Ogier's missing win in Sardinia is difficult to digest as Toyota says

The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, says that it is very difficult to digest the moment in which Sebastien Ogier lost the victory of Rally Sardinia in Powerstage, but admits that this missing opportunity does not affect the points that they scored.

One of the closest WRC finishes happened in Sardinia last weekend as Ott Tanak managed to take the victory for 0,2 seconds. Tanak and Ogier were fighting for the lead until the end of Saturday morning due to the fact that the Estonian decided to slow down his pace after Thierry Neuville's exit in Stage 8 which means that Ogier built a safety net around the first place at the end of Saturday afternoon. However, Tanak's aim for Sunday was to take some points from the SuperSunday standings and started to cut Ogier's lead from 17,1 to 6,2 seconds at the end of Stage 15 while the last one was managing his gap in order to avoid unnecessary risks. For one more year, the Powerstage of Rally Italia Sardegna provided drama as Ogier suffered from a puncture three kilometers before the end resulting in dropping 6,4 seconds compared to Tanak and eventually losing his fifth win on Italian island. Finally, it must be mentioned that Ogier was very close in breaking another record in World Rally Championship as he and Sebastien Loeb have won four times Rally Italia Sardegna which is the number with the most victories there.

"We are of course very disappointed to miss out on the victory in this way", Latvala said. 

"This final stage in Sardinia has been very dramatic in the past and unfortunately, it’s not the first time that we have experienced late drama here, because it reminds us of what happened back in 2019 when we were leading with Ott until the last stage. 

"This event has not always been kind to us, but it was looking very good for Seb and we thought we could take another victory together here. 

"The only positive is that it didn’t affect the points so much for us. 

"A moment like this can be difficult to digest, and we hate to lose, but we also never lose our fighting spirit and we will come back to fight again on the next event in Poland".

Photo Credits: Toyota