Rally Croatia - 1st Day - 1st Loop: Championship leader Rovanpera shows his masterclass, Lappi out



At the end of the first loop of the first day, Kalle Rovanpera is leading Rally Croatia with Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak following him.


Kalle Rovanpera takes an early lead in Croatia after the end of four stages as he was the fastest driver in Stage 1, 2 and 4.


Thierry Neuville is second overall and dropped 4,1 seconds in Stage 1 as he went into a ditch after three corners in SS1. Moreover, there was some light damage to the rear bumper of his i20N.


Ott Tanak completes the top three and his gap from his teammate is at 34,8 seconds.


Craig Breen dropped to fourth position overall at the end of Stage 2 as he overshot a left-hander, luckily he rode up a bank and avoided hitting a water hydrant, but still had to stop and reverse to get going again in SS2. His gap from Tanak is at 1,9 seconds.


Gus Greensmith completes the top five and his Puma understeered on a right hander in Stage 1 resulting in riding up a bank 4.1 Km into the stage.


Oliver Solberg is in sixth position overall and he did a mistake in Stage 1 as he had a spin and he had to stop and reverse. He lost 44.9 seconds there.


Takamoto Katsuta follows Solberg in the overall classification, but their gap is at 21,2 seconds.


Elfyn Evans is only in eighth position overall and his gap from Katsuta is at 4,5 seconds. He dropped 1m20s in Stage 1 after having a front-left tyre damage while he suffered from a front left puncture once again in Stage 4 losing 16,8 seconds. However, he set the fastest time in Stage 3.


Esapekka Lappi was forced to retire in Stage 1 as he clipped a huge rock with the front right wheel after 9.9 Km and grounded to a halt shortly afterwards with suspension damage.


Adrien Fourmaux retired in Stage 3, because he lost grip just 200 meters into SS3 and slid off the road.


Pierre-Louis Loubet was forced to retire in Stage 2 with a third puncture. In Stage 1, the Frenchman had both front tyres knocked off the wheel rim.


Watch below the stage times:







Watch the overall classification after SS4:




Photo Credits: Toyota 

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