Monza Rally leader Sébastien Ogier says he still has a “responsibility” to secure both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ crowns for Toyota, despite inheriting title-favorite status following team-mate Elfyn Evans’ retirement.
Evans’ exit, after he slid off the road in worsening weather conditions on SS11, means Ogier is on course to claim a seventh World Rally Championship crown if he maintains his lead of the season finale through Sunday’s final three stages.
Ogier told DirtFish that Evans and co-driver Scott Martin were “very fair” in telling him to slow at the same corner that they had gone off at on the Gerosa stage but, turning his attention to the rest of the rally, said the onus was now on him not to make any mistakes.
“I had a feeling to go very slow as well and I was actually not far from losing it as well so it was an incredible, incredible grip change,” said Ogier, who still needs to score at least 14 points to have a chance of winning the crown.
“Honestly it could have happened to anybody there so they were definitely very fair, like I was hoping from them, in slowing us down as a team-mate. I think we would all do that; well maybe not everybody, so it’s great that they’ve done it.
“Now it’s the responsibility of myself to try and bring the car home tomorrow and still confirm the title for Toyota, because the drivers’ title is not absolutely secured, so we need to do that.”
Toyota’s hand is far stronger in the drivers’ standings given Ogier is ahead of Ott Tänak on the rally and in the championship, but the manufacturers’ battle is currently on a knife-edge.
Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä are currently first and fifth respectively but Hyundai is second and third with Dani Sordo and Tänak.
Toyota is therefore provisionally set to score four more points than Hyundai, but currently trails by seven in the championship.
Were Evans to have finished third – the position he was holding before he slid off the road – Toyota would have taken the championship it lost to Hyundai last year by three points.
Asked what his thoughts were when he saw Evans’ Yaris WRC, Ogier said: “At the end of the stage, I said, ‘OK, first I have to stay on the road and not do the same as him’ because it was incredibly tricky and very hard to read the grip.
“The corner where he went off, the grip change was so huge that you see on his onboard that he was definitely not really overdoing it but still he got caught and could not do anything.
“It’s disappointment for the whole team because we were on the way to make the double: to win the drivers’ title and manufacturers’ title.
“But for sure for us we came here with the target to put maximum pressure on him, try to win this rally and see if it’s enough to be champion at the end of the weekend.
“Now we know that if we win it will be enough, but there’s still 40km to go [on Sunday].”
With a 17.8-second advantage over Sordo, Ogier added he will “try to manage this gap” on Sunday’s final three circuit stages.
“I don’t need to set best times anymore,” said Ogier.
“I think the first stage tomorrow morning is like tonight, full Tarmac, kind of the easiest to manage from the three of them.
“But the next one then is one of the longest we’ve done here around with a lot of gravel sections which is going to be very muddy and probably also in pretty bad condition, rough, so we’ll have to stay out of trouble.”
