Race leader Neuville, second-placed Elfyn Evans, and Sebastien Ogier in third, battled nearly neck and neck across the morning’s four special stages. Neuville managed to slightly extend his lead over his challengers on the loop’s final special stage, where he blasted the fastest time with a three-second margin over the others.
Neuville’s lead in the overall standings is now 4.7 seconds ahead of Evans. Ogier, meanwhile, is 11.3 seconds from the top spot.
“Obviously, I was fighting a bit with a dirty road this morning, but somehow I had a better feeling than yesterday. So, I was able to attack a bit more. Towards the end of the loop, I actually attacked very hard because those are really short stages, and we know them very well,” Neuville said.
“If you make the smallest mistakes or you are just a little bit too slow in one corner, obviously, you can’t make the fastest time. We got it right. But it was a proper charge,” the Belgian added.
Neuville and his co-driver, Martijn Wydaeghe, have a bet regarding the loop’s last special stage. If the Hyundai star performs well on the stage’s second run, Wydaeghe will need to head to the car dealership.
“Martijn told me during recce: ‘Listen, this stage is 9.11 kilometers. If you do two times the fastest time, I’m going to buy my first Porsche 911.’ So obviously, I did what I could. It worked on the first loop and hopefully, fingers crossed, it’s going to work on the second loop as well,” Neuville chuckled.
“There are more important things to play for than winning,” the Hyundai star joked further.
Saturday evening will see the first provisional points awarded based on the overall standings of the Croatia Rally. Before the afternoon’s loop, Neuville is poised for 18 points, but Evans will surely not let the Belgian off easily.
“I try to avoid punctures and continue attacking. It’s a close fight. Elfyn, my main championship contender, is right behind, so there’s nothing else we can do,” Neuville planned.
