Date: Sunday, March 19th
Day: 4 Flash N°: 20
Special stage: Las Dunas Super Special 4 Distance: 3.53 km
Weather: Cool and bright, 12°C
Road conditions: Dry and dusty
NEUVILLE AND EVANS LOCKED IN GRIPPING DUEL FOR SECOND PLACE
A fourth and final run through the dusty and rutted Las Dunas quarry stage got the final morning underway and the stage-opening Pierre-Louis Loubet suffered another heart-stopping spin early in the stage.
Not to be outdone, Jourdain Serderidis clouted a giant stage-side boulder and emerged unscathed on an opener where Thierry Neuville clocked the quickest time and reduced Elfyn Evans’s grip on second place to just 4.1 seconds. Sébastien Ogier drove cautiously and saw his lead trimmed to 32.2 seconds.
Gus Greensmith safely defended his comfortable WRC2 lead that grew to 32.8 seconds. Second-placed Adrien Fourmaux was coming under increasing pressure from defending champion Emil Lindholm. The Finn set a stunning time and closed the gap to 2.4 seconds.
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“Let’s do some stages…..”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“We just try to have a normal drive through the day. This one was proper shit with all the ruts. Hopefully
we have good tyres left for the Power Stage.”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“It’s going to be an intense fight. I could really feel my body warming up through the stage. You really
have to fight with the car because the ruts can turn the car.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“A bit better than I expected. The car was getting caught in all the ruts. It’s fine. There is a long way to
go.”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“It is very rutted. The plan was to take it very easy and not to take a tyre off the rim. The next one is a
very long stage.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“Conditions are getting worse and worse because it is the fourth pass. I don’t think it is a good idea to
run this stage four times.”
Car 7. LOUBET/GILSOUL
Survived another heart-stopping spin in the opener. “The compression. I put it out.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“Stalled in the stage and lost six seconds to early leader Tänak. “I stalled at the second corner. I went
a little bit wide and stalled the engine.”
Car 9. SERDERIDIS/MICLOTTE
Clouted a giant boulder on the left-hand side of the stage and survived. “Small mistake but nothing very
hard because it was so slow. I just had to reverse!”
Car 20. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
“It’s really rutted. I was watching before. I would agree with what Taka said. It’s a bit pointless to do it
four times.”
Car 21. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
“Very rough, I took it very easy. I don’t want to get any punctures. Safely through and then we start to
push…”
Car 22. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“It was really rutted. It was difficult to be pushing and not to be making any silly mistakes.”
Car 24. LINDHOLM/HÄMÄLÄINEN
Fifth quickest time. “It looks like we managed well. It was difficult to keep the car in the ruts. A few long
stages to go but it is looking good so far.”
Car 25. KAJETANOWICZ/SZCZEPANIAK
“Smooth driving without mistakes, This is the plan, There is no reason to take another risk, We need to
be focused and have the fun.”
