WRC Rally Belgium: Neuville leads as Rovanpera rolls out

WRC Rally Belgium: Neuville leads as Rovanpera rolls out

20th August 2022 0 By Kamron Kent

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville topped out the first day of Rally Belgium as the championship leader, Kalle Rovanpera, crashed out of the second stage.

Morning

After a short delay, and frustration riding high, Rovanpera attacked the second stage with fury. However, between the 7.4km and 12.1km split gates, the Finnish driver carried too much speed in a fast section of the course and understeered into a bank before the car launched into the air as it rolled to a stop.

Fortunately, Rovanpera and his co-driver, Joanne Halttunen, were okay and seen climbing out of the windscreen of their wrecked Toyota. This allowed Hyundai’s Ott Tanak to continue on without an interruption.

As a result, teammate Elfyn Evans inherited the rally lead as many drivers saw an opportunity for a rally win.

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak kept the pressure on the leading Toyota, despite the easy-to-overshoot tight corners which lie amongst the stages.

Tanak’s teammate, and Belgian, Thierry Neuville was one driver who out-broke himself in the opening stage. As the Hyundai blasted towards a 90-degree left hander, he slid across and through the tape – lining the stage boundary.

He quickly regained control of his i20 and got it back on course, but the slight detour cost him 10 seconds.

By the end of the morning, Evans topped the timing boards with nearly 25 minutes on the clock, 2.3 seconds faster than Tanak across the morning.

Afternoon

Many drivers expected rain to arrive late on in the afternoon, as it was forecast, but it never came.

Evans remained on top of the timing sheets until stage seven. The Welshman suffered a slow puncture which forced him to run his, spare, wet weather tyre. He was later slapped with a 10-second penalty for a late check-in.

After a good start to the day, as he finished the morning in third, Neuville put in a stellar performance. The Belgian secured four stage wins, across the afternoon, to leapfrog over both Tanak and Evans in the standings.

By the end of the opening day, Evans dropped out of the lead and down to third while Neuville’s great afternoon put him on top of the timing boards. Tanak remained in second.

Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi and Ford’s Craig Breen rounded out the top five, in fourth and fifth respectively.

That’s all for the article: WRC Rally Belgium: Neuville leads as Rovanpera rolls out! What did you think of Rovanpera’s crash? Let us know in the comments!

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Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

CategoryNews WRC

About the author

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

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