Ott Tanak held off World Rally Championship title rival Elfyn Evans to claim a slender 0.4-second Rally Chile lead on the opening day of the final gravel round of the season.
Tanak was never totally comfortable with his Hyundai i20 N through the day’s six slippery gravel stages but consistent pace helped the Estonian snatch the lead away from Evans.
Evans issued a fightback on the final stage of the afternoon loop, but was unable to hustle his Toyota back to the lead he held after the morning loop.
World champion Kalle Rovanpera ended the day in third [+7.1s] despite struggling for confidence, while his Rally1 rookie Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari came through in fourth [+9.3s].
Gregoire Munster rounded out the top five [+10.7s] ahead of championship leader and road opener Thierry Neuville [+30.3s]. Esapekka Lappi [+36.1s], Adrien Fourmaux [+1m01.0s], and Sebastien Ogier [+1m24.9s] completed the Rally1 field.
M-Sport’s Martins Sesks retired from Friday’s action after picking up a double puncture on stage three.
The second pass through the stages proved to be equally as challenging as the first, as crews faced tricky loose gravel, but the unpredictable road surface didn’t halt a fired up Ogier, desperate to recover from picking up a puncture in stage three after hitting a bank.
The Frenchman, who monstered the morning’s first pass through Pulperia, repeated the feat in the afternoon. Ogier was 5.9s faster than nearest rival Tanak, and a whopping 10.5s quicker than the rally leader Evans.
The effort helped Ogier climb from 15th to ninth overall despite losing almost two minutes to a wheel change on stage three.
Tanak’s committed run pushed him up to second overall and 2.7s behind Evans. Tanak benefitted from a rare mistake by Rovanpera, who lost the rear of his GR Yaris and overshot a corner, costing the world champion valuable seconds.
"I had a bit of a wide moment in a low-speed corner, nothing too dramatic but a bit unfortunate. I had to reverse out, not too optimal when you consider our pace this morning,” said Rovanpera.
Fourmaux delivered a time good enough for fourth quickest to jump to fourth overall ahead of Pajari and Munster.
Following on from the morning, Neuville continued to fight his i20 N for grip, being the first to tackle the road, as the Belgian held onto seventh overall.
Neuville did however open the gap over team-mate Lappi after the latter suffered a right-rear tyre delamination during his run.
“For sure I did not hit anything,” said Lappi.
The drama continued to unfold but this time it was Fourmaux to hit trouble before stage five [Rere, 13.34km]. The M-Sport driver’s Ford Puma suffered an alternator issue on the preceding road section and, while repairing that, a water pipe was damaged when Fourmaux tried to put the fan back in position.
Fourmaux managed to reach the stage startline, albeit six minutes late, incurring a one-minute penalty in the process.
Despite driving a wounded car, he clocked the second-fastest time, which would have put him into third overall without the penalty. Ogier once again lit up the timing screens to take his third stage win of the day by 0.2s.
However, it was Tanak that grabbed the headlines as another committed run, clocking the third-fastest time, was enough to help the Hyundai driver overhaul leader Evans.
Evans won the morning pass through the stage but was unable to replicate the confidence and speed during the second pass, finishing 6.5s behind pacesetter Ogier. Evans’ team-mate Rovanpera was also out of sorts as he struggled to gel with slippery gravel roads.
In contrast, Munster appeared to revel in the conditions as he pipped the Finn to move back to fourth overall.
Evans dug deep to fightback in the final stage of the loop [San Rosendo, 23.32km] to take 2.1s out of Tanak to end the day 0.4s adrift of the rally leader.
Fourmaux again managed to perform miracles with his damaged Puma to win the final stage of the loop by 1.8s from Ogier, running without hybrid power.
Munster's strong day ended with a right-rear puncture, which dropped the M-Sport driver to fifth overall.
In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin survived a wild two wheel moment to lead title favourite Oliver Solberg by 10.2s.
Six stages make up Saturday’s leg, comprising 139.20 competitive kilometres.
