Evans and Neuville started the second day of the Croatian tarmac event on equal footing. Evans briefly led the rally in the afternoon, but Neuville outpaced the Welshman on the last three stages and arrived first at the evening service.
By the end of the day, Neuville was 4.9 seconds ahead of Evans, thus the Belgian secured provisional maximum points based on Saturday evening’s standings, in accordance with the current points rules.
“Thierry has had a really good day. Of course, he’s been very fast all day, in fairness. You have to give credit where credit is due,” Evans honestly admitted his defeat.
Neuville and Evans are also competing against each other at the top of the championship standings. Therefore, the stakes were high on Saturday.
The duo literally battled for tenths of a second on Saturday’s stages.
“It’s been quite good fun behind the wheel. Always little bits, when it’s a fight like this, you end up making a couple of little errors. Let’s say they cost us a second here or there, but generally, it’s been quite good,” Evans recounted.
More points will be awarded on Sunday, when the day’s results will reward the seven fastest. Additionally, points are available from the Power Stage, the final special stage of the event, for the top five finishers.
Evans is not planning to hold back on the final day of the Croatia Rally.
“It’s going to be a difficult day tomorrow. There are a lot of tricky sections in those stages, so we’ll have to try and keep up a good rhythm,” Evans planned.
