Sébastien Ogier showed an exceptional performance to take the lead over his Hyundai Motorsport rival, Ott Tänak, after the first leg of Rally Italia Sardegna. Ogier took advantage of his more favorable road position and secured victories in two out of the four stages with his Toyota GR Yaris. This allowed him to establish an initial 4.5-second lead over Tänak, who was driving the i20 N. The only flaw in Ogier’s perfect day was a cautious drive in Sedini-Castelsardo, where he lost 5.9 seconds to Tänak while trying to preserve his tires. However, the hard compound Pirelli tires performed well in the scorching heat and challenging terrain of the Mediterranean island.
Ogier expressed his satisfaction with the day’s performance, stating: “It’s good. It was extremely tough and demanding on the tires, and I’m happy we managed because it was challenging with just five tires.” Tänak, on the other hand, set the fastest time in SS2 and, despite facing issues with the hybrid boost on two occasions, secured the second position overnight. This marks Tänak’s best start to a rally this season. Meanwhile, Dani Sordo, Ogier’s teammate, clinched third place on the podium, finishing 28.7 seconds behind the leader. Sordo benefited from Adrien Fourmaux’s bad luck, as the M-Sport Ford Puma driver suffered a tire delamination in SS3 and ultimately retired due to an electrical issue.
Takamoto Katsuta from Toyota secured fourth place, while championship contenders Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans faced a challenging afternoon. Neuville and Evans started in first and second place, respectively, on the sandy roads, where grip was at a minimum. They ended the day in fifth and sixth place, with Evans struggling with a leaking tire on his GR Yaris during SS1, which further increased his frustration. Evans finished the day almost a minute behind the leader. Neuville, who had a 24-point advantage over Evans in the driver standings before this stage, described it as a tough day but remains determined to continue.
In seventh place overall was Grégoire Munster, trailing Evans by 11.9 seconds. Sami Pajari led the WRC2 category and secured eighth place. Pajari, alongside co-driver Enni Mälkönen, took a fearless approach on Friday and built an 18.3-second advantage. He posted the fastest times both at the opening and closing of the four rocky speed tests of the day, as he seeks his first victory aboard a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. Pajari faced competition from Pierre Louis-Loubet, who was only participating in his second rally of the season in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Loubet briefly took the overall lead by 1.2 seconds after winning the second stage of the day. However, his time at the top was short-lived as he got stuck in Emil Lindholm’s dust. Lindholm had stopped to change a wheel on his Hyundai i20 N Rally2 during SS3. As a result, Loubet finished the stage as the ninth fastest and is awaiting a notional time.
Pajari regained the lead, finishing the penultimate test 0.6 seconds behind stage winner Georg Linnamäe, before being 3.5 seconds faster than Loubet on the final stage of the day.
© 2024
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