Ogier takes opening overnight lead in WRC Central European Rally

Ogier takes opening overnight lead in WRC Central European Rally

18th October 2024 0 By Kamron Kent

Toyota’s eight-time world champion, Sebastien Ogier has taken the overnight lead at the World Rally Championship’s Central European Rally ahead of Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville. 

Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool

The action kicked off with two stages in the Czech Republic, as part of the triple-country event (including Germany and Austria), with a super special stage getting the event underway. 

A total of 14.33km of competitive terrain faced the rally crews and Ogier stood on top as night fell on the second stage of the day (Klatovy 1). However, he was closely followed by potential champion Neuville just 0.9s behind. 

Neuville can clinch the title this weekend if results go his way. To do so, he needs to outscore his fellow teammate, Ott Tanak by two points and drop no less than 10 points to Ogier and 16 points to Toyota’s Elfyn Evans. 

So how did the first day of action end?

Ogier, as previously mentioned, is the overall rally leader after the first two stages of the event and leads by 0.9s. The eight-time world champion took the first stage win of the weekend but missed out on the second stage win by 1.1 seconds. 

Neuville finished the day in second place, behind Ogier, but the day wasn’t a smooth start for the Belgian – with the championship within his grasp. On the opening test, he clipped a hay bale and caused minor damage to his Hyundai. 

Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen returned to the team for this event and found himself down in third just 1.7s off the lead. Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta also returned to the fold for this event and the Japanese driver was fourth. 

Tanak – Neuville’s last true championship rival – rounded out the top five, 2.1s off the pace of Ogier, in fifth ahead of M-sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux in sixth. Evans led the remaining three Rally1 drivers inside the top 10, in seventh, ahead of Sami Pajari and Gregoire Munster who finished eighth and ninth respectively. 

Oliver Solberg, in the WRC2 category completed the top 10, 9.5 seconds off the lead.

Read more WRC here:

Give us a follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with the latest news from the world of Motorsport! You can also support us on Patreon or on our website!

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 Rallying WRC
TagsCentral European Rally CER Neuville Ogier Sebastien Ogier Thierry Neuville World Rally Championship 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.

Leave a Reply