Oliver Solberg stretched his Rally Chile advantage to 10.1 seconds over teammate Elfyn Evans with a hard‑won Saturday afternoon loop, leaving the Toyota crew one step from a second win of the season.
Solberg’s dominant finish
After a morning where Evans trimmed Solberg’s margin to 9.8 seconds in stage 10 (Pelun 2), the Norwegian capitalised in the next two stages. Solberg’s stage‑12 win (Maria las Cruces 2, 28.31 km) by 3.7 seconds, and a successful run through the downhill of the same stage, widened the gap to 19.1 seconds ahead of the championship leader for Sunday’s final four stages. “The first stage tomorrow is extremely difficult, but at least we’ve got a small gap now which is very nice. For the championship sake I need to do my classic powerstage and Sunday don’t I? So I’ll do my best,” he said.
Solberg kept his focus on tyre preservation across the rough gravel, a decision that helped maintain his lead, even as the front‑running group finished within just 20 seconds of one another.
Evans holds second against Ogier
Evans focused on consolidating second rather than chasing Solberg. Elfyn faced a fresh challenge from nine‑time champion Sébastien Ogier, who reclaimed third after winning stage 10. Ogier’s fastest time in stage 11 (Lota 2) took 6.1 seconds out of Evans, leaving the Welshman only 0.3 seconds behind at the stage’s conclusion. Evans countered in the final loop, beating Ogier by a full second to lock in second place; Ogier finished third, 20.4 seconds adrift. “It was a clean drive. We benefited from new tyres but the damage was done in the previous two stages. I can’t be fully satisfied with the afternoon. We hoped to be faster. We keep going,” Evans added.
Tyre strategy plays out for Fourmaux
Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux lost its three‑soft gamble in stage 12, falling out of the top four. Earlier a similar strategy had won his opening stage but could not be replicated. Fourmaux will start Sunday 18.2 seconds behind the leader and 10.7 seconds behind Ogier. “There was no abrasiveness in Paraguay and the tyres were just exploding, and here it’s like a cheese wrap,” he remarked.
Support class and retirements
Sami Pajari finished fifth, 75.5 seconds behind the front group, commenting on the impact of road position: “We are not quite on the pace where we would like to be. There is a lot of discussion about road position playing a big role, but still at the end of the day the pace is not what we wanted. Hopefully we can be quicker on Super Sunday.” Esapekka Lappi climbed to sixth while M‑Sport‑Ford’s Josh McErlean finished seventh, after a left‑rear puncture earlier and a service delay. Frankie Armstrong’s Ford Puma rolled in stage 8 and was forced to retire. Thierry Neuville also retired after rolling his i20 N in stage 7. In WRC2, Yohan Rossel claimed a 58.0‑second lead over Robert Virves.
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