The Tempio Pausania special stage, the third stage of this morning at the Rally Italia Sardegna, confirms itself as perfect and preferred terrain for the Hyundai i20 N Rally1.
Thierry Neuville set the fastest time on SS7, stopping the clock in 9’37″5, just a tenth faster than his teammate Ott Tanak.
The Belgian’s result doesn’t move the rankings, because he is now too far from the top two to be able to aspire to victory this weekend. This does not mean that he has further secured third place in the general classification.
Takamoto Katsuta, still fourth, is now 33″3 behind the world championship leader but has also managed to create a good margin from Dani Sordo, who follows him in fifth position. Between the Japanese driver of Toyota Gazoo Racing and the Iberian driver of Hyundai Motorsport there are 14″3.
The most important change, however, is the one at the top of the overall ranking of the event. Thanks to his second place in the special stage, Ott Tanak once again became the leader of the event with a 2″2 advantage over Sébastien Ogier.
The Frenchman from Toyota, knowing well the characteristics of the special in question, preferred to save the tires to attack in the next test, the one that will close the lap and which should be more suited to the performance of the GR Yaris Rally1.
Overall, the PS8 Tula will be treacherous, because it will have an even rougher surface than the one found this morning and the tires will have less life, having faced three tests of a certain importance in terms of wear.
Sami Pajari continues to lead in WRC2, even ahead of Gregoire Munster in the second Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid. The Finn is seventh overall and first in the cadet class with a margin of 27″3 over the first of his rivals who is Pierre-Louis Loubet.
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