Rally Sardinia - 2nd Day - 1st Loop: Ogier pulls away with SS4 stage win on a frantic Friday morning

At the end of Friday morning, Sebastien Ogier is the new leader of Rally Italia Sardegna with Esapekka Lappi and Pierre-Louis Loubet following him.

Sebastien Ogier stayed out of trouble on the first loop of Friday and stole the lead from Esapekka Lappi at the end of Stage 2 as he was the fastest driver there. However, he dropped behind EP after SS3, but he managed to take back the first place after his setting the fastest time in SS4.

Esapekka Lappi is second overall and was leading Ogier by 0,4 seconds at the end of Stage 3. At Stage 2, he dropped behind the eight-time WRC Champion for 0,4 seconds, but now their gap is at 16,3 seconds before the start of the afternoon loop. Finally, the Finn driver had a bumper damage in SS2 which was caused by the road compressions.

Pierre-Louis Loubet retook his third place at the end of Stage 4 despite the fact that he lost two positions after SS3. He lost the power of his Puma after a watersplash in SS2, but he managed to be at the top three after the opening stage of Friday. 

Elfyn Evans climbed from ninth to fourth place overall after the final stage of Friday morning, but generally he was losing time in comparison with his rivals on the first two stages.

Takamoto Katsuta completes the top five and was the fastest driver in Stage 3. However, he had a moment in SS4 when he overshot a left-hander and slid into a rock resulting in losing about 20 seconds.

Thierry Neuville comes right behind the Japanese for only one tenth of a second and said at the end of SS4 that he had no grip.

Ott Tanak is in seventh place overall and was struggling with the behavior of his Puma as he stated at the end of SS4.

Kalle Rovanpera follows the Estonian driver for 6,3 seconds and dropped time in all stages due to the fact that he was starting first on the road and had to clean the stages for his rivals.

Dani Sordo dropped from sixth to outside the top ten as he lost more than three minutes in Monte Lerno after his going off the road 48.5 Km into SS4. The accident happened when he ran wide on a left-hander and rolled down a banking resulting in damaging his i20N. Luckily for him, there were spectators on the stage and helped him to get going again.

 

Watch below the stage times:

Watch the overall classification after SS4:

Photo Credits: Toyota