World champions Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak were left watching from the sidelines as Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä set the fastest time on every “forest stage” of the day – and to make matters worse, their teammate Adrien Fourmaux consistently outpaced them both.
Neuville struggled heavily with car setup in the morning, though things improved slightly in the afternoon.
“I think we did a good job on the car, continuously working to find something which finally was quite consistent and working. Not too bad. So overall happy we found something we can start the day with tomorrow, which is going to be important,” Neuville, who sits sixth in the rally standings, explained.
Toyota holds a commanding 1–2–3–4 lead, but there are still valuable points up for grabs on Sunday.
“We know we’re not competitive against Toyota, so we need to target at least one or two extra points tomorrow. We’re going to take anything we can and give it our very best from the beginning,” Neuville said.
Ott Tänak’s day followed a similar pattern to Neuville’s – the pace simply wasn’t there. However, the Estonian also found the afternoon loop slightly better.
“Generally, the first stage was probably again the most tricky, but then the second and third were actually a little bit better. So it was slightly possible to enjoy a bit,” said Tänak, who is seventh overall behind Neuville in the asphalt event.
Earlier at midday service, Tänak had mentioned that Hyundai was resorting to some “desperate” attempts to improve drivability.
“We were kind of flying and testing, so I actually don’t know yet what’s been working,” Tänak admitted.
“I have, let’s say, my thoughts. So we’ll discuss now in service with the engineers. But yeah, they did what they thought would be a good idea. So step by step, we were trying,” he added.
Still, Tänak made it clear they’re not giving up.
“Hope is always there,” Tänak said.
