The eight minutes of madness that saw Ogier strike in Croatia

At a time when there is uncertainty over the technical rules for the World Rally Championship next year, the intense fight for victory at Croatia Rally provided a great advert for the series. Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier emerged victorious from a tense and dramatic three-way fight with title contenders Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans, to become the fourth different winner from as many events.

To continue the numerical symmetry, this was Croatia’s fourth appearance on the WRC calendar. It will, however, forever be associated with the passing of the much-loved Craig Breen in a testing crash and, one year on from the tragedy, the talented Irishman was in the thoughts of the WRC fraternity, while Hyundai paid tribute by adding the Irish colours to the front and a roof of its cars.

While Croatia triggers emotions, the rally itself over the last four years has provided gripping fights for victory thanks to its demanding, changeable-grip asphalt roads. Yet again it delivered a thriller.

Truth be told, Ogier wasn’t expecting to record a 59th career win given his road position. Even sitting 11.6 seconds adrift of Neuville heading into the final day, the eight-time world champion continued to downplay his chances. But such was the drama the final day delivered, Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais managed to survive the several wild moments served up to shoot from third and score a shock triumph, marking Ogier’s 100th career podium.

“These [100 podiums] are things that you never think you will reach in your life, so I take that with pleasure and a smile,” said Ogier. “It has been a tough one to get, it has been a very eventful weekend. We knew coming here the starting position would be not in our favour, so we had to go for the risk option. I made a couple of small mistakes this weekend and managed not to have too big a consequence and a bit of luck was on my side.”

Risk versus reward strategies are familiar in motorsport and Croatia offered up a perfect example. It was pure luck if the slightest of mistakes were punished severely or not.

One aspect that was predictable was the advantage of starting at the top of the road order, as with every pass more and more dirt was dragged onto the road surface. This meant championship leader Neuville and title rival Evans were presented with the best conditions.

Neuville took advantage of his road position to lead the early running

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Neuville hammered that advantage home on the first stage to post a time 6.6s faster than Evans, despite reporting a “hell of a lot of understeer” from his i20 N. While Neuville was clearly not totally comfortable with his car’s handling, the time set the tone of the day as Ogier, starting sixth on the road, declared “it was impossible” to match Neuville’s pace.

That was the biggest margin the Belgian would have across the morning loop but three wins from four stages put the Hyundai driver, albeit a frustrated one, into an 8.6s lead over Evans, with Ogier already 21.5s in arrears.

“I have to be so smooth and clean,” said Neuville after stage four before going on to extend his lead to 10.1s after the next test – that followed a tyre-fitting zone – where light snow began to fall. “There is no way for me to push, otherwise it doesn't work. I would like to go faster.

“It is very dangerous to be honest as we had no information from the route note crew and, at that speed we are going, there are plenty of surprises. You have to trust your feeling and keep your eyes wide open. Nobody told us it was going to snow in there.”

The rally lead was shared as Neuville and Evans couldn’t be split, stopping the clocks with identical overall times after more than 70 competitive stage miles

On stage six came one of two small errors that would prove costly for Neuville. A rock lying in the middle of the road knocked a tyre off the rim, resulting in his lead being reduced to a tenth of a second. The momentum swung towards Evans, who moved into a 1.6s lead heading into the final stage of the loop.

Friday ended with one of the rarest of eventualities triggered by an impressive response from Neuville, who “had to give everything” to claw back the time. As both crews returned to service, the rally lead was shared as Neuville and Evans couldn’t be split, stopping the clocks with identical overall times after more than 70 competitive stage miles.

“It was looking like it was going to be a tough day for us because Thierry was so strong on the first stage, and I thought our chances were not going to be so great,” said Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala. “But the drivers improved over the day and eventually having exactly the same time with Thierry and Elfyn is something special.”

At the end of Day 1, Evans and Neuville shared the lead with identical times

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

While Evans felt he “had left some time on the table”, he believed the battle at the front outlined why the current technical formula is a success. “We know that the technical formula has worked for many years now and the cars and the battles are always close – like I’ve always said that side works,” he argued, hinting at the discussions surrounding proposed changes for next year.

The rally lead being shared took the spotlight, but headlines were also spared for Ogier, who delivered a stunning stage eight win by 9.2s from M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux - who unlocked the pace of his Ford Puma, debuting an upgraded rear wing. The effort ensured the fight for the victory was a three-way battle, Ogier ending Friday 6.6s behind.

All three Hyundai drivers reported handling issues with their i20 Ns and, while Neuville was able to work around his issues, Ott Tanak and Andreas Mikkelsen struggled. Tanak, desperately needing to kick-start his season, declared he “struggled more than in Monte Carlo”, before small improvements in the afternoon helped his cause. Tanak ended the day 41.1s adrift and 11.6s ahead of Fourmaux, who managed to keep pace with the 2019 world champion.

The top six was completed by Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, unhappy with his performance ahead of a frustrated Mikkelsen, who was struggling to tame his i20 N’s nervous rear end. The Rally1 field was completed by M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster, who enjoyed a trouble-free run.

The feeling in the service park was that Saturday would be akin to effectively starting a whole new rally with significant rain forecasted. Focus switched to tyre strategies, with Toyota opting for packages slightly more focused towards wet weather than Hyundai and M-Sport. The rain largely stayed away from the stages with only small light showers arriving, meaning the roads across the eight stages were mostly dry. This played into Neuville’s hands, who managed to open up a 4.7s lead by the time the crews headed to midday service. But Evans refused to fold as the titanic scrap showed no signs of relenting and when the small rain shower arrived in stage 13 he pounced, taking 6.7s out of the Belgian to move into a 2s lead.

Neuville responded again as his deft tyre management came to the fore across the remainder of the afternoon, held on dry roads. He won the final three stages to retake the lead, taking a 4.9s advantage into Sunday, claiming 18 provisional points in the process to Evans’s 15 points. Although motivated by the prospect of a rally victory over his title rival, there was unusual extra motivation at play between him and his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe that proved expensive for the navigator.

“It started on the recce because the last stage of the Saturday loop is 9.11km, so I said at the start if you are able to do two fastest times on that stage, I was to buy a [Porsche] 911, but that was maybe a most stupid decision I took in my life,” Wydaeghe told Autosport after Neuville duly delivered on the stages in question.

Neuville's stage wins on Saturday afternoon earned him a Porsche 911 in a bet with co-driver Wydaeghe

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“I was very happy when we got the message that we were fastest,” smiled Neuville. “I think everybody knew [what we were doing].”

The gamble was not lost on Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul: “We were all smiling, laughing, holding our breath and biting our nails as we could see that he was pushing very hard. I think it is good as you need to want something in sport today. I think Thierry wants it more than other drivers. But my gosh the level of competitiveness is mind-blowing and indeed this fight between Thierry and Elfyn has been pretty amazing.”

Evans felt “it didn’t need a lot of rain for it really to swing to our favour”, but ultimately came up short, while Ogier could count himself fortunate to end the day in third. He was 11.6s adrift after a couple of wild moments, the most eyebrow-raising triggered by a small jump in stage 11.

“It was a massive moment it was close to a crash,” said Ogier, who picked up 13 points while heading Tanak (10) and Fourmaux (8), who continued to impress, winning stage nine to sit fifth overall. “I broke too much over a small jump but still I surprisingly had a small kick from the rear and then suddenly I had a massive oversteer into the corner and I felt like I was drifting on snow or gravel. I kept the pedal down and total lock and it was nearly not coming back.”

"It was a bit frustrating but, at the end of the day, it’s rally. It makes a good story as we fixed the car at the side of the road and then we did the fastest time on the Power Stage"

Adrien Fourmaux

It seemed the victory would be played out between Neuville and Evans as Ogier hadn’t totally gelled with his GR Yaris on Sunday morning. Evans’s decision to select more hard tyres initially paid off, cutting the gap to Neuville to 2.6s in stage 17. However, the rally turned on its head following the first run through the Zagorska Sela-Kumrovec stage, which would also host the end-of-rally Power Stage.

In the space of eight minutes Neuville, Evans, Fourmaux and Tanak all endured off-road excursions. First, Tanak was incredibly lucky to return from scaling a grass bank at speed – he described it “as more than a moment”. But his rivals were not so lucky.

Fourmaux had driven quickly and smartly across the challenging road conditions before a compression caught out the Frenchman. His Ford Puma clipped an anti-cut device, which damaged his steering arm, necessitating a 16-minute repair at the side of the stage. Crucially he remained in the rally and ended up winning the Power Stage thanks to his handiwork. “It was a really small mistake and big consequence,” said Fourmaux, who left Croatia still third in the championship after salvaging 13 points. “It was a bit frustrating but, at the end of the day, it’s rally. At the end, I think it makes a good story as we fixed the car at the side of the road and then we did the fastest time on the Power Stage.”

A quick repair job by Fourmaux ensured he still took a decent points haul from Croatia

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Incredibly, Neuville and Evans were also caught out, effectively extinguishing their victory hopes in an instant. A late pacenote contributed to Neuville sliding heavily into a grass bank, which ripped the rear wing from the i20 N, costing him over 20s and the rally lead. “I tried my best to avoid it, but we were just far too late and when I got the pacenote, I immediately hit the brakes, but the corner was so much tighter and there was nothing I could do,” said Neuville.

Evans also lost traction clipping a bank with the GR Yaris’s right-rear that pitched the car into spin. Around 20s were conceded but the Welshman remained in second. Ogier took advantage of the eight minutes of madness to move into a shock lead.

“I am just so disappointed with my tyre choice this morning it was quite a big error to go so brave,” added Evans. “Of course, the spin happened as a result of the hard tyre on the rear, so it was definitely a mistake to go with that choice today.”

Neuville remained in the fight with an “undriveable” i20 N featuring a rear wing similar to an open Formula 1 DRS flap, but had to settle for third overall.

Evans managed to haul his damaged GR Yaris to within 6.4s of Ogier after the new leader survived a scare in the penultimate stage. As is the case with Toyota, there was no decision to play the team order game to help Evans. Asked if he was prepared to give the win to Evans, Ogier said: “Of course, if you pay a lot. May the best man win, that’s what sport should be.” Evans replied: “I’m not sure I can afford Seb’s idea of a lot of money.”    

In truth, there wasn’t a lot Ogier could do to help Evans by virtue of the points system. And so Ogier held his nerve to secure a surprise win by 9.7s from Evans, with Neuville 45.8s adrift in third. Evans and Neuville both scored 19 points from the new points system to ensure the latter continues to lead Evans by six points in the championship.

Ogier celebrates his 59th career WRC win on the podium

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Tanak was the biggest winner of the WRC’s points structure, scoring 20 points, one less than Ogier as Evans felt his “mega” battle with Neuville yielded “no reward” due to the system system.

Neuville was clearly frustrated to let slip what would have been one of his finest victories but is aware that the championship battle is about to get harder. “Despite not scoring many points today we were still the third-best performer and equal with Evans,” he concluded. “We can’t say it was a disaster. I’m happy to still be in the lead because it is no secret that from Portugal [in May] onwards it is going to be tough for us with several gravel rallies in a row.”

Neville leaves Croatia with his WRC points lead intact but knows bigger challenges are to come

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport