Ogier leads WRC Rally Sardinia as Fourmaux capitulates

Sebastien Ogier continues to lead Rally Italy Sardinia after briefly losing the advantage in the dust of Adrien Fourmaux, whose World Rally Championship victory bid has failed. 

Ogier had extended his overnight 2.1s margin over Fourmaux to 7.4s after winning Saturday morning’s first test before drama struck on stage 8 – Lerno – Su Filigosu 1 – 24.34 km.

Fourmaux hit a rock that wasn’t in his pace notes and picked up a front-right puncture five kilometres into the rough gravel test. The Hyundai driver opted to push on before deciding to stop and change the wheel on his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 at the 16-kilometre mark.

Fourmaux pressed on after a two-minute wheel change but was only a kilometre ahead of Ogier in the stage, which meant the latter was unable to push with his visibility severely hampered by the hanging dust. 

As a result, Ogier lost 29.7s to stage winner Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, who vaulted from third to the rally lead.

Following an appeal, rally organisers quickly calculated a nominal time for Ogier to account for the delays in the dust of Fourmaux, which moved the eight-time world champion back into the lead. Ogier went on to win stage nine, the last of the loop, to open up a 15.0s lead over Tanak.

Tanak was 10.5s slower than Ogier in the morning’s rough final test after suffering a tear in his right rear tyre. He was fortunate to be able to reach the stage without undergoing a wheel change.

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera moved into the podium places in third [+37.5s] after Fourmaux’s puncture. The two-time world champion appeared far more comfortable behind the wheel after a raft of overnight set-up changes. 

Rovanpera started the day in fifth but managed to snatch fourth from team-mate Sami Pajari after stage seven.

Pajari’s strong Sardinia showing continued as he held fourth despite nudging trees in stage nine. The Finn held a 1m05.3s margin over championship leader Elfyn Evans, who moved to fifth after losing 1m09.8s opening the road on Friday.

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta was seventh after losing time to a slow-speed roll on Friday.

Fourmaux’s day went from bad to worse as the Frenchman was distracted by dust coming in the car and ran off the road and into the trees in stage nine. Fourmaux managed to keep going, and after enduring another off-road moment he ended the stage losing 55.1s. He dropped to ninth overall, 4m36.6s adrift of Ogier.   

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and the M-Sport duo of Josh McErlean and Gregoire Munster rejoined the rally following their Friday retirements. Munster did however have to fight a brake issue on his Puma across Saturday’s trio of morning stages.

The crews will repeat the trio of stages this afternoon to complete Saturday’s action.