At the end of Saturday morning, Oliver Solberg defended his first place in Chile from Elfyn Evans with Adrien Fourmaux following them.
Oliver Solberg still tops the overall classification after Saturday morning and holds his 10,1-second lead over the second Elfyn Evans who was faster than the Swede on the first two stages of the day. However, Solberg responded back in Stage 9 by setting the fastest time there.
Elfyn Evans keeps being the second-highest placed driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT and was 7m2 seconds behind the rally leader Solberg at the end of Stage 8, but is now 10,1 seconds behind him. Also, it must be mentioned that Solberg's lead was at 10,1 seconds before the start of Saturday morning and remains the same after the end of Stage 9.
Adrien Fourmaux took back his third place from Sebastien Ogier at the end of Stage 9 and beat him for 6,1 seconds on the final stage of Saturday morning as the Hyundai driver chose to run with the soft tyres.
Sebastien Ogier stole the third place from Adrien Fourmaux for 1,7 seconds and was able to reel in the second Elfyn Evans at the end of Stage 7. In fact, the nine-time WRC Champion was the fastest driver in Stages 7 and 8 meaning that he was just 2,1 seconds adrift from the second Evans after SS8 as Toyota hold the top three positions after the end of Stage 7. However, Ogier lost time and slipped behind the third Fourmaux for 1,9 seconds at the end of Stage 9.
Sami Pajari completes the top five and clipped a bank with the rear right of his Yaris in Stage 8, but somehow his car did not pick up any damage after this impact.
Esapekka Lappi is now sixth overall after Armstrong's retirement on the road section before Stage 9. Firstly, he gained two positions, climbed to seventh from ninth overall and overtook Josh McErlean while he was behind the sixth Armstrong for 12,3 seconds at the end of Stage 7. Finally, it must be mentioned that EP had a wild slide and a false puncture alarm in Stage 8, but he managed to complete the opening leg of Saturday at sixth.
Josh McErlean slipped behind Lappi after the end of Stage 7 as he had a rear left tyre damage resulting in losing 56,3 seconds and dropping from seventh to eighth overall. After his teammate's retirement, McErlean keeps the seventh place of Rally Chile and stayed out of trouble on the last two stages of Saturday morning.
Takamoto Katsuta is outside the top ten as he received time penalties for his restart under the SuperRally regulations following his retirement in Stage 1 of Rally Chile.
Jon Armstrong gained two positions and moved up to sixth overall at the end of Stage 7, but he was forced to retire on the road section before the start of Stage 9 as he understeered, touched a bank and rolled his Puma. In fact, he managed to complete the stage and lost more than seven minutes while he had a water pressure alert at the stop control of SS8.
Thierry Neuville was sixth overall at the end of Friday and was fighting for the third place with Adrien Fourmaux, Sebastien Ogier and Sami Pajari, but the Belgian lost the rear and rolled his i20N several times 8,3Km into Stage 7.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after Stage 9:
Photo Credits: Toyota
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