Sébastien Ogier heads towards victory at the Rally of Sardinia, the classification at the end of the day

Positioned 3.5s behind Ott Tänak after SS8, Sébastien Ogier increased the pace on the last loop of the day. The Frenchman scored three stage wins in a row on stages 9, 10 and 11 to end the day with a 17-second margin over the Estonian.

Tänak, more cautious, secures the points for 2nd place which will allow him to close in on Thierry Neuville in the general standings. The Belgian, forced to retire after going off the track on SS 8, will give him a hard time on Sunday by trying to get the points from the Super Sunday, the classification on Sunday and those of the Power Stage.

Katsuta also gives up, Sordo takes advantage

Behind Ogier and Tänak, Dani Sordo completes the podium for Hyundai. The Spaniard took advantage of the problems of Takamoto Katsuta, forced to retire on SS9 while he was provisionally holding his first podium of the season. This also allows Elfyn Evans to gain a place (4th). In terms of delicacy, the Welshman still performed well in the overall standings where he was runner-up to Thierry Neuville.

With the withdrawals of the Belgian, Takamoto Kastuta and the French Adrien Fourmaux, there are only five left competing in the Rally1 category. Grégoire Munster (Ford M-Sport) completes the top 5, but the Luxembourger, teammate of Fourmaux, is only 9 seconds ahead of Sami Pajari, leader of WRC2.

The classification of the Sardinia Rally on Saturday evening (SS12/18)

1. Sébastien Ogier – Vincent Landais (Toyota)
2. Ott Tänak – Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai): +17.1
3. Daniel Sordo – Cándido Carrera (Hyundai): +2:12.8
4. Elfyn Evans – Scott Martin (Toyota): +2:43.3
5. Grégoire Munster – Louis Louka (Ford M-Sport): +5:28.8
6. Sami Pajari – Enni Mälkönen (Toyota, WRC2): +5:38.5
7. Yohan Rossel – Benjamin Boulloud (Citroën, WRC2): +6:33.2
8. Jan Solans – Rodrigo Sanjuan (Toyota, WRC2): +6:45.2

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