Julien Ingrassia has talked of the moment he and Sébastien Ogier crashed out of Secto Rally Finland, admitting he feared the worst as the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 headed for the trees at close to 100mph.
In an extraordinary edition of SPIN, The Rally Pod, the eight-time world champion talks in detail about a rollercoaster of emotions – from the Saturday evening telephone call asking him to co-drive to another incredible call the morning after the pair had crashed out of the lead.
Ogier and Ingrassia were leading by 20 seconds going into Västilä, Saturday’s penultimate stage. Pushing to maintain their advantage over Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari, they went off the road three corners from the end of the test. Ogier was flown to hospital in Tampere, while Ingrassia went by road to hospital in Jyväskylä.
“Immediately on the next morning, we had a phone call,” Ingrassia said. “At six in the morning, I felt in his voice and he felt in my voice, a rage that we didn’t finish the job.
“More or less in the spirit, we wanted to call the engineer to put the car back on the road and we go for it. This is the fighting spirit, which is great, it means we didn’t keep this very primal fear deep inside of us. When you crash into the trees at these speeds, in Finland in the middle of the trees, I don’t want to lie. I have been thinking: ‘Hmm, I might die or I might be really badly hurt this time.'”
“Still now, when we are talking, I still keep the smile, saying we were doing a great, amazing job. I can keep the smile for this reason and I can keep the smile because we are here and we are safe.
“Sometimes you have to take things as they are and not make the story again in your mind.”
Beyond the accident, Ingrassia talks about the thought process he went through before agreeing to return to co-drive Ogier – and the bond between the two which allowed for an immediate return to the speed which made them world champions together eight times in nine seasons.
