Championship leader Elfyn Evans, second-placed Sébastien Ogier and third man on the road Kalle Rovanperä all suffered expected time loss from their starting positions on Thursday. None of the trio was able to set front-running pace during the day.
At the top of the leaderboard are Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, Toyota’s Sami Pajari and M-Sport Ford’s Martins Sesks, all benefitting from favourable road positions on the desert stages. Of the title contenders, Ogier lies seventh, Rovanperä eighth and Evans ninth.
If points were awarded as things stand, Ogier would claim the championship by a single point over Evans – but there are still two gruelling days to go.
“Our guys have been first, second and third on the road and they were suffering quite a lot cleaning the road. Tomorrow will be a different starting order, so we will see. But they are still quite close,” noted Juha Kankkunen, who is filling in as Toyota team principal.
Ogier managed to pull a gap to Rovanperä and Evans during the day, giving the Frenchman a marginally better road position for Friday’s stages.
“It can make a big difference. We saw today how the times were improving,” Kankkunen said.
“I’m sure there will be more drama tomorrow and things can happen. But at the moment it looks okay.”
Thursday already produced plenty of action on the desert roads near Jeddah, but every Rally1 crew reached the end of the day. Several drivers – including Rovanperä – suffered punctures on the rough gravel.
But none of the top-class cars was forced to retire.
“That was somehow a surprise because I saw the road before and had the reports from the drivers. But tomorrow will be a hard day. The cars got a bit tired today, but of course there is a full service, so we change everything. The punctures were kind of thing today and could be also tomorrow, because we are doing much more mileage than today,” Kankkunen explained.
Rally Saudi Arabia continues on Friday with another demanding day before the season concludes on Saturday.
