Sebastien Ogier Wins First Croatia Rally!

Just before the last gear, the Welshman Elfyn Evans (Toyota) had a 3.9-second advantage over Ogier but made a mistake in the last turn of the rally and lost the victory by only six-tenths of a second. Ogier thus reached the 51st triumph in his career.

Evans finished in second place (+0.6), and third place went to Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), who drove great in reverse gear, but at one point spun on the track and lost several precious seconds.

The winner of the Finnish Arctic Rally, Estonian Ott Tänak (Hyundai), was fourth with a minute and 25.1 seconds behind the winner.

Ogier was the leader after the first two days of the rally, i.e., after 16 of the 20 scheduled special stages. On Sunday, the last day, he came in with a 6.9-second lead over British teammate Elfyn Evans and 10.4 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Thierry Neuville (Hyundai).

On the way to today’s first gear, Ogier had a minor traffic accident on Avenue Dubrovnik. The world champion was heading east and then tried to rearrange himself in the right lane and was then hit by a personal car, which hit the back of Ogier’s Toyota. No one was injured, and Ogier continued to race. Further precious seconds were lost in the 18th gear where Evans took the initiative and skipped over them.

The last day of the Croatia Rally started with the 17th speed test Bliznec – Pila (25.2 km), and Evans was brilliant and the fastest on the 17th and 18th speed, while Thierry Neuville had the best time on the penultimate speed test.

The last speed (Zagorska Sela – Kumrovec, 14.09 km) is the so-called “power stage” where drivers have extra points for the World Cup. Elfyn Evans took the lead; in second place was Ogier with 3.9 seconds behind, while in third was Neuville with 8.0 seconds less time. But in the last gear, Ogier was the fastest and surpassed Evans.