The first full day of this second round in South America and the crews would have six stages to face. Overnight rain had changed the stages, and this would mean that opening the road for Elfyn and Scott would be less painful for the championship leaders.
Onto the first stage then, SS1 Turquía 1 and it was a good start for Oliver and Elliott from third on the road as they took the lead from Elfyn and Scott who made the best start given their road position. Just 1.4 seconds separated the teammates, whilst it was Adrien and Alex who held third overall, but over ten seconds behind the leader. Meanwhile, Sami and Marko hadn’t made the best start finishing behind Thierry who was fourth overall. The Finns were almost eighteen seconds away from the lead.
Into SS2 Nuevo Rere 1 and it was a great stage for Elfyn as he set the pace from first on the road which only Oliver got the closest to the Welshman but 1.8 slower with Seb third fastest. Sami had a better stage and was fourth quickest. Elfyn took the lead from his Swedish teammate by just four tenths of a second whilst Seb was also on the move up and jumped two positions to fourth overall.
We had a Hyundai crew take a stage win in SS3 Hualqui 1 with Thierry setting the pace from Oliver and Seb, whilst Elfyn was fourth and saw Oliver retake the lead. Meanwhile Seb slipped down one position to fifth as Thierry jumped two places up into fourth and this also saw Sami fall to sixth overall.
The turnaround began for Sami in SS4 Turquía 2 as he set the pace from Seb and Adrien whilst Elfyn was sixth fastest as the road was drier and more slippery for the road opener. The pace from Sami and Seb saw them both move up the leaderboard with Thierry dropping to sixth. Jon was on the move as well, passing Esapekka and moving onto the same overall time as his teammate Josh for seventh overall.
Seb set the pace in SS5 Nuevo Rere 2 from Sami and Oliver which meant that the road position was starting to work in the favour of the later runners and Elfyn was sixth fastest and saw the gap grow a little to Oliver, but it was still a good run from the Welshman. Meanwhile Jon passed his teammate Josh for seventh.
Onto the final stage of the day then, SS6 Hualqui 2 and Oliver was fastest from Adrien and Seb. Elfyn was again sixth fastest and the gap to Oliver grew a little to ten seconds as they battled over the lead. There was another position change between Jon and Josh with Jon falling behind his teammate.
Let’s hear from the drivers and take a look at the top ten.
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Oliver Solberg
“I’m very happy with my day. It helped us in our position relatively early on the road to get that rain; I think it made things more equal and I always enjoy those kinds of conditions. It was very tricky and changing all the time, and we just tried to have a good flow and I think we did quite a good job. There was no point to take big risks and I was just trying to drive efficiently. It was similar this afternoon even as the conditions dried out; I just tried to keep it clean and steady. It’s nice to have a good, clean Friday behind us. Strategy will be important tomorrow, but I feel good and I’m looking forward to it.”
Elfyn Evans
“For us it was nice to see the rain come overnight, even though it made the conditions quite tricky for everyone to start with this morning. The grip levels were changing quite a bit, so I was happy to get through without issues and also benefit a little bit from not having to sweep the road. We had drier conditions this afternoon; the grip was more consistent in a way and the feeling was OK, but we were maybe not quite as fast as we would have liked. Anyway, second is a decent position to be in overnight and gives us a good road position for tomorrow, so we have to take the positives from today and try to keep fighting forward tomorrow.”
Sébastien Ogier
“For us the rain was maybe not ideal given our start position a bit further back, but it’s also a deserved break for the championship leaders not to always be cleaning the road. We struggled in the first stage for grip and confidence with the balance of the car, and that’s where we lost most of our time today, but after that I think we reacted well and had a better rhythm over the rest of the day. Tomorrow has a different style of stage with some different challenges and there’s still a lot to play for, so we’ll keep trying.”
Sami Pajari
“It was quite a tricky morning for us. Clearly, the conditions were tricky and slippery but others around us made better use of them in the first stage especially and somehow our pace was not the best. It was getting better stage-by-stage during the morning, and then the afternoon was clearly better again for us. I was enjoying the driving and managed to take a stage win, so we were back on the level where we want to be. We’re only three seconds away from the podium positions and there’s still a very long rally ahead, so anything can happen, and we just need to keep pushing.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“After the rain overnight, the roads were quite muddy in places this morning and the grip levels were changing a lot along with the different gravel types. Unfortunately, in one downhill corner which was quite muddy, I just wasn’t able to slow down enough, and we went wide to the outside and got stuck on the bank. The car was not really damaged, but we weren’t able to get back on the road and continue in the stage. It’s not an easy moment, but I will just try to focus on coming back stronger.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Adrien Fourmaux
“It was very intense trying to defend this podium position today, but we are pleased because we know that there should be a lot of cleaning effect tomorrow, so it is very important to have a good road position. Keeping our rivals behind today gives us a better opportunity to keep them behind again tomorrow. It’s going to be a challenging day; we have a good road position, and I am looking towards the leaders which is our aim, so we are going to have to push in the stages. We are going to have to be very good with the tyre choice, this will be a key point all day, I think. We might see some different choices; our plan today was to try and save some soft tyres for later in the weekend, so that is a positive.”
Round 12, Rally Chile
10 – 13 of September 2026
Photographer: Austral
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Thierry Neuville
“We’re a little bit disappointed with the day as we were fighting the conditions and there wasn’t much, we could do. This afternoon was not much better to be honest; we lost two positions in a single stage which has put us in a bit more of a difficult place for tomorrow. But generally, we are still in the fight and only a few seconds behind Pajari, a couple of seconds more behind Ogier and around nine seconds from the podium. Tomorrow should be drier so road cleaning will be more important; nevertheless, I hope we can be in the fight with the cars just behind us on the road and climb back up the ranking. It will be a tough challenge because the speed and the consistency aren’t totally there but let’s see if we can find something.”
Esapekka Lappi
“It’s been a difficult day for us, and, with the road position, I think it will probably be a similar story tomorrow with a lot of road cleaning. It’s not easy to come here after doing Rally Finland, with the settings that we have on the car it just doesn’t make it feel right. I am not confident enough to drive any faster than I am; some corners I can try but then I immediately start to go wide.”
Classification after Day One
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Saturday
The second day of action will see the crews tackle six more stages with a total of 139 kilometres over them. Can Oliver continue to lead at the end of the day or will Elfyn move back into the lead? Plus, what could Sami do or even Adrien in the Hyundai?
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