Ogier reviews his Safary Rally after his victory

Sebastien Ogier does a synopsis of his Safari Rally last weekend saying that he suffered from issues since the first day.

The Frenchman stole Ott Tanak's lead at the end of Stage 2 and since then he was on the top of the overall classification leading his three teammates. He won seven from 19 stages last weekend, but his rally was not easy as he suffered from a hybrid unit failure on the last stage of Friday morning. On Friday afternoon, he was the only WRC driver, who carried only one spare wheel, and his strategy was to gain performance from the tyres in SS5 and SS6. It was a risky approach as the distance of final stage of that day was 30,62 competitive kilometers. The second day did not start well for him as he had a puncture on the last four kilometers of Stage 8, but he still managed to hold his position. On Sunday, he clipped a tree in Stage 15 resulting in completing the stage without tailgate which affected his rhythm due to the fewer downforce while the engine of his Yaris was overheated in SS18 due to the fesh-fesh. Kalle Rovanpera put pressure on Ogier on the final day of the rally, but he was not able to catch the eight-time World Rally Champion and finished 6,7 seconds behind him. This is his third victory of the season and he is third overall on the drivers' standings despite his partial programme, just one behind the second Elfyn Evans.

"There was a lot of highs I think our pace was great and we had the capacity to push and make some difference when we wanted, but also every day we were hit by a couple of issues", Ogier said. 

"We had the hybrid on day one, then three punctures on day two, and we lost the tailgate on Sunday morning after a very little impact. 

"It was not so lucky I would say but okay it was my mistake I touched the tree, but probably the hardest issues was the second last stage of the rally with this fesh section, where honestly there is not much you can do, you have to go through. 

"And then we started to have this massive overheating problem and still a long way to go in the stage, our engine luckily is strongly built and it probably lost a bit of power through the end of the weekend and the powerstage, but it still brought us back".

Photo Credits: Toyota