Day 3 of the Central European Rally delivered another round of surprises and major changes to the leaderboard. The crews tackled three stages run twice — one in Germany (Made in FRG) and two in the Czech Republic (Keply and Klatovy).
The day began with Sébastien Ogier in the lead, just 0.6 seconds ahead of Kalle Rovanperä, with Elfyn Evans sitting third at +29.5 seconds.
In the opening morning stage (SS9), Rovanperä set the fastest time, snatching the lead from Ogier and opening a gap of 0.7 seconds. However, the battle didn’t last long.
Just one stage later, in SS10, the rally took a dramatic turn. Ogier suffered a front-left puncture. Because a sensor malfunctioned, he wasn’t alerted to the issue in time. As he entered a fast corner around 18km into the stage, the car failed to turn properly and slid into a ditch, hitting a tree. Fortunately, both Ogier and his co-driver Vincent Landais were unharmed. They will return on Sunday to fight for Super Sunday points. As Rovanperä said:
“It will be flat out. Seb will go for it with full risk — he has nothing to lose.”
With Ogier out of contention on Saturday, the lead changed hands once again. Evans moved up to second, while Tänak climbed to third, finishing the morning loop just 1.3 seconds behind Evans.
The afternoon stages ran smoothly for most WRC crews. In SS12 (Keply), Tänak was the quickest, overtaking Evans to claim second place overall.
At the end of Day 3, the standings looked like this:
- Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen – 1:56:14.7
- Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja – +36.3
- Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin – +44.7
In WRC2, the day brought its share of setbacks. Rally leader Alejandro Cachón hit a hay bale in the final Saturday stage, breaking his rear-right suspension and forcing him to retire. Léo Rossel also dropped out due to electrical problems during a road section after the stage, though he plans to restart on Sunday. With those retirements, Jan Černý now leads the WRC2 category, followed by Filip Mareš and Roberto Daprà.
As the rally heads into its final day, the championship remains wide open. With crucial points still on offer, drivers will be pushing hard on Super Sunday to finish strong and keep their title hopes alive.