M-Sport World Rally Team’s Elfyn Evans was further plagued by bad luck on the morning’s opening stage, losing a front-right wheel and catching fire. Hyundai Motorsport’s Thierry Neuville also suffered an unfortunate fate, rolling his i20 WRC, blocking the stage briefly.
Hitting a rock, Elfyn Evans dislodged the right-front wheel of his Fiesta, igniting the brake fluid in the process. Evans made a solid effort to get the car off the course before he and co-driver Daniel Barritt tamed the fire with their on-board extinguishers. Second driver on the stage, Khalid Al Qassimi, briefly topped to offer an extinguisher before taking to stage again.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who started the stage with concerns about tyres after the previous day’s stages, found himself with more to worry about after rolling his i20 WRC early in the stage. His car blocked the road briefly, to such an extent that teammate Dani Sordo had to use his own Hyundai to nudge the stricken car out of the way. In the end spectators righted Neuville’s car and moved it a safer spot.
The surprise of the stage was the win, which was taken by Volkswagen Motorsport II’s Andreas Mikkelsen. He’s been pushing the new Polo R all weekend, something that’s now paying off.
Second fastest was Sebastien Ogier, though he was well on Mikkelsen’s heels with a gap of just 0.6s between them.
Fellow Volkswagen driver, Jari-Matti Latvala finished the stage third fastest, despite losing five seconds due to overshooting a left-hand bend, forcing him to handbrake turn the car before being able to continue. He still leads the rally despite his error.