Toyota’s Sami Pajari has inherited the Rally Croatia lead after a dramatic Friday morning that saw the World Rally Championship’s top two Elfyn Evans and Oliver Solberg crash out.
Pajari, searching for a maiden WRC win, completed a tricky morning loop of asphalt stages with a surprise 8.4s lead over Safari Rally Kenya winner Takamoto Katsuta, with Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville three tenths back in third.
“It is maybe not the position I was expecting after the first loop, but I'm not complaining. I still feel I can improve on the other stages. It's not easy, but I was confident we had a good plan to go with the hard tyre,” said Pajari.
There was drama just 4.8km into the opening stage when Solberg clipped a bank in the Vodice - Brest 1 (14.2km) test which fired the car into a wild 360-degree spin. The Monte Carlo winner’s Toyota GR Yaris eventually came to rest off the road and in a woodland area.
Fans rushed to the car to try and push Solberg back onto the road but the car became beached which resulted in an early retirement for the driver that topped Thursday’s shakedown.
“This morning was the first time being on the hard tyres for me with this car and I really struggled with the feeling. I had a little bit of understeer and we just tapped the rear with the rock face. It is a shame," said an emotional Solberg. "I live and breathe this every day, it is all I know in life. When it doesn’t go to plan it is tough."
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans made the most of starting first on the road that became increasingly dirty after every pass to win the stage by 8.1s from team-mate Pajari.
M-Sport opted for a different tyre strategy compared to Toyota and Hyundai, choosing to take soft tyres. While the decision was on the limit, it did help Jon Armstrong post the third-fastest time, 1.3s quicker than Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux.
Evans extended his rally lead by posting the fastest time in the following stage. The championship leader was 7.7s faster than Pajari which was enough to increase his early lead to 15.9s.
Hyundai’s Neuville jumped from sixth to third overall after team-mate Fourmaux lost more than a minute to a front-right puncture, while Armstrong’s pace was hampered by a front-left puncture.
However, the rally lead changed hands in stage three [Beram - Cerovlje] when Evans went off the road at high speed after misjudging a right hander. It appeared the Welshman may have misheard a pacenote and was unable to make the corner. Evans and co-driver Scott Martin were unharmed in the incident but it prompted a rare retirement for the pair, only their second since Greece 2024.
Evans' demise created a three-way fight for the rally lead with Pajari holding a 2.7s lead over Hyundai’s Neuville after the latter claimed the fastest time in stage three after pipping the impressive Armstrong by 0.1s, who moved into fourth place overall.
But the drama continued in the final test of the loop, as the impressive Armstrong carried too much speed into a right hander and clattered into a bank. After suffering a puncture earlier in the loop, he only had one spare wheel remaining and was forced to stop.
Armstrong’s exit handed Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon fourth place [+41.4s] ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean, who was among the few to avoid any issues during the loop. Hyundai’s Fourmaux completed the morning stages in sixth, 1m29s away from the lead after his earlier puncture.
Lancia held a one-two in the WRC2 standings with Yohan Rossel leading team-mate Nikolay Gryazin by 9.2s.
