Rally Sardinia - 3rd Day - 2nd Loop: Neuville storms into the lead as Ogier goes off the road [+video]

At the end of Saturday afternoon, Thierry Neuville becomes the new rally leader in Sardinia with Esapekka Lappi and Kalle Rovanpera following him.

Thierry Neuville gained two places after Stage 14 and is now leading Rally Italia Sardegna with four stages remaining. He was the fastest driver in SS13 and SS15 and increased his gap from his teammate Esapekka Lappi as the last one backed off.

EP remains second overall and set the fastest time on the opening stage of Saturday afternoon, but he decreased his pace after Sebastien Ogier's accident in SS14. His gap from his leader teammate is at 36,4 seconds heading to the final day of Rally Italia Sardegna.

Kalle Rovanpera completes the top three and mentioned understeer at the stop control of SS13. In addition to that, he dropped time in comparison with the Hyundai leading duo in SS14 due to the fact that he had no tyre left for the final two stages of the day. Finally, he said after SS15 that the soft tyres were like slicks and it was difficult for him to keep his car on the road.

Elfyn Evans climbed to fourth place overall and was driving in EV mode after his pass through a water splash in SS13. Furthermore, the Welshman was not happy with his driving and dropped more than one minute in SS14.

Dani Sordo is fifth overall and dropped many seconds in Su Filigosu due to the fact that his i20N's engine cut out 15 Km into SS13. However, he took his first stage win of the weekend as he was fastest over Neuville by 5,7 seconds in SS14.

Sebastien Ogier was forced to retire in Satge 14 after going off the road 1.4 Km into SS14. The incident happened when he understeered a left-hand bebd and slid down an embankment on the outside of the corner resulting in beaching his Yaris. He and Vincent Landais are unharmed. Last but not least, the afternoon loop did not start well for them as their car began misfiring after going through a water splash in SS12 and there was a superficial damage to the front end. The Frenchman left immediately from the stop control of SS12 with the view of checking his car before the start of SS13.

La sortie de route de Sébastien Ogier alors qu'il menait le #RallyItaliaSardegna 😳#WRC pic.twitter.com/lc1XXApR7f

— CANAL+ Sport (@CanalplusSport) June 3, 2023

Rovanpera and Evans were the only Rally1 drivers who had two spare wheels on the afternoon.

Watch below the stage times:

Watch the overall classification after SS15:

Photo Credits: Hyundai