The leading duo, Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, recorded identical times on the rally’s tenth special stage. The four fastest drivers on this over 20-kilometre stage clocked times within 0.4 seconds of each other.
In the overall standings, Neuville maintained his lead at 0.8 seconds ahead of Evans.
“Everybody is close, it’s quite surprising in such long stage,” Evans marvelled.
“It’s very tight. Obviously we expected more humid to damp conditions. I pushed quite hard and with the dirty road we had a good run,” Neuville stated.
The fastest time on the special stage went to Sebastien Ogier, currently in third place. The Toyota driver beat Evans and Neuville by just 0.3 seconds.
In the overall standings, Ogier is 6.8 seconds behind the leader.
“At the moment it’s still enjoyable to drive, very hard to predict when the rain is coming,” Ogier reflected.
Hyundai’s Ott Tänak continues in fourth place ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux. Tänak overshot a corner and hit the curb, but escaped with just a scare.
“We went wide in a place and we hit the edge. The touch was a lot softer than expected. I was struggling with the braking,” Tänak summarised.
In sixth place in the rally is Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, ahead of Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen and M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster.
In the WRC2 class, Citroen driver Nikolay Gryazin continues to lead. His teammate Yohan Rossel has closed the gap and is now 22.4 seconds behind Gryazin. Sami Pajari remains fourth in the class.
The Croatia Rally continues on Saturday with six more special stages. The event concludes on Sunday.
Standings at the Croatia Rally after SS10/20:
| POS | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | 1:28:4.3 |
| 2. | Elfyn Evans | Toyota | +0.8 |
| 3. | Sebastien Ogier | Toyota | +6.8 |
| 4. | Ott Tänak | Hyundai | +47.5 |
| 5. | Adrien Fourmaux | Ford | +59.1 |
| 6. | Takamoto Katsuta | Toyota | +1:45.2 |
| 7. | Andreas Mikkelsen | Hyundai | +2:51.6 |
| 8. | Gregoire Munster | Ford | +3:38.8 |
| 9. | Nikolay Gryazin | Citroen | +5:03.9 |
| 10. | Yohan Rossel | Citroen | +5:26.3 |
| 11. | Gus Greensmith | Skoda | +5:48.9 |
| 12. | Sami Pajari | Toyota | +6:10.6 |
Croatia Rally itinerary (CET):
Thursday, April 18 09:01 Shakedown: Okić (3.65 km) Friday, April 19 08:28 SS1: Krašić - Sošice 1 (23.63 km) 09:41 SS2: Jaškovo - Mali Modruš Potok 1 (9.48 km) 10:39 SS3: Ravna Gora - Skrad 1 (10.13 km) 11:47 SS4: Platak 1 (16.63 km) 14:02 Tyre fitting zone (15 min) 14:45 SS5: Platak 2 (16.63 km) 15:58 SS6: Ravna Gora - Skrad 2 (10.13 km) 17:16 SS7: Jaškovo - Mali Modruš Potok 2 (9.48 km) 18:09 SS8: Krašić - Sošice 2 (23.63 km) Saturday, April 20 07:31 SS9: Smerovišće - Grdanjci 1 (15.72 km) 08:24 SS10: Stojdraga - Gornja Vas 1 (20.77 km) 10:05 SS11: Vinski Vrh - Duga Resa 1 (8.78 km) 11:03 SS12: Pećurkovo Brdo - Mrežnički Novaki 1 (9.11 km) 13:03 Service (40 min) 14:31 SS13: Smerovišće - Grdanjci 2 (15.72 km) 15:24 SS14: Stojdraga - Gornja Vas 2 (20.77 km) 17:05 SS15: Vinski Vrh - Duga Resa 2 (8.78 km) 18:03 SS16: Pećurkovo Brdo - Mrežnički Novaki 2 (9.11 km) Sunday, April 21 07:08 SS17: Trakošćan - Vrbno 1 (13.15 km) 08:35 SS18: Zagorska Sela - Kumrovec 1 (14.24 km) 10:23 SS19: Trakošćan - Vrbno 2 (13.15 km) 13:15 SS20: Zagorska Sela - Kumrovec 2 (14.24 km) *Power Stage
