WRC Rally Belgium: Tanak leads after Neuville crashes
21st August 2022Hyundai’s Ott Tanak inherited the rally lead after his teammate, and home hero, Thierry Neuville crashed out on the penultimate stage of the day.
Morning
M-Sport Ford’s Craig Breen’s day ended early, on Saturday morning, on stage 10. As the Irishman drove around a fast left-hander, his car understeered off the road and into a ditch. The Puma rolled within the ditch before it came to a stop, on its side.
Fortunately, both Breen and his co-driver, Paul Nagle, climbed out of the wreck unharmed. Despite the spectators help to get the car back on its wheels, the car would have to be pulled out.
It was soon found that Breen’s teammate, Adrien Fourmaux, had a similar incident at the same corner. But, contact with a haybale kept his Puma on the road.
As a result of the incident, the stage was stopped.
After Rovanpera crashed out on Friday, this meant the two Hyundai’s of Tanak and Neuville led the rally with the latter out in front.
However, Tanak reported that he had suffered with a transmission issue on his i20.
By the end of the morning, Neuville had stretched his legs on home soil with a healthy 16.2 second lead over Tanak, while Evans rounded out the top three 21.5 seconds behind.
Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi and Fourmaux completed the top five, in fourth and fifth respectively.
Afternoon
Neuville looked in control of his home round of the championship. However, the Belgian ran wide through a slow left-hander, on the penultimate stage, and slipped into a grass-filled ditch. Fans were available to pull the stranded i20 out of the ditch but Neuville soon pulled over to the side to retire.
This meant Tanak inherited the rally lead, 8.2 seconds ahead of Evans who was now in second place.
Hyundai’s Oliver Solberg ironed out the issues with his car and managed to find himself within the top five by the end of the second day. The Swede sat in fourth place, between Lappi in third and Fourmaux who remained in fifth place.
All three drivers were over a minute behind Tanak’s leading pace.
As the sport entered its final day, on Sunday, the fight for the rally win looked to go down between Tanak and Evans.
That’s all for the article: WRC Rally Belgium: Tanak leads after Neuville crashes! What did you think of the second day of running? Let us know in the comments!
Read more WRC here:
- WRC: Craig Breen crashes out of Rally Belgium
- WRC Rally Belgium: Neuville leads as Rovanpera rolls out
- WRC 2022 Rally Finland: Ott Tanak secures second win of season
- WRC Rally Finland Preview: Can anyone catch Rovanpera?
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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.
Kamron Kent
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.
