In Tennis terms the Central European Rally represented the first real match point moment for Thierry Neuville in his relentless 12-year quest to lift the World Rally Championship title.

The scene was set perfectly. An asphalt rally where being first on the road is advantage, featuring stages in Germany not a million miles from his and his Hyundai team’s home. But one thing that the WRC can guarantee in spades this season is unpredictability. 

As has often been the case for Neuville — a five-time championship runner-up — the Belgian was made to wait for glory again as fate intervened while on course for a career defining moment. Neuville only needed to outscore team-mate Ott Tanak by two points to seal rallying’s ultimate prize. But after a wild Sunday, where even world champions made errors, it was his nearest rival that triumphed to take the title fight to next month’s Japan finale.

“Obviously we came here with the hopes of winning the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles in Germany, and a lot of supporters came down to line the stages to live an incredible moment with us, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be,» said Neuville.

The phrase “it wasn’t to be” was apt for several drivers as the Central European Rally was in the words of eventual winner Tanak a “very demanding rally.” It was demanding on several levels with crews completing stages in the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. Throw in multiple surface changes, unpredictable weather and increasingly dirty roads and you have the perfect recipe for an unpredictable rally.

The start was however predictable as Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier ended Thursday’s two Czech stages following the ceremonial start in Prague with a 0.9s lead over Neuville, who was sporting some cosmetic damage to his right front wheel arch from hitting a bale in the super special. The surprise was the driver in third spot as Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen, who had previously struggled to tame the i20 N on asphalt, come to the fore. A decision to go his own way on set up rather than following Neuville and Tanak helped the Norwegian, who is facing an uncertain future for 2025, come alive. 

Mikkelsen’s bright start however faded by stage five (Sumavske Hostice 1 — 16.85 km). Having dropped to sixth overall, Mikkelsen drifted wide on the leaf covered road and clattered a fence that tore the front from his i20 N resulting in retirement. Mikkelsen did rejoin the rally on Saturday only for a puncture to end any hopes of Super Sunday points.

Andreas Mikkelsen had made a stunning start to the rally before dropping back

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

Hybrid power had been a talking point in the lead up to the event, with the WRC potentially set for another U-turn with its 2025 technical regulations by removing this element due to a recent change in the user guide issued by Compact Dynamics, the supplier of the control units. The new regulations came into force in Greece last month stating that on safety grounds hybrid units can no longer be reset and if they fail on event they must be replaced and sent to the manufacturer for a repair adding significant costs to the teams.

By stage four, nearly half of the Rally1 cars had suffered hybrid failures. Toyota’s rising star Sami Pajari, making his first Rally1 outing on asphalt driving a fourth GR Yaris was the first to lose the hybrid boost before Mikkelsen, and the M-Sport duo Adrien Fourmaux and Gregoire Munster lost the use of hybrid following a particularly hard landings from the same jump in the Strasin 1 — 26.69 km — the longest of the rally.

Although, the lack of hybrid was the least of Fourmaux’s concerns having been strangely 1m33.4s off the pace in seventh overall come the end of Friday. The frustrated Frenchman declared that he was struggling with “everything” on the car and that “something was wrong”, which required a thorough investigation.

“I’m happy to be at the end. It is easy to make a mistake and I knew that the only thing that was important was to make it to the end” Thierry Neuville, Friday

At the front though, Neuville, who has had to engage damage limitation mode starting first on the road for the last seven consecutive gravel rallies, was thriving with the road position advantage on asphalt. The Hyundai driver hauled himself into the rally lead by stage five before going on to extend his lead over Ogier to 6.4s on slippery roads that were hard to judge and made even worse by light drizzle. With Tanak a further 1.4s back in third and Toyota’s Elfyn Evans only 15.1s in arrears, the battle for victory was tight, but Neuville knew if he could maintain this display the world title would be his come Sunday.

“I’m happy to be at the end. It is easy to make a mistake and I knew that the only thing that was important was to make it to the end,” said Neuville.

But the rally gods chose not to shine on Neuville on Saturday as fog made the morning stages that straddled the Germany/Austria border wet, and like driving on ice. The conditions were responsible for several drivers making unscheduled trips to the scenery, including Neuville.

Neuville’s lead had been reduced to 0.8s after Tanak produced a stunning time to win stage nine but according to the 2019 world champion “Cyril [Abiteboul, Hyundai team boss] didn’t like our first stage time and we started to get some messages”. Abiteboul clarified that these messages were made with the manufacturers title fight against Toyota in mind, reminding Tanak of the risks he should avoid taking.   

Neuville took an advantage overnight into Saturday

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

Tanak’s effort briefly elevated his i20 N to second ahead of Ogier before the Estonian dropped his pace too much in stage 10 (Beyond Borders, 24.433km) and fell back behind the Toyota that was only two second behind leader Neuville.

Neuville this year has rarely made an error, a loss of concentration in Sardinia, being his only real mistake. It is why he is leading the championship having scored points in every round. However, in stage 12, the Belgian made two costly mistakes. A 360 degree spin after touching the wet grass was recovered quickly but moments later he careered off the road luckily onto a large grass run-off area. In an effort to return to the road, he became briefly stuck in a ditch. More than half a minute was lost as he dropped to fourth and effectively his hopes of sealing a world title had evaporated.

“It was two spins, I mean the first one was a basic spin and the second one the pacenote was too fast,” Neuville told Motorsport.com. “It was a long corner and you don’t see the exit very well because it is uphill and when I entered the corner, it turned more than my pacenotes told me.”  

Neuville, now resigned to bringing the car home, wasn’t the only driver to be caught out. Ogier who inherited the lead survived a small moment, but admitted “it was easy to make a mistake” while M-Sport duo Fourmaux and Munster both enjoyed trips into fields, now with working hybrid units.

Fourmaux’s was the most spectacular as he skidded onto the grass and brushed the trees. However, the mysterious issue with his car came to light. M-Sport had made wholesale changes overnight but didn’t change the front differential which had developed a fault leaving that effectively reduced the Puma to a rear wheel drive only version. 

“As soon as there is dirt [on the road] it is hard to get it to go straight. It is undriveable,” said Fourmaux, whose day came to an end when he lost the rear of his Puma in stage 10 and the impact required a wheel change. Although damage to the hybrid cooling package put him out of the rally until Sunday where he produced much better speed.

The battle for the rally victory turned into a three-way fight. Tanak reduced Ogier’s advantage to 1.1s after stage 13 before Ogier reeled off two stages wins to end the day with a slender 5.2s margin, while an under the weather Evans was third, 14.0s in arrears. It was looking very good for Toyota in the manufacturers’ battle with Ogier picking up 18 provisional Saturday points and Evans 13.

Toyota was attempting to claw back ground in the manufacturer’s championship, with Ogier and Evans leading the charge

Photo by: Toyota Racing

The WRC’s new points system is complex and divides opinion, but it has certainly ensured that Sundays are no longer sedate affairs — a conveyer belt of action and chaos is a better description as crews fight for 12 crucial Super Sunday points.

Hyundai has been the master of this new discipline while it has been a weakness for Toyota. The latter proved true as another ‘black Sunday’, as Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala calls them, unfolded.   

First Toyota lost Pajari who had been highly impressive to head into Sunday sitting in fifth position. However, the young Finn came into left hander in stage 15 (Am Hochwald, 12.17km) too fast resulting in his GR Yaris finding a ditch and being pitched into a roll. 

«I think it was a soft roll but I don’t know why it happened, in my opinion my pacenote was okay and there was nothing really surprising on that corner,” said Pajari. 

With every pass, the stage became increasingly dirty, aided by the placement of anti-cut devices or the lack thereof. Efforts to curb cutting this year had been praised by the drivers earlier in the event but conditions were evolving fast in the opposite direction for the leading runners.

«I feel angry with myself in the moment and I’m very sorry for the team» Sebastien Ogier after crashing

This would prove to be the downfall of rally leader Ogier as the eight-time world champion made costly mistakes for the third event in succession. Ogier lost the rally lead in the first pass through (Am Hochwald, 12.17km) where he misjudged the braking at a junction and ran onto the grass, handing a 1.9s advantage to Tanak. 

This gap was reduced to 1.5s before the second pass that proved even more damaging. Six hundred metres into the penultimate stage of the rally Ogier was caught out on the dirt at a fast right and clattered into the trees. Normally a master of controlling his emotions the accident provoked screams of anger as he clambered out of the car. It was the only stage where route note crews were not allowed to pass to provide up to date road evolution information to the drivers.

«I feel angry with myself in the moment and I’m very sorry for the team, I tried my best,» said Ogier. «It was really my main target to help them achieve the manufacturers’ title. I think I was doing a good job so far but unfortunately it is a third weekend in a row that has not gone my way. It is a tough time.»

Ogier’s rally came to an abrupt end with a crash on an unscouted stage

Photo by: Toyota Racing

With the shockwaves caused by Ogier’s accident, Abiteboul once again reminded Tanak of the risks at stake and his driver duly delivered a steady Power Stage time, missing out on the bonus points, to seal a 21st WRC victory and perhaps one of the toughest of his career.

“We have seen every day that so much is happening and in some stages it [drama[ is happening for many cars clearly it is very demanding rally. It is never easy but I’m happy to come out without mistakes,” said Tanak, who took the victory by seven seconds from Evans, with Neuville third.

The returning Takamoto Katsuta, benched for Rally Chile, finished fourth but impressed throughout and proved to be a life saver for Toyota after claiming the maximum 12 Super Sunday points. Despite Ogier’s late exit Toyota actually decreased Hyundai’s lead in the manufacturers’ title race to 15 ahead of the Japan finale but it could have been even closer.  

“For sure it was big big pressure before this rally and it was such a difficult moment I had last month, but I have had strong support from the team and the people around me,” said Katsuta, who finished ahead of M-Sport’s Munster, who recorded a career-best equalling fifth.

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For Neuville, it wasn’t the title coronation he’d dreamt but he will take a 25-point lead over Tanak into a Japan decider, adding “It wasn’t to be this weekend. Sorry for the team for a small mistake but even world champions make mistakes.”

The WRC title battle is most certainly not over but its very much a case of championship point to Neuville. One thing that is for certain a Hyundai driver will win the championship for the first time. 

“I guess it depends how much Thierry wants it,” said Tanak. “If he is smart in Japan and does a good job then nobody has a chance, but we also have a responsibility for the manufacturers championship it is still a big job ahead of us so we can’t really focus only on drivers title.”

Tanak emerged victorious as team-mate Neuville picked up crucial championship points

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

A rare mistake from Sebastien Ogier has handed the Central European Rally lead to Hyundai’s Ott Tanak while World Rally Championship Rally1 rookie Sami Pajari rolled on Sunday morning. 

Ogier started the final day of the rally with a 5.2s margin over Tanak but a lock up approaching a left-hander at the start of a bone dry but dirty stage 15 (Am Hochwald 12.17km) proved costly. 

The eight-time world champion’s Toyota GR Yaris, last to start the stage, ran off the road onto grass before eventually rejoining the stage, which cost him valuable seconds. 

Ogier reached the stage end 7.1s slower than Tanak, handing the Hyundai driver the rally lead by 1.9s.

«There was a lock-up for us and we went straight. All okay, it is the way it is,” said Ogier when asked about he incident. 

The stage proved to be particularly tricky for the later runners as gravel and dirt had been dragged onto the surface after several anti-cut devices had been removed. 

Tanak described the test as having “dirty surprises” and “very challenging” as he ultimately completed the test 3.8s slower than the pace set by the returning M-Sport-Ford driver Adrien Fourmaux, who was first on the road.     

Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Evans was second fastest on the stage to maintain third position overall. Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta was fourth quickest while Neuville was 0.2s faster than rival Tanak, although clearly frustrated by the lack of anti-cut devices. 

«If I see the conditions in there, I don’t want to push too much, there are many surprises,» said Neuville.  

“I had a big slide immediately in the beginning. All the anti-cuts have moved and some have been removed, it’s not nice. They are moved by just a tiny bit and the road is dirty.”

The challenging stage conditions were highlighted by Pajari, who rolled out of sixth position overall. 

The Finn, making his third Rally1 outing and his first on asphalt, ran wide at a medium-left corner running into a ditch that pitched his GR Yaris into a roll. The car eventually came to rest on its wheels but with damage to the front and rear of the car, which ended his rally prematurely.   

“It was so fast I don’t really know what happened. It is clear to see we went a bit wide on a corner and we rolled quite softly. The damage is not so bad on the car so maybe we could continue, but we don’t want to cause any more damage,” said Pajari.

“It is quite a shame as it was quite a soft roll but I don’t know why it happened because in my opinion my pacenote was okay and there was nothing really surprising at that corner, so I don’t know why.”

Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen picked up a front left puncture in the stage neccessitating a wheel change.   

Tanak continued to lead after stage 16 although his lead was reduced to 1.5s after Ogier took 0.4s out of the Estonian in the first pass of the stage, that will act as the rally ending PowerStage.

Katsuta took the stage win, his second of the rally, by 1.5s from Ogier to move into a tie with Fourmaux at the top of the Super Sunday standings. Katsuta did hit something on his way to the stage end that caused minor damage to the front of his GR Yaris.   

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier will take a slender lead over Hyundai’s Ott Tanak as 14s separated the top three heading into the final four stages of the Central European Rally.

The eight-time world champion won two of the three afternoon asphalt stages to extend his advantage over Tanak to 5.2s, with Toyota’s Elfyn Evans in third and 14s back.

Ogier’s performance earned the Frenchman 18 provisional championship points to boost Toyota’s manufacturers’ title hopes, while Tanak picked up 15 points and Evans claimed 13.

Championship leader Thierry Neuville ended the day in fourth, 39.8s back on the overall lead, to claim 10 provisional championship points, after two errors in the morning’s stage 11 cost him half a minute and the rally lead.

It proved to be a setback for the Belgian, who can seal a maiden world title if he can outscore Tanak by two points.

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, team-mate Sami Pajari and M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster rounded out the top seven. M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux retired from the day’s action after damaging the rear of his Ford Puma in stage 10.

Neuville’s demise in the morning put attention firmly on the fight for the rally lead between Ogier, Tanak and Evans as the trio had been separated by 8.1s.

Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

The afternoon’s first stage, a second pass through Granit und Wald (20.05km), went the way of Tanak as the Hyundai driver repeated the stage win from the morning pass.

The stage was mostly dry, unlike the morning, but there were still a few “sketchy” damp patches according to Tanak. The 2019 world champion’s effort was 3.4s faster than rally leader Ogier’s, which reduced the Toyota driver’s lead to a mere 1.1s.

Evans also pushed hard on the dirty road, matching Ogier’s time to remain poised in third overall.

Resigned to the fact that the gap to lead group was too large to claw back, Neuville delivered a steady run to clock the fourth-fastest time ahead of Katsuta, Pajari, Mikkelsen and Munster.

Katsuta did have 16 seconds added to his overall time after he was found to have exceeded the speed limit by 8km/h through the virtual chicane in the morning pass through the test.

Ogier responded to Tanak’s push in stage 13 (Beyond Borders, 24.33km) by winning the test and crucially taking three seconds out of his Hyundai rival. The road was much drier compared to the morning pass.

«We had to react, Ott was fast in the previous, we had to be fast on this. It is a drier road, so we have to be better on it,” said Ogier.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

Neuville was Ogier’s nearest rival on the stage, 0.9s adrift, as the WRC points leader focused on bringing the car home, as both Tanak and Evans dropped time to Ogier.

“In the dry conditions, a lot of markings have improved, I had a bit of hesitation in there. I should learn to ignore what my old man [father, Gwyndaf Evans] says sometimes!” Evans said. “He’s doing my gravel notes, you have to take everything with a pinch of salt but it’s not always that easy to do.”

Ogier managed to pull further clear of Tanak on the final stage of the day after eclipsing the Hyundai driver’s time by 1.1s, with Evans two seconds adrift of the pace to set up an intriguing three-way fight for the victory on Sunday.

In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin opened up a 1m50.8s lead over Filip Mares, while Yohan Rossel’s championship hopes are all but over after a mistake in the morning left him 11th in class and 15m40.7s in arrears.

The rally will conclude after four Sunday stages comprising of 54.04km.

World Rally Championship title favourite Thierry Neuville went off the road in stage 11 twice to hand Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier the lead at the Central European Rally.

The Hyundai driver’s lead came under pressure on Saturday morning from team-mate Ott Tanak before Neuville relieved the pressure.

However, two mistakes in the final stage of the loop dropped the championship leader to fourth, 33.6s behind new rally leader Ogier. 

Tanak, whom Neuville needs to outscore by two points to seal the world title this weekend, moved to second, 4.6s adrift, with Toyota’s Elfyn Evans fourth [+8.3s]. Takamoto Katsuta [+1m02.4s], Sami Pahari [+1m49.9s] and Gregoire Munster [+2m51.0s] rounded out the top seven.    

M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux retired from the day’s action after stage 10.

Challenging wet and foggy conditions welcomed the crews for Saturday’s first stage in Germany (Grant und Wald, 20.0km), which triggered plenty of drama.

Andreas Mikkelsen was the first to tackle the conditions after rejoining the rally having crashed out on stage five yesterday. The Hyundai driver suffered a slow speed spin on his way through the test he described as “very tricky”. 

Andreas Mikkelsen, Torstein Eriksen, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

M-Sport’s Fourmaux, who felt there was something wrong with his car on Friday, was fortunate to continue after a wild moment when he ran wide onto a large grass run-off that resulted in his Puma sliding into trees. 

Luckily, he was able to continue, reporting that an intermittent front differential issue was to blame for the off.

“We have a huge issue on the front differential that we realised on the road section, I have no drive on the front, it is like driving a rear wheel drive all the time. As soon as there is dirt [on the road] it is hard to get it to go straight. It is undrivable,” said Fourmaux, who now had the use of his hybrid unit following yesterday’s failure. 

WRC2 driver Oliver Solberg suffered a similar moment at the same corner moments later but was able to avoid running into the trees. 

The tricky conditions were however tamed by Tanak, who produced a blistering effort to win the stage by 3.9s from Ogier to move ahead of the Toyota driver into second overall. 

“The car feels better today than yesterday but it is extremely demanding conditions out there,” said Tanak.

Rally leader Neuville opted for a steady approach in the slippery conditions that resulted in a time seven seconds slower than team-mate Tanak. Neuville’s rally lead had been cut to 0.8s over Tanak. 

The pressure on Neuville’s was slightly relieved in stage 10 (Beyond Borders 24.33km) as Tanak surprisingly dropped time through the test that straddled the Austrian and German border.

Tanak was 7.2s slower than the pace set by Elfyn Evans, who hauled himself back into the victory fight thanks to an impressive drive in difficult-to-judge damp conditions. Evans’ effort left the Toyota driver 10.1s behind rally leader Neuville. 

Neuville continued to stick to his plan in the challenging conditions, completing the stage without issue, 2.3s slower than Evans. Neuville was 1.1s slower than Ogier, who jumped ahead of Tanak back into second overall. At the end of the stage, Neuville actually increased his rally lead to 2.2s over Ogier.

There was further drama for Fourmaux who endured two off-road excursions. The Ford driver survived a first run onto grass but the second resulted in an impact to the rear of his Puma that necessitated a wheel change.

Fourmaux was able to reach the stage end but the damage to the rear of the car was too severe to continue. 

Team-mate Munster was also fortunate to continue without a stoppage after clipping a kerb with his left rear wheel. On the next test, he endured a brief run into a field that cost him valuable seconds. 

Munster wasn’t the only driver to find the grass in stage 11 (Schardinger Innviertel, 17.35 km) as Katsuta ran wide at right hander that left his Toyota sliding onto the run-off, before returning to the asphalt.

Grégoire Munster, Louis Louka, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Rally leader Neuville was the next to find the grass as the drama ramped up another level. The Hyundai driver ran wide at a left-hander and ran onto the grass and into a 360 spin. 

After recovering from the mistake an optimistic pacenote led to another off that cost the championship leader even more time. Neuville was able to spin the car on the grass but became briefly stuck in a ditch while trying to get back onto the road.

Ogier inherited the rally lead while winning the stage in the process by 0.1s from Evans.

In WRC2, Yohan Rossel’s title hopes evaporated after a mistake on stage nine cost him more than 14 minutes. Rossel’s team-mate Nikolay Gryazin maintained his rally lead of the class ahead of the afternoon’s stages.