The Citroën driver still has a shot at the WRC2 class title. To climb to the top of the standings ahead of Oliver Solberg, he needs to secure a class victory in this weekend’s rally. However, it’s worth noting that a class win won’t guarantee Rossel the championship. Sami Pajari also has a chance to overtake both the Frenchman and Solberg in the season finale in Japan.
On Thursday evening’s Klatovy stage, Rossel may have made a costly mistake. He went wide on a corner and almost flipped his car. His Citroën C3 Rally2 ultimately stayed on its wheels, but the right rear wheel was completely damaged.
In his post-stage interview, Rossel calmly feigned ignorance about his mishap.
“I don’t know what happened,” Rossel said seriously before moving on.
Rossel finished 32.5 seconds behind his teammate Nikolay Gryazin, who posted the fastest WRC2 class time. This dropped Rossel to tenth place in the class standings, leaving him with significant ground to make up over the coming days to keep his title hopes alive.
Rossel did receive some positive news on Thursday regarding his championship battle. In the previous round in Chile, he was awarded a 40-second time adjustment because Oliver Solberg, who was changing a tire, had returned to the stage ahead of the Frenchman.
Solberg appealed the decision, but the Chilean stewards did not take it up. Later, however, the FIA asked the stewards to review the case again and provided video evidence related to the incident.
The stewards reviewed the matter before the Central European Rally and ultimately decided to uphold Rossel’s time adjustment, allowing him to retain his WRC2 win in Chile.
There is a possibility that the case could still be reviewed later by the FIA International Court of Appeal.
