The Rally Italia Sardegna 2024 opened without any surprises. In Special Stage 1, the Osilo – Tergu 1 of 25.65 kilometres, Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais were the fastest, therefore the first leaders of the event which marks the halfway point of the current World Rally Championship.
The 8-time world champion was and is one of the two big favorites to win in Sardinia and thus started in the best way, taking advantage of a perfect starting position in the special stage.
The Gap champion stopped the clock in 17’18″6, beating the first of his rivals, or the other big favorite of the weekend, by 7″7: Ott Tanak. The Estonian, however, after his second place in Portugal, has gained a position in the World Championship and this weekend he enters testing third, therefore at a disadvantage compared to Ogier.
Good third place for Dani Sordo and Adrien Fourmaux, both credited with the same special time. Of the two, the M-Sport driver is much better, having entered the special stage long before the Iberian, who now seems to have entered the sunset, very far from the driver we had admired in the two seasons in which he won in Sardinia.
As predicted, great difficulties for Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans. The Belgian, as world championship leader, enters the test first and clears the way for the others. At the end of SS1 he found himself eighth, almost half a minute behind Ogier. Evans did slightly better, just 1.4s, but also lost a tire due to a slow puncture.
The Welshman set off for this afternoon lap with 5 tyres, i.e. with only one spare. This means that he will have to face the next three without the support of the spare wheel: a possible puncture could even put him out of contention. For this reason he will have to be very careful, avoiding the roughest areas of the surfaces that he will encounter between now and the end of the day.
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