With just four stages of Rally Italia Sardegna to go, Sebastien Ogier remains firmly in control, the Volkswagen ace returning to the midday service with a lead of 1min 15.9sec over Thierry Neuville.
Ogier has led from the rally’s opening stage and was quickest on two of Saturday morning’s loop of four stages. With the repeat of those stages to come this afternoon, the Frenchman is on course for his fourth win of the season.
“Everything is perfect, we are trying to control the race now,” the Polo R driver said after SS12. “It’s a long day, and there’s still a long way to go. We just have to stay focused.”
Behind Ogier, Saturday morning has seen plenty of churn in the top five, most notably the retirement from second of Mikko Hirvonen after the Finn went off on SS10 and got his Citroen DS3 stuck in a ditch.
This promoted Ford Fiesta RS driver Neuville into the provisional runner-up spot and, despite a couple of worrying moments on SS12, the Belgian remains on track to take the best WRC result of his career today.
“I went a bit wide at a junction on a very fast section but there was no damage,” he explained. “ I went really high on a jump too, but the [engine] temperature looks okay so hopefully no problems.”
Behind him, the story of the morning has been the progress of Volkswagen Polo R drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen.
Latvala’s recovery from a costly puncture on the opening day has been remarkable, and the Finn is now third, 35.5s adrift of Neuville, after moving ahead of Citroen’s Dani Sordo on SS11 when the Spaniard spun his DS3.
Asked whether he could have a go at catching Neuville as well, Latvala said: “No, he’s been driving so well I have no chance. I don’t want to drive as hard as I did yesterday – it’s too risky. Now I try to control the position. I want to finish third. I’d be very pleased with that after our puncture on the first day.”
Sordo is fourth, but feeling the pressure from Mikkelsen behind who is just 20.8ec away in Volkswagen’s third factory Polo.
“In SS12 I told Carlos [Del Barrio, co-driver] not to give me any split times because I just wanted to try and drive as fast as possible,” he said. “It went okay, but it’s been really slippery this morning and the rear of the car is sliding around a lot”
Mikkelsen was almost two seconds quicker than Sordo on SS12 and has been given the green light by Volkswagen to fight for the place – potentially his best finish to date for the German manufacturer.
“The roads are cleaning so much that it’s difficult but we will see what we can do. Nothing crazy but we will push,” he said.
Czech driver Martin Prokop is well cushioned in sixth, more than four minutes behind the top five and more than two minutes ahead of Michal Kosciuszko in seventh.
Kosciuszko is embroiled in a close scrap with Elfyn Evans, both of whom are competing in Ford Fiesta RS cars for the first time.
World Rally Car debutant Evans had been seventh after SS11, but slipped 6.3sec behind his Polish rival after missing a braking point on SS12 and overshooting a junction.
Mads Ostberg is ninth, having restarted this morning following his roll on Friday night, while Khalid Al-Qassimi rounds off the top-ten places.
In the WRC 2 category, Robert Kubica won all four stages this morning in his Citroen DS3 RRC to stretch his lead to 2min 31.9sec. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari remains second in a Ford Fiesta RRC, with Lorenzo Bertelli 1min 15sec behind in third in another Fiesta.
The battle for supremacy in WRC 3 looks as though it may go down to the final stage.
Stephane Consani leads Christian Riedemann by just 12.7sec. Series leader Sebastien Chardonnet, back up to third after a puncture yesterday, fell back with damaged steering to allow Keith Cronin into a podium place. All drivers are at the wheel of Citroen DS3 R3Ts.