Sébastien Ogier is edging closer to a record-breaking Rally Italy Sardinia victory, extending his lead to 19.7 seconds over Ott Tänak.
Beginning Sunday’s final leg of four stages 11.1s out front, Ogier outpaced his rival by an impressive 4.5s on the opener to establish a 15.6s advantage.
By winning SS14, Kalle Rovanperä became the first driver other than Ogier and Tänak to win a stage since Friday, but more importantly Ogier beat Tänak again by 4.1s to cement his lead with just two stages to go.
However Ogier did survive a wild moment right at the end of the stage, where he flattened a bush after running off-line.
Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans are safe in third and fourth overall, and in the Super Sunday standings (Thierry Neuville is currently fifth in Super Sunday), but their team-mate Sami Pajari has had a difficult morning.
The Finn “spun and hit something” on SS13 and therefore completed SS14 at reduced pace, losing his fifth position to the other Toyota of Takamoto Katsuta.
The Rally2 cars of Nikolay Gryazin and Oliver Solberg have also nipped ahead of Pajari, demoting him to eighth.
“I’m just playing it safe,” said Pajari. “[Car] shouldn’t be too bad, but we will again check on the road and we will see. Still it’s not quite perfect.”
Pajari has one more stage to complete (SS15) before a service break prior to the powerstage.
In WRC2, Emil Lindholm threw away the lead when he outbraked himself over a crest and sent his Škoda into the bushes, where it got beached. Lauri Joona now leads by 11.1s over Kajetan Kajetanowicz.
