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Solberg Extends Rally Chile Lead as Road Order Bites Evans

Shifting weather plus road-order effects reshaped the opening day, threatening to reshuffle the championship order.

Overview

  • Overnight rain made Friday’s morning loop muddy and slippery, producing mixed grip, five different stage winners and an unsettled running order.
  • Oliver Solberg built a decisive advantage in the drying afternoon and finished day one 10.1 seconds ahead of Elfyn Evans after winning the final stage.
  • Elfyn Evans said opening the road on drier tests cost him time but left him with a better starting position for Saturday and he remains the championship points leader.
  • Adrien Fourmaux recovered from an electronic fault fixed at midday service to hold third by a narrow margin over Sébastien Ogier while Takamoto Katsuta was the first Rally1 retirement after beaching his car.
  • The final stage was briefly red-flagged after an incident involving WRC2 crew Alejandro Cachón and co-driver Borja Rozada who were checked and airlifted for precautionary hospital tests, and Nikolay Gryazin leads WRC2 from Robert Virves early on.