The second day of Rally Chile Bio Bio 2024 has come to an end. Kalle Rovanperä leads the event after the days six stages.
SS7, Pelun 1
Elfyn Evans kicked off the day with a stage win. As the Welshman set a time 0.9 seconds faster than Sebastien Ogier to top the stage. Kalle a Rovanperä finished third fastest on the stage, 1.4 seconds slower than Evans and 0.5 seconds slower than Ogier. Ott Tänak was fourth fastest on the stage, 2.7 seconds slower than Rovanperä. Thierry Neuville rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 0.2 seconds slower than Tänak.
SS8, Lota 1
Kalle Rovanperä set the fastest time on the eighth stage of Rally Chile Bio Bio 2024. As Rovanperä set a time 9.7 seconds faster than Elfyn Evans to take the stage win. Ott Tänak finished third fastest on the stage, 10.7 seconds slower than Rovanperä and one second slower than Evans. Adrien Fourmaux was fourth fastest on the stage, 1.1 seconds slower than Tänak. Thierry Neuville rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 1.1 seconds slower than Fourmaux.
SS9, Maria Las Cruces 1
Elfyn Evans capped off the morning loop with his second stage win of the day. As Evans finished eight seconds faster than Thierry Neuville to take the stage win. Ott Tänak was third fastest on the stage, 9.3 seconds slower than Evans and 1.3 seconds slower than Neuville. Kalle Rovanperä set the fourth fastest time on the stage, 0.2 seconds slower than Tänak. Adrien Fourmaux rounded out the top five on the stage, two seconds slower than Rovanperä.
SS10, Pelun 2
Elfyn Evans took home his third stage win of the day on SS10. As the rally leader set a time 2.3 seconds faster than Kalle Rovanperä to take his fourth stage win of Rally Chile Bio Bio 2024. Ott Tänak finished third fastest on the stage, 3.3 seconds slower than Evans and one second slower than Rovanperä. Thierry Neuville was fourth fastest on the stage, 1.5 seconds slower than Tänak. Adrien Fourmaux rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 1.9 seconds slower than Neuville.
SS11, Lota 2
Thierry Neuville took home his first stage win of the weekend on SS11. With a time five seconds faster than Kalle Rovanperä to top the stage. Grégoire Munster finished third fastest on the stage, 10.3 seconds slower than Neuville and 5.3 seconds slower than Rovanperä. Adrien Fourmaux set the fourth fastest time on the stage, 0.5 seconds slower than Munster. Ott Tänak rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 7.9 seconds slower than Fourmaux.
SS12, Maria Las Cruces 2
Adrien Fourmaux capped off the second day of Rally Chile Bio Bio 2024 with a stage win. As the Frenchman set a time 0.8 seconds faster than Kalle Rovanperä. Thierry Neuville finished third fastest on the stage, 9.5 seconds slower than Fourmaux and 8.7 seconds slower than Rovanperä. Elfyn Evans was fourth fastest on the stage, 0.9 seconds slower than Neuville. Ott Tänak rounded out the top five on the stage, finishing 3.2 seconds slower than Evans.
Quotes
Jari-Matti Latvala – Team Principal
“I must say that we are really satisfied with our performance today. Kalle and Elfyn have been doing an amazing job and driving really well. The conditions have been very tough but they have both shown that if you manage it, you can make big time differences. We’re also really happy with how Sami has been performing. The most important thing for him is to get the experience, so he took it carefully in the fog because feeling the limits of the car is more difficult in such extreme conditions, and that is the right approach for him. It was disappointing for Seb that he had to stop this morning, but he will be back tomorrow and I know his motivation will be high because he’s been driving extremely fast so far this weekend.”
Kalle Rovanperä – 1st Overall
“Overall it’s been a positive day for us. The feeling was definitely better than yesterday. As I expected, the tyre wear was a big factor this morning and on the last stage it was a challenge to keep the pace until the end of the loop. Then we could gain something in the afternoon when the weather got a bit damper and trickier. I would say it was the foggiest conditions I’ve ever driven a rally car in, but we managed it well: we could keep it quite safe and still have good pace. There’s still a long day to go tomorrow and it will be important to secure this one-two for the team and also try to bring as many points as we can from the last day.”
Elfyn Evans – 2nd Overall
“I think we can be pretty pleased with our performance today. We had a good morning loop – maybe just a bit careful on the middle stage managing the tyres. The afternoon was tougher. It started off pretty well in the first stage of the loop but then we hit very bad fog on the second one, where we couldn’t even see the edge of the road. It was very difficult and we lost a lot of time there. We also fitted our soft tyres there and couldn’t really make use of them, whereas Kalle used his on the last one where it was wetter and did a great job to take advantage. That was a bit of a double whammy for us, but overall it’s been going well and we’ll try to carry on the same way tomorrow.”
Sami Pajari – 6th Overall
“Today the stages were more technical and something new for me to learn driving the Rally1 car. The conditions were also really tricky already in the last stage of the morning and especially this afternoon. In SS11 I was expecting some fog but I was surprised just how bad it was. I decided to just try and drive clever in those conditions, as it would be so easy to make a silly mistake because you can only see a few metres in front. Still we could enjoy some sections today: the first stage of the afternoon was really good and the last one was also going better even in damp conditions. The car has been really nice to drive the whole weekend and I’m sure we can have a good feeling again tomorrow.”
Sebastien Ogier – 39th Overall
“With the time we lost yesterday we had to push this morning and starting near the front we knew we would have to face tough conditions. We made a brave tyre choice and I think it was working well. Unfortunately, very close to the end of SS8, there was a rock in my line and we clipped it in the wrong moment when the front of the car was fully loaded under braking, and it damaged the suspension. It’s not what any of us wanted and it’s two rallies in a row where we had amazing speed and we didn’t convert it. It’s frustrating but we’ll be back tomorrow and I hope my team-mates can still bring a strong result for the team.”
Hyundai
François-Xavier Demaison – Hyundai Technical Director
“A difficult day for the crews out there, but at the end of the day we love rallying because of the extreme conditions. Thierry did exactly what he needed to do today to ensure a good start position for Sunday, so a great day for him with no mistakes. Ott made a small mistake this morning and then was not on the optimal tyre choice for this afternoon, but while we hoped for more he has provisionally scored good points for the manufacturers’ championship. Esapekka had an even more challenging day, losing his front bumper in the first few kilometres which made the car difficult to drive, and while he had an improved setup for the second loop his time penalty dropped his motivation and he saved his tyres for tomorrow. As a team we have to ensure we score as many points as possible, but it is a complicated situation: a mix of pushing to get the maximum, but not pushing too much to risk what we have achieved today. ”
Ott Tänak – 3rd Overall
“We had a good morning loop, despite losing the rear in the low grip conditions and spinning the car – thankfully, everything was fine and no harm done. Our times weren’t very close to the Toyotas today; yesterday was so messy it didn’t show, but today we could see we couldn’t get up to the speed where we needed to be. We expected the complete opposite conditions on those final stages, it was a really tough call. While the drivers’ championship might not be up to us anymore, the manufacturers’ fight is still tight so we definitely need to score as many points as possible tomorrow.
Thierry Neuville – 4th Overall
“I’m definitely pleased with today. We were able to close the gap to the podium as well which would have been an even better position overnight, but we didn’t force it too much in the last stage. Yesterday was very challenging and didn’t go well, but today we had a clear target of fourth that we achieved very quickly in the morning, so the afternoon was about protecting that. We can’t afford to make mistakes now. We have a better road position for tomorrow, so we need to make sure we benefit from some road cleaning and score as many points as we can.”
Esapekka Lappi – 8th Overall
“The car is back in once piece which is positive, but it was really not enjoyable out there. I was struggling for grip and I don’t understand why – we tried a lot of things but I just couldn’t make them work. It is a shame about our penalty; we had just put the soft tyres on so my motivation afterwards was to not destroy them to save them for tomorrow, so we drove slowly after that. There was also very heavy clouds on both the long stages and the visibility was pretty much non-existent, so I didn’t want to risk anything. We will try and pick ourselves up for tomorrow.”
