Sebastien Ogier will start the final day of Rally Italy with a dominant lead after team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala hit trouble on the last of Saturday’s stages in Sardinia.
The erstwhile rally leader began the afternoon with a 17.7-second advantage over Ogier, which was whittled down to 12.3s after Latvala’s engine stalled towards the end of the Monte Olia test. Things went further awry for the Finn early on in the lengthy Monte Lerno stage when he hit a rock and damaged a wheel, forcing him to fit a spare and losing two minutes in the process.
His misery was compounded by Ogier winning both of second loop’s stages and the championship leader now has a 1m40.2s advantage over the rest of the field.
Mads Ostberg has moved up to second overall following Latvala’s misfortune and 21.3s separates the pair after the latter fell down the order.
Elfyn Evans moved up to fifth after M-Sport Ford team-mate Robert Kubica stopped on SS12 a kilometre from the finish after an accident.
Source: Autosport
