Sébastien Ogier overhauled both Adrien Fourmaux and Ott Tänak on Friday’s final stage to lead Rally Italy Sardinia by 2.1 seconds.
It was a dramatic opening leg of the sixth round of 2025’s World Rally Championship, which claimed all three M-Sport drivers in the morning and world champion Thierry Neuville in the afternoon.
On the very same (brand-new) Telti – Calangianus – Berchidda test that eliminated the Pumas, Neuville got it wrong over a jump and hit the rear left of his Hyundai against a bank.
That instantly caused damage and led to his retirement from the lead.
Hyundai retained its top spot on the leaderboard though, with Fourmaux moving up to first (he’d been 0.2s behind Neuville) after SS5 with Tänak menacingly 1.2s in arrears.
But Tänak slipped back on the day’s final stage as he was combating an issue.
“We found out at the end of the last one we broke the damper,” he revealed. “But all OK.”
Ogier was rightfully proud of his day – one which he led after the opening stage of the event despite starting as high as third on the road.
And then another stage win to end the day elevated him up two places into the position of overnight leader.
“It’s been a good day for sure,” Ogier confessed. “I’ve done everything I could today, so happy for that.”
Fourmaux was disappointed after SS6 to have lost the lead.
He said: “That was a really messy stage, I didn’t have a lot of grip. That was not good – the car was not absorbing the rocks. I tried, but…”
Just 7.3s splits the top three heading into Saturday; Tänak 5.2s down on Fourmaux.
Sami Pajari has used his lower starting position to good effect to hold fourth overall after Friday, 16.8s off the lead, with his fellow Finn and Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanperä rounding out the top-five just six seconds behind.
Friday was always going to be a struggle for both Rovanperä and championship leader Elfyn Evans due to road cleaning – Evans completing the six stages over a minute off the lead.
But the drama around (including for team-mate Takamoto Katsuta who rolled at a slow hairpin before being righted again by spectators) means Evans is inside the top six, and therefore will have five Rally1 cars ahead of him in the starting order tomorrow.
Rovanperä is however 47.0s up the road after improving the setup of his GR Yaris Rally1.
“We knew what we were in for to a point, but we go again tomorrow,” Evans said. “Definitely hoping for a better day [tomorrow].”
Katsuta ended Friday over a minute behind Evans as the last of the factory Rally1 cars, completing the final test with a damaged windshield and rear wing as a consequence of his earlier roll.
Emil Lindholm leads WRC2 in his Škoda, 16.3s ahead of Yohan Rossel with Martin Prokop in third.
Rossel was given a notional time for the penultimate stage having been caught in the dusrt of M-Sport privateer Jourdan Serderidis, who had rolled at the same hairpin as Katsuta.
