Ogier master in Sardinia

Leader of the world championship, Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) knew that a difficult weekend awaited him since he was going to sweep the road on the first day. The Gapençais made no secret of it and would have immediately signed up for a podium in Sardinia even before the inaugural special.

Third at the end of Friday and despite his role as opener, the seven-time world champion appeared with a smile on his face but did not see himself competing for victory at Ott Tänak (Hyundai), leader of the event and 36“2 ahead of him. But that was before luck smiled on him.

BREAKING: Congratulations @SebOgier  and Julien Ingrassia – 2021 @Rally_d_Italia champions #WRCLive | #RallyItaly | #JumpingInTheDust | #WRC | @TGR_WRC | #ToyotaGAZOORacing

— WRC – FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) June 6, 2021

Dani Sordo (Hyundai) in difficulty at the start of the second day, Sébastien Ogier took the opportunity to move up to 2nd place after SS10. Relegated to more than 40 seconds from the lead, he saw himself securing rather than attacking, rightly so, in the final stages of Saturday until rally does not take a completely different turn.

Unlucky again, Ott Tänak saw his hopes of victory go up in smoke after hitting a rock on the road to SS12. Forced to end his day, the Estonian handed over the reins to Sébastien Ogier who was not asking for that much.

Unable to refuse this offering, the Toyota driver put himself in champion mode to consolidate his lead at the top of the Rally Italy. Leader, Sébastien Ogier even received a boost when his runner-up Dani Sordo crashed out in SS15.

With the Spaniard on the mat, the Habs had a path to the 52nd victory of his career ahead of him. With confidence, Sébastien Ogier was content to perform this Sunday in order not to make any mistakes and thus see the triumph escape him.

Full of audacity and spared by bad luck, the seven-time world champion offers himself his third success of the season, his fourth in the event, and further accentuates his domination in the championship.

Hyundai, for its part, consoles itself with 3rd place in Thierry Neuville on the Sardinian podium behind Elfyn Evans (Toyota). Victims of various problems throughout the weekend, Dani Sordo and Ott Tänak finished 11th and 13th respectively.

In the drivers' standings, Sébastien Ogier takes off with 106 points, 11 more than his first pursuer Elfyn Evans. Unhappy in Sardinia, Ott Tänak is 4th, 57 points behind the leader.

Among manufacturers, Toyota is widening the gap. With 231 points, the Japanese structure is 49 lengths ahead of Hyundai and 149 ahead of M-Sport.

The next round of the World Rally Championship is scheduled to take place in Kenya from June 24-27.

Find the analysis of this Rally of Italy by our expert in issue No. 2315 available from Monday evening in digital version and Wednesday on newsstands.