Sebastien Ogier goes with a wafer-thin lead of 11.1 seconds to the final day of the rally Italy in Sardinia after he has survived an extremely demanding Saturday that was fatal to several WRC pilots.
Toyota pilot Ogier kept the nerves in the intensive duel with Hyundais Ott Tänak-despite extremely difficult conditions and high risk of tire damage. In knowing that Tänak would blow to attack, Ogier could not allow himself to be a conservation and had to accept risk.
Tänak, who had suffered tire damage in the morning, countered with two best times in the afternoon and shortened the gap of originally 15.0 seconds.
Ogier held against it and took the last day exam with a lead of 0.4 seconds to Tänak. “It was a long day, especially the afternoon was very hard. But it was good racing management,” said Ogier.
In addition to Ogier, only teammates Kalle Rovanperä remained without major problems after twelve out of 16 levels. However, the Finn made a small mistake in WP10, which cost it four seconds, was able to master the particularly rough exams sovereignly and is 55.5 seconds behind in 3rd place.
For Elfyn Evans, Tagamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari, the day was much more turbulent. This led to some shifts in the classification. Katsuta hit it first: In WP10 he contracted tire damage at the front right and had to stop to change the bike – a time loss of two minutes.
In the following examination, it also caught both Evans and Pajari, also in the front right after both drove over outstanding stones. Evans still got away lightly and lost 1:50 minutes with passenger Scott Martin. Pajari, on the other hand, initially continued on the damaged tire, but then had to stop shortly before the end of the exam.
He almost caused an incident with Dänak, which had to avoid the heavily slowed Toyota while he was on the way to the best time. “The only thing I could do was to hit the stones. We have so many security systems, but no warning, no route, nothing,” said Tänak.
WM-LEADER EVANS benefited from the problems with Katsuta and Pajari and pushed himself forward in fourth place, 4: 33.5 minutes behind the top. Pajari is now in 5th place (+4: 56.3), Katsuta in 7th place (+6: 11.4).
Hyundai goes full of victory on Sunday
Hyundai announced on Saturday evening that he wanted to go to victory at the rally – it cost what it wanted. The Koreans are under pressure to finally start the first season victory after a perfect start to Toyota. Sardinia is considered a good pavement: Hyundai has only been beaten there twice since 2016.
Tänak still has a realistic chance of win on Sunday: four exams are still pending, the gap to Ogier is only 11.1 seconds. After a Saturday that has massively decimated the Rally1 field.
The struggle for victory is strongly reminiscent of the previous year: even then Tänak, behind Ogier, went into the final day – 2023 it was 17 seconds. In the end, Tänak won with a wafer -thin lead of 0.2 seconds after Ogier suffered tire damage on the power days.
Hyundai has a clear plan for the final day 2025. The four exams on Sunday are new in the rally calendar and therefore unknown terrain for the teams. “We are still in the race. OTT lost 10.5 seconds in WP9 due to tire damage and is still only 11.1 seconds ago,” explains Hyundai’s chief of technology Francois Xavier Dem season.
“Of course that’s frustrating, but everything is possible tomorrow. Last year we were even 17.1 seconds behind and won. We are in a situation in which we have to attack fully. And we accept the consequences.”
Tänak himself wants to keep the rhythm on Saturday on Sunday: “I think we just have to drive the same rhythm as today. Every day is different and rally is difficult to predict. We will do our best and see where we are at the end.”Latvala from Ogiers Management enthusiasticOgier expects Tänak to attack instead of ensuring to be on the point, and therefore also wants to master a balancing act between risk and caution: “I think we managed it well. As expected, Ott put a lot of pressure. It is about managing the risk and I have given my best. I get the time back, I’ll ask the organizers. “
With a view to Sunday, Ogier adds: “The exams are very demanding, especially the long test and the power days, which is anything but simple. I know that the first WP is difficult. We have to push as hard as this afternoon. That is clear.”
Toyota team boss Jari-Matti Latvala praises Ogier’s ability to keep cool heads in difficult terrain, warns of further challenges: “Sebastien is incredibly strong on a rough surface and in technical sections. You can see that he did not feel most comfortable on extremely fast streets. But what he did on the last WP was really great. said: ‘I wish I was so smart.’ “
“Everything can still happen and minimizing such risks is difficult. The first round through the Sunday tests will be crucial. And hopefully the second round can then be better checked,” says Latvala.
Meanwhile, Fourmaux was still Hyundai’s greatest hope for victory on Saturday morning with just 2.1 seconds behind Ogier. But his day ended in chaos. First he lost almost four minutes due to a tire damage in WP8, then he missed a brake site in WP9 due to dust in the cockpit and slipped off the route. In WP11 it was finally over: Fourmaux overturned at slow speed and had to give up.
“I confused two trees. There was a curve that narrowed, but the brake point was behind the first tree – and I only braked after the second. That was enough to get out too far, I hit a stone. That was enough for a small rollover,” explains Fourmaux. It is unclear whether the car can be repaired by Sunday: “I think so, but we only know that after an in -depth examination.”
Teammate Thierry Neuville as well as the M-Sport pilots Josh Mcerlean and Gregoire Munster came through after their failures on Friday on Saturday without major incidents. The best Rally2 pilot was Nikolay Gryazin in 6th place on Saturday evening. However, the Skoda driver is not enrolled for WRC2 points this weekend. The leadership in the WRC2 classification is at Emil Lindholm.
Four specification tests are waiting on Sunday. The final sprint of a memorable rally.