Sordo surprise winner in Sardinia

The last step of Rally of Sardinia was a long procession, the gaps in the classification forcing most of the crews to slow down to preserve the tires for the Power Stage. The outcome proved them very wrong since the leader Ott Tänak (Toyota) a chuté sur le dernier parcours.

L’Estonien disposait d’une avance confortable lorsqu’il a vraisemblablement rencontré des soucis de direction assistée. Le triple vainqueur de la saison a alors perdu plus de 2 minutes, laissant la victoire à Dani Sordo (Hyundai) qui décroche son second succès en WRC after… the 2013 Rally Germany (and therefore his first on gravel)!

Teemu Suninen (M-Sport) décroche quant à lui son second podium devant Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai). Le Norvégien, vainqueur de la Power Stage devant Sébastien Ogier (Citroen), Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) and Elfyn Evans (M-Sport), took over the Welshman at the finish of the event, beating the Ford by 9 tenths.

Ott Tänak failed in 5th place ahead of Thierry Neuville, Esapekka Lappi and Kris Meeke (Toyota). The Estonian nevertheless takes the lead in the championship with 4 points ahead of Sébastien Ogier and 7 over Thierry Neuville. Hyundai is 44 points ahead of Toyota.

Kalle Rovanperä (Skoda) increases his lead in WRC 2 Pro with a new success ahead of Jan Kopecky (Skoda) who completes the Top 10 in the general classification ahead of Pierre-Louis Loubet (Skoda), winner of WRC 2 after retirement with an engine problem by Takamoto Katsuta (Ford).

The WRC will enjoy a nice summer break before the Rally Finland held on the weekend of August 4.

Discover the analysis of the Sardinia Rally carried out by our special correspondent in AUTO issue 2221hebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.