Ogier takes overnight lead in WRC Rally Italia Sardegna
1st June 2024Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Toyota’s eight-time world champion, Sebastien Ogier has taken the overnight lead in the World Rally Championship’s Rally Italia Sardegna.
Ogier, and co-driver Vincent Landais, are the overnight leaders for the WRC’s current event after four stages were completed to tie up the opening day.
However, the day wasn’t without issues as Ogier’s teammate, Elfyn Evans suffered a first-stage puncture which forced the Welshman to be more conservative for the remainder of the action.
M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux also had issues as he suffered a slow puncture on SS3, he later stopped on SS4.
How the day ended…
After four stages, Ogier is the rally leader with a total elapsed rally time of 53m 43.1s.
Although Ogier has the lead, Hyundai’s Ott Tanak occupies second place having completed the day just 4.5 seconds behind Toyota’s eight-time world champion.
From there, the leading top two have some breathing room as Tanak’s Spanish teammate Daniel Sordo rounds out the top three, 33.2s behind the leading time.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta is the first Rally1 Yaris to find itself outside the top three having finished his day in fourth place.
Evans completed the Toyota line-up in sixth, nearly a minute off Ogier’s time. The Welshman need a good result to reignite his championship hopes, having fallen 24 points behind Hyundai’s championship leader Thierry Neuville.
Speaking of Neuville, the Belgian driver found himself in fifth after the day’s stages, sandwiched in between Katsuta and Evans.
Due to his championship position, he and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe had the difficult task of sweeping the opening tests. This ultimately cost the crew time in the overall standings.
M-Sport Ford was at the bottom of the pile, in terms of Rally1 competitors, as Fourmaux retired from the day and Gregoire Munster finished seventh over a minute behind.
In turn, this allowed WRC2-competitor, Sami Pajari to lead the supporting category inside the top 10, in eighth. Pajari was closely followed by Jan Solans and Georg Linnamӓe who finished in ninth and 10th.
Saturday continues the Rallying action as the longest day of the Italia Sardegna weekend.
Read more WRC here:
- Ogier secures unprecedented sixth WRC win at Rally de Portugal
- Ogier leads as Rovanpera crashes in WRC Rally de Portugal
- Rovanpera leads Toyota top three in WRC Rally de Portugal
- Neuville takes the opening WRC stage win in 2024 Rally de Portugal
- Neuville tops day 2 of Rally Croatia as the rally heats up
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
