It was a brutal day in Sardinia – thrilling, but brutal.
Overnight leader Sebastian Ogier elected to take just one spare tyre, a strategy that backfired almost immediately in Saturday’s first stage when he developed a slow puncture, leaving the eight-time WRC Champion to nurse his tyres over the three increasingly rough stages before hitting the tyre fitting zone at lunchtime.
Ott Tanak powered his Hyundai i20N to the fastest time in that decisive first stage, snatching the overall lead by the slenderest of margins – 0.1 seconds.
Championship leader Thierry Neuville, fifth at the end of Friday’s action, rocketed into third place albeit 35 seconds off the lead but crucially for his championship aspirations, well ahead of Elfyn Evans who was way off the pace in sixth.
Ogier wasn’t in dire straits just yet though and won the following stage, the GR Yaris driver emerging back in the lead by 2.2 seconds. Stage seven was rough and Ogier was mindful of his rubber situation so eased off, ending the stage second quickest behind Tanak, who re-took the overall lead by 2.2 seconds.
Once the GR Yaris had a new set of Pirelli rubber bolted on, Ogier demolished the opposition, winning three of the afternoon’s four stages to take a comfortable(ish) 17.1 second lead into the short Sunday finale, helped by Hyundai telling Tanak to ease up after Neuville’s demise.
Stage eight saw Neuville slide off the road, down a bank and out of the rally. Takamoto Katsuta was having a great run in third until forced to retire with terminal transmission problems in stage nine.
Dani Sordo inherited third with Evans up to fourth, the Welshman really needing to capitalize on Neuville’s misfortune. He is within striking distance of the Spaniard, needing to find 30.5 seconds.
In WRC2, Sami Pajari extended his WRC2 lead to almost one minute but Rossel delivered one of the most stunning comeback drives in recent memory to climb from 15th to second overall gaining almost 1min 20sec on Pajari and winning every single stage.
