Day two of this special rally dawned following a heavy storm which came through the service park and actually caused a lot of damage on the site. Three crews returned to the action following their early exit on Friday, with Takamoto, Seb and Thierry would restart with the Japanese driver opening the road followed by his world champion teammate and then Thierry.

 

Once the crews got out to the stages there was a realisation that the rain had not arrived as expected. All the teams had prepared their cars with the prospect of rain, giving the crews an interesting challenge as to how tackle dry roads with a wet set-up on the cars.

 

First up then was SS9 Bella Vista 1 and a good stage length of 21.15-kilometres to face. It was a good start for Elfyn who was fastest from Adrien and Sami. Oliver was sixth fastest and moved up one position to seventh overall. The stage was a clean one as all of the crews made it through with no drama, plus the predicted rain whilst it had fallen very heavily at the service park, there was no rain on the stage at all.

 

Next up came SS10 Bella Vista Sur 1 and remained a dry stage for all the crews. Adrien set the pace from Seb and Sami. Interestingly, Elfyn who was still in third overall behind Hayden and Sami was almost ten seconds slower than Adrien and saw the gap between them come down to 46 seconds.

 

Adrien was fastest again in SS11 Hohenau 1 from Sami and Elfyn, with the Welshman losing another almost six seconds to the charging Frenchman. Meanwhile, the gap between Sami, Hayden and Elfyn was growing. Oliver who was recovering back up the leaderboard passed the WRC2 leader Diego Dominguez for sixth overall. There was a moment for the rally leader as his car slid wide on the exit of a left-hand corner onto two wheels and the result was that although the Finnish crew continued in the stage, there was some damage to the rear wing of the Yaris.

 

The final stage before the lunchtime service, SS12 Trinidad 1 and Seb was fastest from Adrien and Jon in this stage. Elfyn lost a further eight seconds in the stage to Adrien, the gap between them now thirty-one seconds.

 

Into the afternoon stages then with SS13 Bella Vista 2 and the rain was still staying away, with in fact the temperatures were increasing with no clouds of rain in the area of the stages. Adrien was fastest from Elfyn by just one second, whilst Seb was third.

 

Adrien continued his stage winning pace in SS14 Bella Vista Sur 2 going two seconds faster than Seb, whilst Sami was third. Elfyn was fifth fastest and almost eight seconds slower than Adrien meaning that the gap now was just over twenty seconds in their fight over third position overall.

 

Onto SS15 Hohenau 2 and Adrien was again fastest from Oliver and Seb. Elfyn set the same time as Seb, but this was seven seconds slower than the Hyundai driver and now the gap between them was just sixteen seconds. This was getting really close!

 

Just two stages remained then, the first of which was SS16 Trinidad 2 and Seb set the pace from Oliver and Thierry. Adrien did have an overshoot on a left-hand corner but was still faster than Elfyn by three seconds and brought the overall gap to the Welshman down to just thirteen seconds.

 

The final stage of the day then a short 3.1-kilometre blast called SS17 Encarnación Costanera and Takamoto had the best of the conditions which were incredibly muddy. This was the only stage which had heavy rain on it overnight from Friday to Saturday. The Japanese driver was fastest from Thierry and Seb. There was a change in positions between Oliver and Josh as the Swede passed the M-Sport driver for fifth place. Nearer to the front, Adrien took a huge amount time from Elfyn and brought the gap down to just 3.3 seconds.

Let’s hear from the drivers and take a look at the top ten.

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Sami Pajari

“We can be happy with today. The conditions were still quite tricky, even if they were a lot more straightforward than the heavy rain we were expecting. Still, we had some moments, losing part of the rear wing when we ran slightly wide in one corner, which affected the handling in the high-speed sections, but it was not a big drama. Otherwise, the car was quick and reliable, and we were able to extend our lead over the day. Like in Estonia and Finland, I’m not getting too excited yet because a lot can still happen, and the weather could be hard to predict again.”

Elfyn Evans

“Our day started pretty well with the fastest time in the first stage. Then in the second stage there were already some huge rocks around, so I played it safe, and it was a similar story in the mud later in the loop. This afternoon we took some hard tyres and it’s difficult to know if that was the correct decision or not, but we were concerned about the wear after yesterday. Adrien has been charging hard and had a strong day, and it was a surprise to lose so much time in the super special, but we can expect more difficult conditions tomorrow and just need to keep doing the best we can.”

Oliver Solberg

“We were hoping to have some rain today to make things exciting for us. Unfortunately, it didn’t come but it still hasn’t been a bad day. The main goal was just to stay clean and try to catch McErlean and we were able to do that, and it’s good to get back up to fifth. It was tricky with the tyres as we didn’t have as many good spares as others to rotate around, but we managed OK. Tomorrow maybe the rain will come, and we’ll try our best whatever happens.”

Sébastien Ogier

“Today wasn’t the easiest one with nothing to really fight for, but we just focused on trying to enjoy the driving with this car as much as we could, and I think we had a decent rhythm. The rain didn’t come as expected but there was some dampness in the last stage of the loop, and we managed to take a stage win there, and another one in the afternoon. Tomorrow maybe some rain is still coming, and let’s see what we can do to try to grab some points.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“Everybody was expecting that it would be quite wet today, but the rain never really came. At least with the dry conditions I could just focus on recovering after what happened yesterday. A big thank you to the team for fixing the car so that I could drive again, gain experience on these stages and try to get back the feeling ahead of tomorrow, when I want to try to take some points.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Hayden Paddon

“It’s been a clean, trouble-free day, which is exactly what we wanted. We’re missing a little bit of pace, but we haven’t been in the car for very long, so we’re happy we’ve brought it home in more or less one piece. The super special stage was probably the trickiest for everyone, but all in all it has been a solid day for us. Let’s see what tomorrow brings, as it could be a whole different kettle of fish, but in the meantime it’s mission accomplished.”

Adrien Fourmaux

“The level of this sport is incredibly high, so to be able to set the times we were doing today, I’m incredibly proud. It’s been a good push. We had to manage the tyres, and I think we did a good job. I’m very pleased with the effort from the whole Hyundai Motorsport team. It’s been a good day, and there is still a long one ahead tomorrow, but to be 3.3 seconds off the podium after starting the day 55 seconds behind is quite something.”

Thierry Neuville

“It was a long day out there. We didn’t get the conditions we expected this morning when we saw what had happened in the service park overnight – the rain just missed the stages, and it was pretty dry, to be honest. With no real objective other than experimenting with the set-up, we started on a soft set-up and tried to make it even softer to see how the car performed, while also adapting my driving style to suit it. I found it interesting. I’m not quite where I want to be yet and am generally missing a bit of speed in some of the stages, and there was some cleaning as well, but we were progressively improving.”

 

Sunday

The final day of action will see the crews face 66.35-kilometres over five stages, including one stage only run once. Will the rain arrive at all?