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.

Thierry Neuville extended his Central European Rally lead over Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier to edge another step closer to sealing a maiden World Rally Championship title.

Neuville produced an impressive drive through six tricky asphalt stages held in the Czech Republic to increase his advantage over the eight-time world champion to 6.4s.

The Hyundai driver took the rally lead in stage five, the third test of the day, and was able to make the most of starting first on the road to lead an event that could decide the world championship, with Neuville needing only to outscore Ogier by 10 points and Hyundai’s Ott Tanak by two points to clinch a maiden world title this weekend.

Tanak struggled to find the ideal set-up, ending Friday in third [+7.8s] ahead of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans [+15.1s] and the returning Takamoto Katsuta [+38.6s].

Rally1 rookie Sami Pajari [+1m28.2s] and M-Sport-Ford duo Adrien Fourmaux [+1m33.4s] and Gregoire Munster [2m27.4s] rounded out the top eight. Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen crashed out of the rally after clattering into a fence in stage five, having held sixth position.    

A third pass through the Klatovy, 11.78km test kicked off the afternoon before crews headed to a remote service. 

The stage win went to Katsuta who managed to navigate what had become a very dirty road, 0.4s faster than rally leader Neuville.

Takamoto Katsuta, Aaron Johnston, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: M-Sport

“I enjoyed it a lot, tough conditions but I was confident to push,” said Katsuta. 

Ogier was a second adrift of Katsuta as the Frenchman’s deficit to Neuville grew to 3.3s.

Tanak also dropped time with Estonian reporting that he was still “dreaming” of a good set-up on his i20 N. 

However, he was faring much better than Fourmaux as he tried to tame his Ford Puma with the added disadvantage of a malfunctioning hybrid unit.

“It is very frustrating honestly, I try my best but the car is so hard to drive, under braking the car is moving a lot. We are trying many things in the road section and it’s not working,” said Forumaux.

It didn’t get much better for the Frenchman after the remote service as the shock suffered by his hybrid unit from a jump landing was too severe and it was unable to be reset for the final two stages. Set-up tweaks made in service did at least improve the handling to some extent.

Neuville claimed his first fastest time of the day after winning stage seven (Strasin, 26.69km). 

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

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

The second pass through the longest stage of the rally was much drier than anticipated as the Belgian clocked a time 0.6s faster than Evans, who wished he’d opted for hard-compound tyres. 

Tanak appeared to have made some progress with the set-up of his i20 N to post the third fastest time, while Ogier was surprised to drop 3.6s.

“We are just not fast enough, it was a clean stage but we are missing a bit of pace. The car feels nice to drive but we have to check,” said Ogier, who was 1.2s faster than Katsuta.

The fourth Toyota driven by Pajari had a brief run-in with a hedge but successfully reached the stage end faster than the struggling Fords of Fourmaux and Munster.

Light drizzle affected the final stage of the day (Sumavske Hostice 2 16.85km) to further elevate the difficulty of the technical test.

Ogier was however able to respond to the time loss from the previous stage by setting the pace. The Toyota driver was 0.5s faster than Neuville to cut the lead to 6.4s.

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

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Evans lost ground on the top three after what he described as “a bit of funny feeling” towards the end of the stage that pushed him 7.3s shy of third-placed Tanak.

In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin completed the six stages with a 3.1s lead over Oliver Solberg, who is not scoring points this weekend. 

Yohan Rossel’s title hopes took another hit after a wild moment in the final stage. The Frenchman needs to win the class to keep his championship alive, but ended the day 1m36.7s behind Gryazin.

Sebastien Ogier opened up a slender early lead over World Rally Championship title favourite Thierry Neuville after the opening two stages of the Central European Rally.  

The eight-time world champion made an impressive start to the 18-stage three-country asphalt rally to lead Neuville by 0.9s. The latter can seal a maiden world title this weekend. 

Ogier kicked off proceedings by winning the Velka Chuchle (2.55km) super special stage, held around a horse racing course near the Czech capital Prague.

The Toyota driver took the stage win by 0.6s from team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, making his return to the WRC after the team opted to bench the driver for last month’s Rally Chile.

Ogier then trailed Neuville by 1.1s when the crews tackled stage two (Klatovy, 11.78km) as darkness descended on the slippery asphalt road. The Frenchman’s run did include a minor excursion across a grassbank. 

Neuville made the most of starting first on the road to set the pace despite suffering cosmetic damage to the aero on the front right of his i20 N incurred after clipping a hay bale in the previous stage.

The Belgian was a second quicker than title rival and Hyundai team-mate Ott Tanak, whom he needs to outscore by two points this weekend to lift the world title. 

Ott Tänak, Hyundai World Rally Team

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

“I can’t be happy, to be honest. I took off the aero on the front right by stupidly touching a straw bale, it will handicap me for the whole day tomorrow. Let’s see, it wasn’t too much of a disaster,” said Neuville.

Andreas Mikkelsen making a welcomed return to the WRC piloting Hyundai’s third i20 N headed into Friday’s stages sitting third overall, 1.7s adrift.

Mikkelsen attributed his pace to taking a different set-up direction that suited his driving style, having previously copied the set-ups of team-mates Neuville and Tanak at previous asphalt events.

“It was fun, now is the first time I have enjoyed driving the car on Tarmac,” said Mikkelsen. 

“I changed a lot in my set-up and it was mind-blowing in there. It was really enjoyable to drive. It has been a long time since I have had that feeling. I’m looking forward to the weekend now.”   

Katsuta also enjoyed the feeling behind the wheel of his GR Yaris to end the day in fourth overall, two seconds off the pace.

«Time is very good. I didn’t push so much but I’m enjoying this car a lot, said Katsuta. “It was getting darker and darker all the time, but all the pace note information is going well. I need to be a bit steady tomorrow as it is the biggest day of the rally.”

Takamoto Katsuta, Aaron Johnston, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Tanak rounded out the top five, three tenths faster than M-Sport-Ford’s Adrien Fourmuax, who finished ahead of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans (+3.1s) and Sami Pajari, competing in his first Rally1 outing on asphalt.

The top 10 was completed by M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster and WRC2 title contender Oliver Solberg, although the latter isn’t scoring championship points this weekend. 

Solberg’s WRC2 title rival Yohan Rossel was incredibly fortunate not to roll his Citroen when he ran wide and clipped a hay bale that sent the car onto two wheels, destroying the right rear. The Frenchman dropped 33.1s to class leader Solberg. 

Six stages in the Czech Republic await the crews on Friday before moving into Germany and Austria across the weekend.

World Rally Championship teams have expressed their thoughts regarding the possibility of a last-minute change to remove hybrid power from Rally1 cars for next season.

It appears there is a strong chance the FIA could decide to abandon hybrid power from the WRC’s top-flight class in a move that has been triggered by a mid-season change to the hybrid unit user guide from control supplier Compact Dynamics.

This is the latest in a long-running saga over the 2025 WRC regulations.The FIA’s working group, formed to “evaluate and recommend the future direction of rallying, proposed to remove hybrid power as part of raft of changes for 2025 in February this year.

However, WRC teams pushed back against the changes, resulting in the current Rally1 regulations staying put for 2025 and 2026 in what was seen as a U-turn from the FIA.

As previously reported, Compact Dynamics’ new safety guidelines stipulate that if the 130kW hybrid unit suffers three shock errors over 15G or one over 25G, it has to be stripped apart and sent back to the supplier for a full repair that can take months to complete.

Teams believe the change brought in at the Acropolis Rally Greece in September will significantly raise hybrid unit repair costs, with one team arguing it would no longer be financially viable.

An FIA e-vote has since been held where teams have expressed their thoughts as to whether hybrid power should continue next year. A decision is yet to be made. 

M-Sport-Ford team principal Richard Millener says the “extreme costs” now involved to run the hybrid units has made it no longer feasible for the Ford squad next year.    

“I think I would still like it [hybrid] in terms of what it is about, and what we are trying to push in terms of a championship with hybrid technology is still important,” Millener told Motorsport.com. 

“But sadly, with the rules that we have regarding the safety of the units and how they have to be repaired after a shock, with extreme costs to repair them, and that’s not feasible for us. 

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“It is not a request to remove it for what it is, it is a request to remove it because we can’t actually repair and run them at an economic price for M-Sport. We are talking a few extra million euro to do it and that is not something we can deal with. 

«It is not good, that image [of constant rule changes] from the outside and I have said before we need to have a strong leadership and a strong image of where we are going and we are struggling with that and we need to improve it.

«People will skew the reason and I’m sure people will blame the teams and some people will blame the FIA, but the supplier is not able to give us the product in the way we need it to work for us.”

Toyota is hopeful a sensible solution can be found but has questioned if hybrid power is still required moving forward.

“It’s not an ideal situation for sure,” Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala told Motorsport.com. “We don’t want expenses to go higher and we want to keep things simple, and if it is getting too complicated the the question is do we really need them [hybrid units]? 

“I think performance-wise the cars are pretty good even without it. But it shouldn’t get too difficult for the teams and if there is a risk that teams cannot be in the World Rally Championship because they are running out of units, then it shouldn’t be that way. 

“It is difficult as running these units and if they have an impact they need to be fixed and that takes time, so we need to find a sensible solution. At the end of the day if it is too difficult then it is easier to go without.”  

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

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Hyundai has been vocal in its support of hybrid power previously this year but even its team principal Cyril Abitebeoul admitted that if would accept a change if it helped ensure the future of its competitors in the WRC.

“My thoughts are that electrification is the direction that the world is taking. We know that it’s an ongoing trend and therefore we are still supportive of electrifying motorsport electrifying WRC,» Abiteboul told Motorsport.com. 

«We will never actively or proactively request to remove the hybrid from WRC. Having said that, we also need to be pragmatic and recognise the fact that the WRC community is a small community and as any small community, we need to look after one another.

“So if there is any steps that must be taken in order to guarantee participants and competitors at the events we will accept to take those steps. We don’t want to be selfish. I don’t think that anyone can afford to be selfish in the current situation of WRC.

“One thing we must have is a decision very quickly. We are in the process of ordering parts, not the hybrid themselves, because that’s been done already since a while.

“If hybrid was to be removed, I think that’s something we will want to know as quickly as possible to avoid the [un]necessary cost.”

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