Motorsport: Irish crews suffer Rally Croatia setbacks

Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) pictured on the opening day of Rally Croatia, round four of the World Rally Championship. Picture: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool.

From promising positions, Irish crews had time-consuming incidents on Rally Croatia, round four of the World Rally Championship, as they dropped down the order with the M-Sport Ford crew of Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy eleventh overall after the eight stages of the opening day. 

Their fellow Irish teammates Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne retired from fourth overall after their Ford Puma Rally1 crashed on the day's fourth stage, they are set to re-join under Super Rally. 

In the Junior WR category, Craig Rahill/Conor Smith (Ford Fiesta Rally3) hold third place; they took a stage win on SS3.

Overnight, Finland's Sami Pajari (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) tops the leaderboard 13.7s ahead of Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 Rally1) with Japan's Katsuta Takamoto (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) and his Irish co-driver Aaron Johnston 0.9s further behind in third.

Pre-event championship leader Elfyn Evans set the pace on the first stage taking an 8.1s lead over Pajari with Armstrong, who won the event last year as part of the European Rally Championship, an impressive third, 1.4s back. McErlean was seventh. 

It was a short-lived event for Swede Oliver Solberg, who crashed his Toyota GR Yaris at a location only 4.8km into the stage. 

He was the victim of a surface change that caused his Toyota to spin that wedged the front left wing between a tree and a kerb.

On SS2 Armstrong slipped to seventh when his Ford Puma punctured the front left wheel; however, he made a dramatic response on SS3 where he just missed out on a first-ever WRC stage win by a mere one tenth of a second to Neuville. 

His performance promoted him to fourth - 21.2s behind new rally leader Pajari, as Evans, leading by 15.8s, crashed heavily on SS3 after it appeared that he had misjudged a right-hander. Stage winner Neuville, whose Hyundai suffered some understeer, was just 2.7s behind. 

Armstrong occupied fourth - 14.8s behind Katsuta. However, it all went awry on SS4 for Armstrong when his Ford Puma understeered into a kerb.

Pajari and Neuville each won two of the four afternoon stages although Neuville struggled with the balance of his Hyundai - dropping 7.4s to Pajari on the day's final stage. McErlean, who arrived at the midday service in fifth spot clipped a rock and had to stop and change a punctured wheel on SS7. 

"I think we knocked something out with the impact and the puncture, (it was a) shame, because it was a consistent day. The afternoon wasn't good in terms of pace. Let's see what tomorrow brings."

Meanwhile, organisers of Sunday's Monaghan Rally are in discussions with fuel protesters that have blocked the entrance to the Combilift facility in Monaghan, the location of the service park for the rally, a round of the Triton Showers national rally championship. 

According to a club spokesperson, a positive outcome is required for the rally to go ahead.

Rally Croatia (Round 4 World Rally Championship) Rijeka: 1.S. Pajari/M. Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 1h. 12m. 18.5s; 2. T. Neuville/M. Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)+13.7s; 3. T. Katsuta/A. Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)+14.6s; 4. H. Paddon/J. Kennard (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)+1m. 15.0s; 5. A. Fourmaux/A. Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)+1m. 54.6s; 6. Y. Rossel/A. Dunand (Lancia Ypsilon Rally2)+2m. 45.9s; 7. N. Gryazin/K. Aleksandrov (Lancia Ypsilon Rally2)+3m. 08.0s; 8. A. Cachón/B. Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+3m. 27.9s; 9. L. Rossel/G. Mercoiret (Citroën C3 Rally2)+3m. 35.1s; 10. R. Korhonen/A. Viinikka (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+3m. 47.0; 11. J. McErlean/E. Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1)+3m. 57.2s.