At the end of Friday morning, Thierry Neuville is the new rally leader in Central Europe with Sebastien Ogier and Ott Tanak following him.
Thierry Neuville climbed to the lead of Central European Rally at the end of Stage 5 despite the fact that he reported understeer and had a damage to the aero on the front right of his i20N at the end of SS3. In addition to that, he was 0,3 seconds behind the former rally leader Sebastien Ogier at the end of Stage 4 while he slid a bit wide in SS5.
Sebastien Ogier dropped to second place overall and was the fastest driver in Stage 3, but he dropped many seconds in Stage 4 when he went wide on a left hander in Stage 4. Apart from this moment, he made a mistake on the last junction of SS5.
Ott Tanak does the 1-3 for Hyundai Mortorsport and set the fastest time in Stage 5 despite the fact that he was struggling with his i20N in Stage 4. Moreover, he gained two positions in Stage 5 as moved up from fifth to third overall.
Elfyn Evans is just 0,8 seconds behind the Estonian driver and managed to be the quickest driver in SS4 while he climbed from fifth to third place at the end of Stage 4 and was 0,8 seconds behind the former rally leader Ogier.
Takamoto Katsuta completes the top five and made two mistakes on the same spots as Ogier did in SS4 and SS5, but he took a stage win in SS6.
Sami Pajari follows his teammate for 29 seconds and faced issues with the hybrid unit of his Yaris since Stage 3.
Eleven seconds separate the seventh Adrien Fourmaux from Pajari as the first one lost the hybrid in Stage 4 and was struggling with the Puma in all morning stages.
Gregoire Munster does the 7-8 for M-Sport Ford and mentioned understeer with his Puma at the end of Stage 3 as well as he lost the hybrid power on that stage.
Andreas Mikkelsen was forced to retire in Stage 5 as he had a massive crash, but he was among the drivers who lost the hybrid power in Stage 4 while he dropped from third to sixth at the end of SS3. Stage 5 was red flagged after Mikkelsen's crash and many drivers received notional times.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after the end of SS6:
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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