Sébastien Ogier says he and Vincent Landais can be very satisfied with their Rally Portugal performance that went unrewarded.
The reigning world champion was leading eventual winner Thierry Neuville by 17.3 seconds before a puncture on the penultimate stage cost him two minutes and dropped him to sixth.
“That’s sport and sometimes it bites you like this,” Ogier reflected to DirtFish.
“Basically there’s not much we could have done differently so I think we can keep our head up today and just try to forget it and go to Japan with the target to win. That’s the only thing.
“I mean obviously, yeah, it was a long week with very difficult conditions and I think with Vincent we can be very satisfied with the job done but without the reward this time.”
Ogier struggled at the beginning of the event with the setup of his Toyota, but some damper adjustments unlocked more comfort and he took the lead on SS8 when Adrien Fourmaux went off road and collected two punctures.
He then responded to Oliver Solberg’s advances on Saturday, increasing the risk in the treacherous conditions to construct a decent lead.
“We show that we had what we need to respond when needed, and basically the speed needed to win the rally,” Ogier added. “But that’s motorsport and today luck wasn’t on our side.
“You know there was a couple of signs already: the first long stage, the rain and fog was coming just for us, we had like massive fog at the beginning and then we lost a second per kilometer on the first half of this stage because we got much more rain than anybody.
“But still we kept it under control and then basically reacted after that, or I had enough speed to control this gap. But yeah the puncture was the one thing too much.”
When asked what caused the puncture, Ogier said it was “nothing special”.
“It was basically this narrow section where you have no other option, it’s like one line,” he explained. “So you follow the rest and and then you hear these little bangs but you think it’s OK and then very soon you see on your sensor that it’s not OK unfortunately, and then it’s game over.”
Ogier scored nine points in Portugal, collecting one bonus point from the powerstage, to leave him 56 points adrift of championship leader Elfyn Evans.
