Adrien Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville hold first and second place for Hyundai after Rally Italy Sardinia’s loop of Friday morning stages, during which Sébastien Ogier lost the lead to a puncture.
Ogier impacted a large step in a section of rough asphalt on stage three and punctured his front-right tire, dropping 26.2s relative to stage winner Thierry Neuville. The reigning world champion, who will concede his crown to one of three Toyota team-mates at the end of this rally, fell to eighth place and out of the lead fight.
Fourmaux won the day-opening SS2 and moved into the lead after Ogier’s puncture, then increased his gap over Neuville to 4.6s on stage four.
Elfyn Evans remains on course to become World Rally champion, though he struggled with road sweeping on SS4, going 16.5s off the pace and falling to sixth behind the recovering Ogier.
Ogier drove on his punctured front-right tire until the end of SS3
For Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari a massive result is needed to have any hope of usurping Evans in the championship standings; Pajari started the rally 17 points behind and Solberg 21.
On stage four Solberg was the class of the field, winning the stage despite being third on the road and leapfrogging Pajari into third place, with a 3.5s gap to Neuville ahead.
“It’s all we can do, at least we are faster than Elfyn but I’m worried it’s not enough. We knew this Friday morning will be really important so we try to do all we can.
It was a strong recovery for Solberg from SS2, where he’d suffered a slow front-left puncture and also lost time in hanging dust that had afflicted several drivers. All three contenders knew being fast on Friday would be critical, otherwise it carries a risk of a compromised road position on both Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s all we can do,” said Pajari of his Friday morning run, sitting 2.6s behind Solberg in fourth. “At least we are faster than Elfyn but I’m worried it’s not enough. We knew this Friday morning will be really important so we try to do all we can.”
Evans remains on track to secure the 2026 world title despite falling to sixth place
Several drivers suffered punctures on stage four: Takamoto Katsuta was first to stop and change a wheel, followed by M-Sport duo Jon Armstrong and Mārtinš Sesks doing likewise. All three have failen out of the top 10 places overall.
Dani Sordo’s difficult start to the rally got worse on SS3, as like Ogier he also suffered a puncture. Given he crashed on shakedown, suffered a late check-in penalty at the first time control of the rally and jumped the start of the Ittiri Arena superspecial on Thursday night, it’s been a miserable event for the two-time Sardinia winner.
“Honestly everything now is very difficult,” said Sordo, who lost four minutes on SS3, as he was stuck in the dust of Robert Virves’ Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 after his wheel change. “We try to keep the motivation.
“I feel really bad on my side for the crash of yesterday. Today first stage was good, then have a puncture, many many things. It is like it is.
“We try at least the best we can do. But things are not going well at the moment in the rally. We need to keep pushing. When you are not in the pace you are not enjoying; you enjoy to fight.”
Ogier is 12.3s behind Pajari and only 1.9s ahead of Evans in sixth; Josh McErlean is the best of the rest and top M-Sport driver in seventh, nine seconds behind Evans.
Teemu Suninen leads the way in WRC2. Virves, who has mathematically sealed the WRC2 title prior to the rally start, is out of contention for the win after stopping to change a wheel on SS4.
