Sébastien Ogier delivered a near-perfect performance to lead Hyundai Motorsport rival Ott Tänak after Friday’s opening leg at Rally Italia Sardegna.
Ogier capitalised on his more favourable road position to win two of the four stages in his Toyota GR Yaris, opening an early 4.5sec advantage over i20 N driver Tänak.
The Frenchman’s only blot on an otherwise imperious day was an overly cautious first drive through Sedini-Castelsardo, where he lost 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 island’s high heat and rocky roads.
“It’s good,” smiled Ogier. “It’s been extremely rough and demanding for the tyres and I am happy that we made it because it was challenging with only five tyres.”
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.
“That has definitely been the hardest day you could imagine to open the road on in Sardinia,” exhaled Hyundai star Neuville, who headed Evans by 24 points in the drivers’ standings before this round. “A tough day for us, but [we will] carry on.”
Grégoire Munster trailed Evans by 11.9sec in seventh overall while Sami Pajari led the WRC2 category as well as holding eighth.
Pajari threw caution to the wind on Friday charging to a lead of 18.3sec alongside co-driver Enni Mälkönen.
Former Junior WRC champion Pajari bookended Friday with the quickest times on the opening and closing of the day’s four rocky speed tests, as he searches for his maiden victory aboard a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
The Finn’s biggest threat came in from Pierre Louis-Loubet – making only his second start of the season in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 – with the Corsica-native winning the day’s second stage to briefly take the overall lead by 1.2sec.
But Loubet’s time at the top was short-lived after he was caught in Emil Lindholm’s dust, who had pulled over to change a wheel on his Hyundai i20 N Rally2 in SS3. Loubet completed the stage as the ninth-quickest as a result and is awaiting a notional time at the time of writing.
Pajari moved back into the lead, completing the penultimate test 0.6sec down on stage winner Georg Linnamäe before going 3.5sec quicker than Loubet on the day’s finale.
