a 10-second time penalty for checking one-minute late on the opening stage of Saturday. His Yaris carried an issue on the road section and had to fix it before starting in SS9.
Takamoto Katsuta lost his place over Ogier at the end of SS12 as the Japanese was slower in all stages in comparison with the eight-time World Rally Champion. Their gap is at 1,2 seconds before heading to the second loop of the day.
Kalle Rovanpera is seventh overall and was the fastest driver on the first three stages of Saturday while he was beaten by Ogier for seven tenths of a second in SS12.
Thierry Neuville was leading Croatia Rally until Stage 11 where he had to retire as he went off the road 5,2 Km into the stage and hit a tree in the process. The rear-left of his i20N took a heavy hit and the damage was too severe to continue. It must be mentioned that he managed to increase his gap from the second Evans as the Belgian was faster than the last one in the first two stages of the day.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after SS12:
Photo Credits: Toyota
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