The duo are starring in their Rally1 cars at the opening round of the European Rally Championship in Córdoba, Spain. Saturday’s schedule included a total of six special stages, though the WRC pairing missed one due to a fellow competitor’s crash.
Defending world champion Neuville was faster than Evans on all five completed stages, albeit by small margins. In the overall standings, Neuville leads the Welsh driver by 11.7 seconds.
Neuville also came close to sliding off the road into a guardrail. In a right-hand bend, the rear of the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 slipped off the asphalt, but luckily the guardrail had already taken a hit previously, so Neuville got away with just a scare.
Neuville and Evans are competing in the Rally Sierra Morena outside the ERC classification, but as expected, the pair are leading the overall standings. However, Russian-born Nikolay Gryazin surprised them both on Saturday’s final stage, the over 27-kilometre-long Villaviciosa special. Driving a Škoda Rally2 car, Gryazin set the fastest time with a margin of 7.8 seconds over Neuville. In the overall standings, Gryazin is 45.9 seconds behind Neuville.
In the ERC rally, however, Gryazin already holds a comfortable lead. Ahead of Saturday’s six special stages, Gryazin—competing under the Bulgarian flag—has a 28.8-second lead over local driver José Suárez. Veteran Frenchman Yoann Bonato sits third in the ERC standings.
Saturday is, however, the longest day of the rally, with the six stages covering over 115 kilometres. So Gryazin can’t afford to take it too easy just yet. Meanwhile, Neuville and Evans benefit from a full day of competitive testing, which will surely help boost their confidence in the car.
