Sébastien Ogier will not risk chasing rival Ott Tänak for Rally Estonia victory, but the series-leading Toyota driver says he does need big points in Tartu this week.
Six-time champion Ogier starts the delayed fourth round of the season with an eight-point lead over his nearest rival, team-mate Elfyn Evans. Thierry Neuville is the nearest non-Yaris driver, third and 20 points adrift. It’s those drivers where Ogier’s focus will be fixed first.
“I think victory is not necessarily an obligation,” he said, “but for sure the fact that we expect Ott [Tänak] to be really fast this weekend and to challenge him in there, we’ll need probably quite a lot of risk.
“That’s definitely not the plan I have right now, but the plan I have is to still give my best and try to fight for [the] podium.”
With just four rounds of this year’s series remaining, Ogier knows he can’t afford any mistakes if he’s to land a seventh title in eight years.
“It’s going to be a short championship,” he said. “That means, I mean it’s never good to make any mistakes, but when it’s short like this, even less.
“It’s always good to be in the lead, but it’s only eight points, which is not that much. So for sure there is no way we can manage any gap right now, the target is to try to score big points this weekend.”
Toyota team principal Tommi Mäkinen echoed those sentiments. “He don’t need the win, but what he needs is safe points,” he said. “Don’t worry, Séb is the clever guy.”
Tänak told DirtFish he wouldn’t be taking the big risks and would employ a similar policy to Ogier, adding: “I cannot take the big risks. I won’t risk everything for this. But I also know that, to win, we have to be very fast from the first moment. We have to push from the first kilometre and we have a gap to make up in the points.”
