The first day of Rally Chile Bio Bio 2024 has come to an end. Elfyn Evans leads the event after the day’s six stages.
SS1, Pulperia 1
Sebastien Ogier kicked off the weekend with a stage win. As the Frenchman set a time 7.1 seconds faster than Elfyn Evans to take the stage win. Adrien Fourmaux finished third fastest on the stage, 8.7 seconds slower than Ogier and 1.6 seconds slower than Evans. Ott Tänak was fourth fastest on the stage, 0.4 seconds slower than Fourmaux. Sami Pajari rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 1.3 seconds slower than Tänak. As a note the times of Evans, Fourmaux and Pajari were all assigned times after the day’s completion. As SS1 was cancelled shortly after Neuville started the stage due to spectator issues.
SS2, Rere 1
Elfyn Evans topped the second stage of Rally Chile Bio Bio 2024. With a time 2.3 seconds faster than Kalle Rovanperä. Sami Pajari finished third fastest on the stage, 2.9 seconds slower than Evans and 0.6 seconds slower than Rovanperä. Sebastien Ogier was fourth fastest on the stage, one second slower than Pajari. Ott Tänak rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 0.2 seconds slower than Ogier.
SS3, San Rosendo 1
Kalle Rovanperä capped off the morning loop with his first stage win of the weekend. As Rovanperä set a time 0.1 seconds faster than Elfyn Evans to take the stage win. Grégoire Munster was third fastest on the stage, 1.1 seconds slower than Rovanperä and one second faster than Evans. Adrien Fourmaux finished with the fourth fastest time on the stage, 1.6 seconds slower than Munster. Sami Pajari rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 1.1 seconds slower than Fourmaux.
SS4, Pulperia 2
Sebastien Ogier took home his second stage win of Rally Chile Bio Bio on SS4. With a time 5.9 seconds faster than Ott Tänak. Elfyn Evans finished third fastest on the stage, 10.5 seconds slower than Ogier and 4.6 seconds slower than Tänak. Adrien Fourmaux set the fourth-fastest time on the stage, 1.6 seconds slower than Evans. Sami Pajari rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 1.7 seconds slower than Fourmaux.
SS5, Rere 2
Sebastien Ogier also topped the fifth stage of the day. As the eight-time champion set a time 0.2 seconds faster than fellow countryman Adrien Fourmaux. Ott Tänak finished fourth fastest on the stage, 1.3 seconds slower than Ogier and 1.1 seconds slower than Fourmaux. Esapekka Lappi was fourth fastest on the stage, one second slower than Tänak. Grégoire Munster rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 0.3 seconds slower than Lappi.
SS6, San Rosendo 2
Adrien Fourmaux capped off the first day of Rally Chile Bio Bio with his first stage win of the weekend. Fourmaux finished with a time 1.8 seconds faster than Sebastien Ogier to top the stage. Elfyn Evans was third fastest on the stage, 2.1 seconds slower than Fourmaux and 0.3 seconds slower than Ogier. Sami Pajari set the fourth fastest time on the stage, 1.4 seconds slower than Evans. Kalle Rovanperä rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 0.6 seconds slower than Pajari.
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Driver Quotes
Toyota Gazoo Racing
Jari-Matti Latvala – Team Principal
“Overall it has been a good first day for the team. To be holding positions one, three and four is very good. Seb was the fastest today but unfortunately had to pay a high price for this one mistake. Elfyn drove some really good stages today and this was a very positive start for him after a tough couple of rallies. Kalle doesn’t feel so comfortable in conditions like this, when it’s a hard surface with loose gravel on top, but I believe tomorrow can be better for him. Lastly, Sami had a very consistent day and a good solid performance, which is exactly like we discussed with him before the rally.”
Elfyn Evans – 1st Overall
“The morning was quite short for us after the first stage was cancelled, but it was feeling generally pretty good in the car. The roads were narrow and cambered and quite fast but technical at the same time with a lot of crests and undulations. So they were fun to drive but the grip level was quite low which made it challenging. The afternoon was tougher for us: I maybe didn’t have the best feeling in the first couple of stages, but it was better in the long one to end the day. We’re still in a decent position and hopefully we can improve for tomorrow.”
Kalle Rovanperä – 3rd Overall
“I’m happy to reach the end of the day without losing too much time, considering that I didn’t really have the most comfortable feeling on these roads. The road base is really hard, so you get a bit of a line and some grip here and there, but it’s changing all the time and I have to change my driving a bit to suit this. To be only 10 seconds behind tonight is not so bad: we’re still in the fight and we’ll try to be better tomorrow. The stages are a bit different and there’s going to be new challenges with a lot of tyre management, but hopefully we can have a better feeling.”
Sami Pajari – 4th Overall
“It’s been a really good and clean day for us. The stages were nice to drive but the conditions were also quite tricky: the grip level was changing quite a lot and so was the width of the road, so it was not easy to have a perfect flow. Especially for me without much experience, it was not so easy to judge the speed. But I tried to stay calm and not rush too much and I think we managed to do a really solid job with consistent speed and to be this close to the front is really nice. I feel like I know many places where I can improve but the plan is just to carry on the same way tomorrow.”
Sebastien Ogier – 9th Overall
“It’s been a day of what could have been for us. Once again the speed was there, but this one mistake in the third stage this morning probably ruined our chances for a top result this weekend. It was a mistake in my pacenotes, with a corner that tightened more than I thought, and we hit the bank on the outside which gave us a puncture at the rear. Otherwise it has been fun in the car on these nice roads and this afternoon we tried to enjoy it. Tomorrow could be very tough for us running near the front of the road, but like always we will keep fighting.”
Hyundai Motorsport
François-Xavier Demaison – Hyundai Motorsport Technical Director
“We knew coming here was going to be very tricky for us, with fast and narrow roads that leave no room for mistakes, so we are very happy to be in the position we are today as we weren’t expecting to be leading. Ott found it difficult to find the right rhythm and setup this morning but in service we found a good compromise that enabled him to fight and finish Friday in first. We know the first day of gravel rallies are difficult and frustrating for Thierry opening the road, but he managed to climb the classification which will give him a better road position tomorrow. Esapekka struggled to come back after some time out of the car, but he showed better pace in the afternoon and we are confident he will also gain places tomorrow. As a team, we are staying focused on our target to score points as a priority. It’s still a long rally, but today has been a positive day for our team.”
Ott Tänak – 2nd Overall
“I’m definitely surprised to be leading the rally; all three of us were struggling this morning. It was extremely demanding and I couldn’t find any kind of feeling in the car. It was also quite difficult in the afternoon but both the grip and the car improved – I’m not really feeling as I should at the moment but we are taking the maximum out of it. We’ve been dialling the car after every stage to try and find a better direction, you definitely need a very goof car balance. Tomorrow the characteristic of the roads will be completely different, but we’re expecting more grip and with a much better road position, we should have a better day.”
Thierry Neuville – 6th Overall
“Being first on the road definitely added to a difficult day in general, but I think we were on the wrong setup as otherwise I cannot explain how I was struggling so much. The feeling wasn’t good, and we didn’t have any fun out there today. However, we are only 30 seconds off the lead and 20 seconds behind fourth and fifth, so our target tomorrow must be to chase those positions. With a bit more performance and speed, I honestly believe it should be possible. We will swap the dampers to another set which will give us more traction but less precision and reactivity, but I clearly had no traction today and I was struggling like hell.”
Esapekka Lappi – 7th Overall
“Quite difficult to find the confidence out there today. I think everyone is complaining about grip and how difficult the conditions are and it is no different to me. I also felt our setup was not really optimum for these kind of roads, but we found improvements for the second pass which was working better. Overall, a tricky morning when you’re missing the confidence to really push and you want to avoid a mistake. In the end, I don’t think our pace was too bad – without the tyre delamination we would have been about 20 seconds off the lead. It’s still a long rally to go, so let’s see what we can do.”
*Note the Hyundai post-day quotes were sent out prior to the COC decision to reallocate select SS1 times, hence why Tänak said he leads the event when in actuality he dropped to second after these changes*
