OGIER AND TOYOTA GAZOO RACING CLINCH DRAMATIC SARDINIA TRIUMPH

Sébastien Ogier and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team have secured victory at Rally Italia Sardegna after a close battle until the very last stage.

This year’s edition of the Italian island event lived up to its reputation, with ambient temperatures exceeding 30 degrees centigrade combining with rough and rocky roads to test the drivers, their cars and their tyres to the limit.

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TGR-WRT faced a challenge to continue its winning run with three of its drivers having to sweep the sandy stages for their rivals to follow on Friday, but Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais performed strongly to seize a narrow lead in the day’s last stage. On Saturday, the fight for the win became another duel between Ogier and his rival and friend Ott Tänak (Hyundai), just as it had been on the previous round in Portugal and in last year’s Sardinian event.

Ogier carried a lead of 11.1 seconds into a demanding final day, which featured a pair of new stages to each be run twice and continued to increase his advantage through the morning after winning the opening stage. There was still a scare in the deep ruts of the rally-ending Power Stage when Ogier had a half spin towards a tree and had to reverse, but he hung on to seal the win by 7.9s.

With his fifth win on the event, Ogier becomes its most successful driver since the FIA World Rally Championship started visiting Sardinia in 2004. It is his third win from four starts so far this season while TGR-WRT maintains its 100 percent winning record in 2025.

As in Portugal, Kalle Rovanperä completed a double podium finish in third. Running second on the road on Friday, he and co-driver Jonne Halttunen nonetheless showed good speed and avoided trouble, and saved their strongest performance for the Power Stage where they were fastest by 8.1s – also allowing them to top the Super Sunday classification.

Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin had the toughest task opening the road on Friday, but a patient approach paid off with fourth overall, despite losing around two minutes stopping to change a tyre on Saturday afternoon. Evans also came fourth on Super Sunday and fifth in the Power Stage and continues to the lead the drivers’ championship, 19 points in front of Ogier and 20 ahead of Rovanperä. TGR-WRT increases its manufacturers’ championship lead to 69 points.

Takamoto Katsuta lost time with a slow-speed roll on Friday and stopping to replace a tyre on Saturday but still finished in fifth overall. Sami Pajari showed strong performance in his TGR-WRT2 entry, running fourth at the end of Friday, but he too lost time changing a tyre on Saturday and then spun on Sunday’s first stage and damaged his suspension, ultimately finishing seventh.

There were six Toyota drivers in the top seven at the finish with Oliver Solberg finishing as the highest-placed Rally2 competitor in his GR Yaris Rally2. The Printsport driver did not nominate this event as one of his points-scoring rounds in WRC2 but recovered from an early impact to score nine stage wins in the category. Within WRC2, Kajetan Kajetanowicz finished second in his GR Yaris Rally2 run by Rallylab Technology, just 5.8s from the winner.

Quotes:

Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)

“For us, TGR-WRT, Sardinia is truly a tough event. We had faced the challenge of this event eight times previously and we had only won once. Almost every year, someone ended up retiring early, leaving our competition to take the win. Ott lost victory on the Power Stage in 2019, and Seb missed it in 2024, also on the final stage. Last year, Seb missed out on winning by just 0.2 seconds due to trouble, which was really frustrating for us.

This year, we had a close call in the Power Stage, and Seb redeemed himself! It’s a wonderful fifth victory for him in Sardinia. I am very thankful to Seb and Vincent.

The team experienced several issues, including Takamoto’s roll, but I’m also happy that all five cars completed the rally without any retirements and made it back to the finish. Being challenged on such a tough road helps us become stronger. And TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will continue to make ever-better cars as we overcome obstacles one by one through rally stages.”

Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)

“We’re really happy that we were able to win this rally. It hasn’t been the easiest one for us in the past, and this year we were starting with three cars at the front opening the road on Friday, but still we could take our sixth win in six rounds, which is really incredible. There was a lot of drama through the event, and for some reason there always has to be drama in the Power Stage in Sardinia, but thankfully Seb managed to bring it home after a great performance from the beginning. Kalle could build his performance day by day, finishing with an amazing time on the Power Stage, while Elfyn was suffering the most from opening the road but drove a clever event and took the points that he could. All five of our cars finished in the points without retirements and overall it’s been a positive weekend for the championship.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)

“Overall we have to be satisfied with how our weekend has turned out. Fourth was realistically as much as we could expect starting first on the road on Friday. This is always a rally full of attrition and getting to the end without big issues was vital. The pace of the top three was pretty hot but the positive thing is that we did make clear progress through the rally in terms of feeling, especially in second-pass conditions, so that gives us some positives to take forward to Greece.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)

“I think we can be happy with our weekend. We had a lot of cleaning on Friday and after that we managed it the best we can with a clean and clever drive and maximum points from Sunday. I did everything I could in the Power Stage and I was surprised by the time gap because it didn’t feel great in such a narrow and slow stage, but I’m happy with the points. In terms of the pace this is probably the best weekend I’ve done in Sardinia, so thanks to the team for the good car.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)

“I’m very happy to secure this win. It was a close fight until the end with Ott and this morning I had the opportunity to build a bit of a margin. Therefore in the Power Stage I was not pushing for the full points, but we still had to fight with the ruts and I got caught in a tight corner and preferred to stop and reverse the car. It wasn’t ideal and cost us some Sunday points, but we had enough in hand to achieve our main target which was to win. It’s a very satisfying win for myself and the team, which did a great job after Portugal to improve the car setup and the speed even without a test; the car was enjoyable to drive and the times were coming more easily.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)

“It’s been a very tough weekend as we expect here, but still we could finish fifth overall which is not so bad. We had some difficulties during the weekend with the roll and some other things, but this can happen in a rally like this and at the end I felt quite confident with the car. I tried to push in the Power Stage but just made a mistake at the end and got stuck in the very soft and loose surface. So it’s some mixed feelings but I think we are heading in a good direction looking forward to Greece.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)

“It was a tricky final day for us. The plan was just to get to the finish with a good feeling but we hit something on the first stage of the day and broke something small in the suspension. We managed to fix it on the road section so that we could continue driving, and then the most important thing was to get to the finish and bring the points back. Up until today I think it was a positive weekend for us. The speed was better and coming more naturally and this is something good to take to Greece.”

PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY ITALIA SARDEGNA

(Results as of 14:00 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

2025 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 6:

2025 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 6:

What’s next?

The Acropolis Rally in Greece completes a trio of demanding gravel events in southern Europe with an earlier date this year of June 26-29. A legendary event in the WRC, it has a reputation for rocky mountain roads and high temperatures.