WRC Croatia: Oliver Solberg crashes out on opening…

Oliver Solberg retired from Friday’s action at the Croatia Rally after being caught out on the opening stage of the asphalt World Rally Championship event.

The Monte Carlo winner clipped a bank 4.8km into the Vodice - Brest 1 (14.2km) test, which fired the car into a wild 360-degree spin. The Swede’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 eventually came to rest off the road and in a woodland area.

Fans rushed to the car to try and push Solberg back onto the road, but the car became beached – resulting in an early retirement for the driver that topped Thursday’s shakedown.

Safari Rally Kenya winner Takamoto Katsuta was the first to come across the stranded Solberg. The Japanese driver chose to back off after receiving information that Solberg had been involved in an incident.

“When I saw Oliver off, I just backed off,” said Katsuta. “It does not make sense to make a mistake myself.”

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans made the most of starting first, on a road that became increasingly dirty with every pass, to win the stage by 8.1 seconds from team-mate Sami Pajari.

Jon Armstrong, Shane Byrne, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1 (Photo by: M-Sport)

Meanwhile, M-Sport opted for a different tyre strategy compared to Toyota and Hyundai, choosing to take soft tyres. While the decision was on the limit, it did help Jon Armstrong post the third fastest time, 1.3s quicker than Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux.

Evans extended his rally lead by posting the fastest time in the following stage. The championship leader was 7.7s faster than Pajari, which was enough to increase his early lead to 15.9s with two stages of the morning loop yet to be completed.

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville jumped from sixth to third overall (+22.4s) after team-mate Fourmaux lost more than a minute to a front right puncture, while Armstrong’s pace was hampered by a front left puncture.

"I started to enjoy it a bit more, but the stage is very dirty. The grip is very low. I tried to find a good rhythm, keep a good speed,” said Neuville.

“The balance of the car improved, but I made the car so hard that it's getting nervous. I think I could've used one more soft [tyres] in the beginning, but our issue is we can't get the hards working.”

Fourmaux was perplexed by the reason for his puncture, while Armstrong knew how he incurred his tyre damage.

“We had a puncture somewhere, didn't feel anything. No impact or anything, just in the line. It is a shame, it is part of rallying. There is still to go, so – flat out,” said Fourmaux.

Armstrong added: “It was just on a real fast place, there was an entry left into a right, there was something on the road. Quite unlucky. We'll see what we can do in the next ones.”