2025 Rally of Sardinia: Sébastien Ogier wins and sets a new record!

And five for Sébastien Ogier in Sardinia! This Sunday, June 8, the eight-time world champion won the Italian event after making the difference at midday on Saturday. The driver Toyota, who then went on to secure the rest of the weekend – if we exclude the little scare in the Powerstage – now holds the sole record for the number of victories on Sardinian soil. As a reminder, he was previously tied with a certain Sébastien Loeb (four wins each).

The Gapençais, who is playing a partial program in this 2025 season of WRC wins, in Italy, already his third success in four rallies contested! And at the same time, his 64th career title. Unlike in Portugal, where he had benefited from the unreliability of the Hyundai, this time Ogier won fairly in front of Ott Tänak, who was the outgoing winner, and his teammate Kalle Rovanperä.

The Finn, winner of SS14 and the Powerstage, had a great final day, scoring the maximum ten points awarded to the best driver on Super Sunday. Behind the three strong men of the weekend, the same as in Portugal three weeks ago, and in the same order, the Toyotas of Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta completed the top five. Note that the Welshman limited the damage despite a rally complicated and maintains the lead in the drivers' championship.

New disappointment for Neuville and Fourmaux in Sardinia

Yet another gravel race that trapped Hyundai. Despite winning the three previous editions in Sardinia, the South Korean team could only count on Ott Tänak to score big points. Indeed, Thierry Neuville et Adrien fourmaux suffered another disappointment this weekend. First, the reigning world champion had to retire early on Friday after crashing on SS5. He hit a wall with his car at high speed and damaged the entire left rear.

Although he was discreet on Saturday, the Belgian gave his all on Sunday to try to score some points. He finished second in the Powerstage behind Rovanperä, and fifth in the Super Sunday. That's enough to earn a mere five points. On the other hand, it's zero points for Adrien Fourmaux. The Frenchman, second overall, just 2 seconds behind his compatriot on Saturday morning, lost everything on this second day.

Indeed, the French driver suffered a puncture halfway through SS8 and could therefore say goodbye to any hope of a podium and victory since he was almost 4 minutes behind at the end of this special… The bad luck didn’t stop there since the Hyundai driver finally had to retire after going off the road and rolling in a tight bend in SS11. An accident without serious consequences for him, but not for his car… Although he was able to restart this morning, he was never in the running to score points.

Toyota still untouchable this season

Defending champions in Sardinia, Ott Tänak and the South Korean firm had good reason to hope for a big weekend in Italy to finally get the season off to a good start and stop Toyota's dominance. It failed again! It was indeed the Japanese team that once again proved the strongest, placing, as expected this time, two drivers on the podium, and four in the top five!

Unfortunately, as in Portugal three weeks ago, the team led by Cyril Abiteboul was not spared from the setbacks of two of its drivers. It was not reliability that was lacking this time. But rather success, especially at key moments when the Hyundai team was in a good position to claim the overall victory.

In WRC2, Rossel retains the lead

A word about WRC2. Italian Roberto Drapa won on the Sardinian roads ahead of Poland's Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Czech Martin Prokop. On the French side, the Rossel brothers, Yohan and Léo, had to retire on Saturday after both damaging their Citroën C3. This Sunday, only Yohan restarted. Even though he had nothing left to play for, he still set the fastest time on SS13, and second on the Powerstage.

Finally, this retirement had no impact on the drivers' standings since he retained the lead. At the finish of this Rally of Sardinia, Yohan Rossel spoke to AUTOhebdo, which gave you a behind-the-scenes look at the event, in collaboration with Yacco:

 

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WRC – Rally of Sardinia
Final general ranking

Power Stage ranking

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