(Reuters) – Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier was heading for a third win in a row after leading Rally Italy by 17.1 seconds at the end of the penultimate leg in Sardinia on Saturday as championship leader Thierry Neuville crashed out.
Eight-times world champion Ogier has led Hyundai’s Ott Tanak by only 4.5 seconds overnight but the Frenchman built up a comfortable lead over the Estonian on a difficult day for others.
Ogier, 40, won in Croatia and Portugal but is entering only selected rallies this season.
“This morning’s stages were very rough, but I enjoyed the afternoon so much more and it was a pleasure to drive the car,” he said.
Tanak said he was instructed to play safe and bank points for the manufacturers’ championship.
Hyundai’s Neuville started the rally with a 24-point advantage over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans but that looks likely to shrink with the Welshman in fourth place and Hyundai’s Dani Sordo third.
Neuville went off the road and into a ditch on stage eight, with the crew unhurt. He is expected to rejoin the rally on Sunday, with 12 points still to be won under the new 2024 scoring system.
Evans has 30.5 seconds to make up on Sordo if he is to secure a podium place.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta ran in the top three earlier but had to stop on stage nine with a transmission issue.
Sunday’s final day features two loops of two stages on rough gravel to the north-west of Alghero and a total of 39.30km of competitive action.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ed Osmond)
Source Agencies
