The first day of Rally Italia Sardegna has come to an end. Sebastien Ogier leads after the days six stages.
Morning Loop (Stages 1-3)
Adrien Fourmaux led the event after the first three stages of the weekend. Fourmaux went into the second loop with a 2.9-second lead over teammate Thierry Neuville. Ogier, Tänak and Fourmaux each took a stage win during the loop. Stage two saw the first true drama of the weekend. As all but one M-Sport car crashed out or had an incident. Martins Sesks rolled, Grégoire Munster broke his suspension and Josh McErlean had an accident.
Afternoon Loop (Stages 4-6)
Sebastien Ogier took the event lead during the final three stages of the day. Ogier ends the day with a 2.1-second lead over fellow countryman Adrien Fourmaux. Tänak, Rovanperä and Ogier each won a stage during the loop. Thierry Neuville retired for the day after breaking his suspension on SS5. While Takamoto Katsuta rolled on SS5, but was able to rejoin.
Quotes
Toyota Gazoo Racing
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“We can be very satisfied to be leading at the end of Friday in Sardinia. We knew that we faced a big challenge here, but this morning I could see the determination in Seb’s eyes to win this one and he did a really good job across the day. It’s also been nice to see Sami produce a very strong day, and Kalle also started to find the confidence in the afternoon, and neither of them are so far from the lead fight. Elfyn wasn’t in an easy place opening the road today but the key here for him is to be patient. We’ve already seen a lot of drama today and for Elfyn – and for Taka – there can still be the chance to climb the order and take good points.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“As we expected it was a challenge to open the road today with quite a big cleaning effect. The feeling in the car this morning was actually not too bad with some improvement from Portugal, but the road was evolving a lot behind us and other drivers could take big chunks of time, especially in the last stage of the loop. In the afternoon there was still some cleaning effect for us, but when the road was hard and rocky I was also struggling more with the feeling, so that’s still something to work on overnight. A better road position will definitely help and we’ll go again tomorrow.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“Overall it has not been too bad a day for us. We expected this morning to be difficult running second on the road and I struggled to get comfortable with the car. But based on this we could make quite a few small changes around the car in service and we found a better feeling, and the afternoon was definitely better. Still I think there was some cleaning for us on the second pass, so I’m really happy to have set such good times. With this better feeling in the car and a better starting place, I hope we can keep up a good pace tomorrow.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“To be in the lead after Friday was not what we were expecting, so we must be very pleased with our day. We made some changes to the setup based on our experience in Portugal and I’m feeling happier with the balance of the car here so far. We had a strong, consistent day and I believe it was our good tyre management that allowed us to take the lead in the last stage of the day. Still, the gaps are very close to Adrien and Ott, so we will need to keep pushing just as hard tomorrow as we did today.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“At first this morning I struggled with the feeling, but we made some changes to the setup between stages and it was getting better and better. Unfortunately in the second stage this afternoon, in a very tight corner, we turned in quicker than I had expected and hit the rock on the inside and rolled. I’m very disappointed but at least we could reach service. We will try to reset tomorrow; it won’t be an easy day but I will just keep focused and do my best. We have seen how a small mistake can catch people out on this rally, so let’s see what happens.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It has been a really good day for us. I think we have been quite consistently on a solid pace. We maybe had some advantage from the road position compared to some, but I don’t think this was the only reason we could be quick. I don’t feel like I’m pushing more than on previous rallies, rather that the pace is just coming more and more naturally as we get used to the car. I’m sure the top three will be pushing very hard tomorrow and I’ll just be happy if we can keep up the pace we’ve had today.”
Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT
Adrien Fourmaux
“I’m quite happy with how my day went, fighting for the lead and finishing just two seconds behind Ogier. Of course, I would prefer to have been ahead of him, but I enjoyed the fight out there. Unfortunately I changed a few things on the car for the final stage and went too stiff, so I was losing time everywhere. I’ve learned a lot today, it’s been a different experience being in the lead and now I know what to do tomorrow. It’s very small margins, and anything can happen – to get a good result here, first you need to finish. ”
Ott Tänak
“It was a tricky morning, but on the first stage of the afternoon I felt the car was working well thanks to more grip and the hard tyre. However, I started to struggle again on the middle stage, and we later discovered we had a damper issue. We just had to get through the final stage, which wasn’t easier with it being both fast and rough at the same time – very punishing for the car. We made some improvements for the second loop, so let’s see how we do on fresh roads tomorrow. ”
Thierry Neuville
“It’s disappointing to end our day in retirement – our first since Sardinia last year, so a shame to end our positive run of results. I lost the front of the car on the entry to a corner at high speed, and we went maybe 15cm wide and hit something with the rear, ripping our tyre off too. Unfortunately that was the end of our running. It was a bit of a surprise as I was close to flat out this morning and similar this afternoon, but unfortunately it didn’t end well for us today. ”
François-Xavier Demaison – Hyundai Technical Director
“It is a shame we are not ending the day with all three cars in the fight, but it has been a good day for us here in Sardinia. All of our crews were competitive and had the pace to fight for the podium positions, as well as the lead. Sardinia is always difficult, and while you can’t win on the first day, you can most certainly lose. There is no denying it will be close until the end – as we know very well from last year – but our performance today is definitely encouraging as we head into the rest of the weekend.”