Ott Tanak beats Sebastien Ogier by 0.2s to win a dramatic FIA WRC Rally Italia Sardegna, as Dani Sordo makes it Hyundai 1-3 finish.
Friday –
Sébastien Ogier delivered a near-perfect performance to lead Hyundai Motorsport rival Ott Tänak after Friday’s all-action opening leg at Rally Italia Sardegna. Ogier capitalised on the increased traction offered by his late starting position to win two of the four sun-kissed gravel speed tests in his Toyota GR Yaris, opening an early 4.5sec advantage over i20 N driver Tänak in this sixth round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
The Frenchman’s only blot on the day was an overly cautious first drive through Sedini-Castelsardo, where he yielded 5.9sec to Tänak whilst trying to conserve tyres. In the end, Pirelli’s hard compound rubber stood up to the test of the Mediterranean holiday island’s high heats and rocky roads.
Tänak went fastest on SS2 and, despite losing hybrid boost on two occasions, second place overnight marks the Estonian’s strongest start to a rally so far this season. His team-mate Dani Sordo completed the podium a hefty 28.7sec behind, grabbing the position when M-Sport Ford Puma hotshot Adrien Fourmaux suffered a tyre delamination on SS3. Fourmaux later retired with an electrical issue.
While fourth went the way of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, it was a testing afternoon for championship frontrunners Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans, who held fifth and sixth respectively after starting first and second on the sandy roads where grip was at its lowest. A leaking tyre on his GR Yaris during SS1 only compounded Evans’ frustrations and he ended the day almost one minute adrift of the lead. Grégoire Munster trailed Evans by 11.9sec in seventh overall while Sami Pajari led the WRC2 category as well as holding eighth.
Saturday –
Sébastien Ogier is on course to claim a remarkable third FIA World Rally Championship victory in succession after distancing Ott Tänak on Saturday’s gruelling second leg at Rally Italia Sardegna. The eight-time WRC champion will start Super Sunday with a 17.1sec advantage over Hyundai i20 N rival Tänak after a turbulent day which included four lead changes and saw championship leader Thierry Neuville bow into retirement.
Fortune initially favoured Tänak when overnight leader Ogier’s decision to carry only one spare wheel for the morning tests backfired. A deflated tyre forced him to use the same set of rubber for three increasingly rough and abrasive stages and, after trading positions three times, he trailed the Estonian by 3.5sec at the mid-leg tyre fitting zone. In the afternoon’s legendary stages around Monte Lerno, however, Ogier threw caution to the wind.
With Tänak’s pace fading and the 2019 title winner hinting that he was being instructed to play it safe, Ogier stormed back into the lead after just one stage and proceeded to post a trio of benchmark times in his GR Yaris. A successful Sunday for Ogier would follow back-to-back victories in Croatia and Portugal, and could see the Frenchman confirm his place as the most successful driver in Rally Italia Sardegna history.
Thierry Neuville arrived in Sardinia with a 24-point championship lead over Elfyn Evans and looked set to increase that margin after climbing from fifth to third early in the day. However, his podium hopes went awry when he misjudged a braking point in SS8, sliding his Hyundai off the road and into retirement.
Takamoto Katsuta was elevated to the podium as a result, but the Japanese driver’s time inside the top three was short-lived. His Toyota developed a transmission issue which proved terminal on SS9. The drama up front opened the door for Dani Sordo to complete the leading trio in another Hyundai. Despite struggling to find his rhythm, the Spaniard trailed team-mate Tänak by almost two minutes with Evans a further 30.5sec behind. Grégoire Munster rounded out the top five in an M-Sport Ford Puma while WRC2 leader Sami Pajari held sixth.
Sunday –
Ott Tänak claimed a shock victory at Rally Italia Sardegna on Sunday afternoon after late agony for long-time leader Sébastien Ogier. The Estonian, driving a Hyundai i20 N, celebrated his maiden success of the season when a damaged tyre in the final rough road speed test denied Ogier a third consecutive FIA World Rally Champonship victory.
Having traded blows with Tänak early in the rally, Ogier led since Saturday afternoon in his Toyota GR Yaris. The Frenchman began the rally-closing Wolf Power Stage with a 6.2sec advantage but ended 0.2sec behind after disaster unfolded in the closing kilometres. Today marks the joint-closest finish in WRC history – matching the result of Rally Jordan in 2011.
On that occasion, Ogier was on the other side of the ledger and held off his now team boss Jari-Matti Latvala. Tänak, who scored his previous victory in Chile last year, was humble in victory. He faced similar heartbreak on the very same stage in 2019 when a power steering cost him a guaranteed win. Dani Sordo made it two Hyundai cars in the top three, helping the Korean marque to remain in the lead of the manufacturers’ championship by eight points over Toyota.
The 41-year-old was initially out of sorts but climbed the order as drivers ahead of him suffered heartbreak. One of those drivers was his team-mate Thierry Neuville, whose podium bid went awry when he slid off the road on SS8. Neuville’s consolation was that he claimed the full 12 points from Super Sunday to retain the driver’s series lead over Elfyn Evans.
Evans’ feeling inside his GR Yaris was not optimal for the rough gravel roads but, while he ended almost three minutes back from the lead in fourth, the Welshman did succeed in reducing Neuville’s buffer from 24 to 16 points. Consistency rewarded Puma youngster Grégoire Munster with a fifth-place finish. His M-Sport Ford team-mate Adrien Fourmaux ran as high as third early on but retired in Friday’s final test with an electrical fault.
Such was the level of attrition that WRC2 machinery filled the remaining top 10 positions, with Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver Sami Pajari claiming the WRC2 win and sixth overall. Behind him were Yohan Rossel, Jan Solans, Martin Prokop and Kajetan Kajetanowicz.
Results: https://www.wrc.com/live-timing?liveTimingMenu=overall_livetiming&stage=FINAL&championshipId=245
[Note: The story is as per press release]
