Sébastien Ogier has pulled away from his rivals in the World Rally Championship (WRC).
The eight-time World Champion, who will compete as a part-time driver for Toyota in 2022, won three of the day’s six special stages (SS) and has a 20.7 second lead over Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville going into the final day.
Neuville managed to oust Rovanperä from second place on the final stage of the day. The Finn is now 22.1 seconds behind the leader. Hyundai driver Ott Tänak finished fourth, 36.6 seconds back, ahead of Dani Sordo (1:13.2 minutes) and Elfyn Evans (1:27.6 minutes), while Craig Breen, 1:39.7 minutes back, finished seventh in the M- led sports team.
On Saturday, under the best conditions under the Spanish sun, Ogier put his foot down and extended his lead stage by stage. With an impressive performance, the Frenchman won stage 12 by 2.2 seconds over Tänak, extending his lead over his closest pursuer, Rovanperä, to 12 seconds.
Close fight in the top class
Neuville set the fourth fastest time, 0.5 seconds slower than Rovanperä. In the field of Rally1 cars, the top 10 were separated by just 10.5 seconds on the 13.93 kilometer special stage, which shows how close the premier class in rallying was to each other. Ogier continued his dominant drive on the 13th special stage. On the 20.19 km long special stage, the Frenchman was 3.3 seconds faster than Tanäk.
“It feels really good – I’m really enjoying these stages,” says Ogier. “As long as we stay out of trouble, things should be fine.” Rovanperä admits the only way he can keep up with Ogier is to take “crazy risks”. But that is not an option for the youngest world champion in WRC history. He would like to win the manufacturers’ title with Toyota and therefore has his eyes on the big picture in Salou.
The Finn was 3.9 seconds slower than Ogier, so the gap to the leader grew to 15.9 seconds. Neuville’s hopes of victory were dashed as the Belgian lost increasing time on the Toyota duo in front, while Evans continued to struggle to find the right balance with Sordo in the battle for fifth. M-Sport driver Breen continued to lead the team-internal ranking: The Irishman came within 8.5 seconds of Evans in the overall standings.
Sordo delights his home crowd
But then Ogier saw his winning streak in the special stages come to an end when local hero Sordo launched an attack. The Hyundai driver drove in a different league than his competitors in the afternoon. In the morning, the special stage had to be canceled due to an accident involving Gus Greensmith. Sordo finished the 24.18km special stage 5.0 seconds faster than Neuville, while rally leader Toyota driver Ogier was a tenth further back.
“I don’t care about the times – I was pushing like crazy. I really like the stage, so I just rode it,” says Sordo. “It’s cleaner here and I promised my friends that I’ll set a best time today.” The battle at the front took another turn when Rovanperä struggled early in the stage, causing the Finn to lose 10.3 seconds and fall so far behind.
“It was real crap. There was a lot of confusion at the start line,” says Rovanperä. “I had some problems at the beginning of the special stage.” Neuville and Tänak set the same time on the final stage of the day, while Ogier was third, 0.8s behind. Rovanperä finished just fifth due to the difficulties. M-Sport will continue to repair Greensmith’s car so he can get back in action on Sunday. There are still four special stages on the last day.