Ogier wins in Sardinia
The 2013 Volkswagen WRC steamroller continued with Sebastien Ogier winning the Rally Italy and extending his World Rally Championship, racking up his fourth maximum score of the year and extending his lead in the championship to 64 points.
Ogier had looked untouchable from the outset in Sardinia, taking things carefully as early as the second loop but still managing to extend his lead to over a minute by halfway through Saturday. Ogier also grabbed all three powerstage bonus points.
Second and third places went to Thierry Neuville and Jari-Matti Latvala after solid drives. Neuville had been a quiet fifth early on before surging forward with a gaggle of stage wins, while Latvala mounted a comeback having lost two minutes with an SS1 puncture.
Citroen's Mikko Hirvonen and Neuville's M-Sport team-mates Evgeny Novikov and Mads Ostberg all crashed out and Dani Sordo faded from this group to salvage fourth for Citroen, although this might have been fifth had VW's Andreas Mikkelsen not broken his suspension giving chase three stages from the end.
On his World Rally Car debut, WRC Academy champion Elfyn Evans took a credible sixth. The Welshman, standing in for Nasser Al-Attiyah, had spent the event battling with Michal Kosciuszko, in his first rally with a Ford having split with Motorsport Italia's Mini team. In a very tense decider, Evans held on to a top-six finish by just 0.6s over the Pole.
Ostberg managed to salvage eighth having rejoined for Saturday under Rally 2 and Robert Kubica claimed ninth overall and his second consecutive dominant win in WRC 2.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Ogier VW 3h22m57.9s
2. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford +1m16.8s
3. Jari-Matti Latvala VW +1m48.0s
4. Dani Sordo Citroen +3m19.2s
5. Martin Prokop Czech Ford +8m34.1s
6. Elfyn Evans M-Sport Ford +11m51.8s
7. Michal Kosciuszko Lotos Ford +11m52.7s
8. Mads Ostberg M-Sport Ford +13m21.5s
9. Robert Kubica PH Citroen +16m47.6s*
10. Khalid Al Qassimi Citroen +17m19.9s
22nd June, 2013