Sebastien Ogier has taken the early Rally Italia Sardegna lead after dominating Day 1’s morning loop.
The Frenchman went quickest in all of the first three special stages, thus creating a 20-second gap to Citroen rival Mikko Hirvonen who lies in second place. Both drivers damaged their rear spoilers in the opening stage after hitting a low branch, but they continued just fine.
Ogier’s Volkswagen team-mate and Acropolis Rally winner Jari Matti Latvala, who went quickest in yesterday’s qualifying stage, suffered a huge a blow when his front left tyre got punctured. He dropped to 12th overall on SS1 but climbed back to 7th at the end of SS3.
Mads Ostberg currently runs in third with more than 7 seconds separating him from Citroen’s Dani Sordo and M-Sport Ford’s Thierry Neuville who are fourth and fifth respectively, followed by VW’s Andreas Mikkelsen in sitxth place.
Leading positions after SS3: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Ogier VW 39m58.6s 2. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 20.5s 3. Mads Ostberg M-Sport Ford + 24.9s 4. Dani Sordo Citroen + 32.2s 5. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford + 40.3s 6. Andreas Mikkelsen VW + 55.7s 7. Jari-Matti Latvala VW + 1m54.5s 8. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 2m35.1s 9. Michal Kosciuszko Lotos Ford + 2m53.7s 10. Elfyn Evans M-Sport Ford + 3m02.8s