The duel between Sébastien Ogier and Ott Tanak for the leadership of the Rally Italia Sardegna 2024 also continued in Special Stage 3, the repetition of the 25.65 kilometer Osilo – Tergu 2, with the Frenchman repeating the great performance of the early afternoon by signing the second scratch of the day.
Ogier stopped the clock in 16’43″9, ahead of his rival by 2″9 for first place in the event’s general classification. Now there is 4.7″ between the two, but today’s final test will probably be advantageous for Tanak, winner in the first lap and more suited to the characteristics of the Hyundai i20 N Rally1.
Behind the first two there is emptiness. Dani Sordo, thanks to a good performance, rose to third place overall with a 2.3″ lead over Takamoto Katsuta. For Hyundai, this is an important partial result for the Manufacturers’ Championship.
All this seasoned with another position recovered by Thierry Neuville. The Belgian is struggling to open all of today’s tests, but stage after stage, thanks to a good pace (especially in SS2) and misfortunes and errors from his rivals, he gains positions so much so that he is firmly in the Top 5.
This time Neuville was able to take advantage of the left rear tire puncture on the Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid of an unfortunate Adrien Fourmaux. The Frenchman, third at the start of the test, lost three positions after having a puncture in the first kilometers of SS3. He is now sixth, 3 tenths ahead of Elfyn Evans.
In addition to Fourmaux, other drivers also suffered punctures in a test which presented a much rougher and more treacherous surface than the first pass. Two of these are protagonists of the WRC2, namely Yohan Rossel (Citroen) and Emil Lindholm (Hyundai).
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