Yahoo Autos WRC Rally Sardinia: Charging Lappi edges Ogier in Friday duel
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi (above) demoted Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier in a gripping conclusion to Friday’s opening leg of WRC Rally Sardinia, claiming the tiniest of overnight leads.
After one of the most daunting days so far in this year’s FIA World Rally Championship, where crews braved a total of almost 90 miles of rough gravel stages in changeable weather conditions on the Italian island, the dueling duo found themselves separated by just 0.1s at the overnight halt.
Eight-time WRC champ Ogier, making his fourth start of the year aboard a GR Yaris Rally1, began the morning on a tear and led by a seemingly comfortable 16.3s at the day’s halfway point, having blitzed his Finnish rival through the first pass of the tire-shredding, 31-mile Monte Lerno stage.
Sebastien Ogier was the early leader, before Esapekka Lappi’s afternoon charge. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT photo
But the Frenchman’s advantage began to erode as the morning’s three stages were repeated after lunch and Lappi, charging hard in his i20 N Rally1, delivered a masterclass in the leg-closing Monte Lerno 2, turning a 6.7s deficit into that miniscule lead.
“There was no need to push harder; one tenth is enough!” Lappi laughed at the stop line. “I’m glad to be at the finish — that was quite a tricky stage and we got a slow left-rear puncture as well, so that started to disturb (the car) a bit. But we are here, everything is OK, and we are looking forward to tomorrow.”
Despite grappling with an intermittently functioning e-brake, Thierry Neuville fought his way up the leaderboard to make it two Hyundais in the top three. The Belgian trailed Ogier by 18.5s at close of play, with reigning WRC champ and current points leader Kalle Rovanpera another 27.5s behind in his GR Yaris.
Rovanpera had started the final stage down in seventh overall, but the wet conditions played to the 22-year-old Finn’s favor — and to his early starting position. Running first on the road, he experienced the best of the surface conditions and posted the benchmark time, climbing three positions in the process.
Just 1.3s behind Rovanpera was Takamoto Katsuta, who suffered a scare in the morning loop when he hit a rock in his GR Yaris after running wide in a left-hand bend. The mishap cost around 20 seconds and kept his mechanics busy in the mid-leg service.
Completing the Toyota quartet, a right-front puncture toward the end of Monte Lerno left Elfyn Evans 18.2s behind teammate Katsuta in sixth overall. He headed M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak, who overcame a failing water pump in his Puma Rally1, by 4.2sec at the end of the leg.
Ott Tanak is the best of the M-Sport Fords, albeit down in seventh after a water pump issue. M Sport photo
M-Sport Ford’s Pierre-Louis Loubet was Friday’s only casualty among the hybrid Rally1 entries contending for the overall win. Initially holding a solid third overall, the Frenchman incurred a three-minute time penalty when he couldn’t engage any gears prior to the start of the first afternoon stage. Although the issue was swiftly resolved, Loubet’s rally ended later in the day when he beached his Puma in a ditch on the second run through Monte Lerno.
Hyundai’s Dani Sordo completes the Rally1 runners, but languishes in 12th overall. The Spaniard rolled his i20 N in the morning’s final stage, losing more than three minutes in the process.
In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Skoda Fabia RS driver Sami Pajari holds a 6.3s lead over Adrien Fourmaux’s M-Sport Ford Fiesta.
Pajari repeatedly punched in top-three WRC2 stage times, but his breakthrough finally arrived in the day-ending Monte Lerno 2 test, where an inch-perfect drive vaulted the Finn from fourth to first in class.
Skoda driver Sami Pajari vaulted into the WRC2 lead on the day’s final stage. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
Emil Lindholm makes it two Skodas in the top three, ending Friday’s leg 6.8s behind Fourmaux, but far from comfortable as two-time WRC2 champ Andreas Mikkelsen closed to within 2.8s in another Fabia RS.
WRC2 points leader Yohan Rossel struggled to find a rhythm aboard his Citroen C3 Rally2 and ended the day down in fifth in class.
More rain is expected for Saturday’s second leg consisting of double runs through Coiluna-Loelle (10.16 miles), Su Filigosu (12.16 miles), Erula-Tula (13.62 miles) and Tempio Pausania (5.62 miles) for a combined total of 83.12 competitive miles.
WRC Rally Italy Sardinia, leading positions after Day One, SS7
1 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 1h31m48.8s
2 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +0.1s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +18.6s
4 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +46.1s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +47.4s
6 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m05.6s
7 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1) +1m09.8s
8 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 leader) +3m48.5s
9 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Fiesta MkII – WRC2) +3m54.8s
10 Emil Lindholm/Reeta Hamalainen (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +4m01.6s
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