Rally Turkey: Ogier seals vital win as Tanak/Neuville drop points – WRC

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Sebastien Ogier secured his third World Rally Championship win of 2019 on Rally Turkey, beating Citroen team-mate Esapekka Lappi by almost 20 seconds.

Ogier took the rally lead from Lappi at the end of Saturday after the Finn made a small mistake and overshot a corner, and continued to pull out time over his team-mate across Sunday’s stages.

The reigning champion could only managed the third-fastest time on the Powerstage however, while title rival Ott Tanak swept up the maximum five points.

Despite a crucial victory, the result leaves Ogier still trailing the Toyota driver by 17 points in the championship fight.

Tanak took a steady approach at the start of the weekend, a move that rewarded him with a victory in Turkey last year, but his hopes of repeating that success were dashed by an electrical issue that forced him to retire after Saturday’s opening stage.

He rejoined the event under Rally2 regulations on Sunday and made the risky decision not to take any spare tyres to save as much weight as possible, but it was a choice that paid off when he won both runnings of the Marmaris stage.

Second-place finisher Lappi had battled with Jari-Matti Latvala throughout Friday morning and then held onto the lead throughout Saturday until a costly mistake passed the baton on to team-mate Ogier.

The final podium spot went to Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen, who had a strong weekend on the tough terrain of Turkey, with Teemu Suninen taking fourth – a further 31.1s behind.

Dani Sordo struggled with an early puncture and intermittent engine issues but a run of strong performances on Saturday enabled him to take fifth place.

After taking two stage wins on Friday morning, Latvala lost 50s with a puncture on his Yaris that afternoon, but recovered to sixth after the misfortune of his team-mate Tanak and Thierry Neuville.

Kris Meeke finished 54s behind Latvala after struggling for grip, which resulted in a number of small incidents on Saturday.

A roll for Neuville’s Hyundai i20 on Saturday morning lost him four minutes and he struggled to get back into position, leaving him in eighth – which dropped him to third in the drivers’ standings despite clawing back four extra points on the Powerstage.

Pontus Tidemand finished in ninth standing in for the injured Elfyn Evans at M-Sport, while WRC2 Pro winner Gus Greensmith was 10th.

Final classification

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia Citroen Total WRT Citroen 3h50m12.1s
2 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Citroen Total WRT Citroen 34.7s
3 Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai 1m04.5s
4 Teemu Suninen, J.Lehtinen M-Sport Ford WRT Ford 1m35.1s
5 Dani Sordo, C.del Barrio Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai 2m25.9s
6 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota 2m59.1s
7 Kris Meeke, S.Marshall Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota 3m53.3s
8 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai 5m34.8s
9 Pontus Tidemand, O.Floene M-Sport Ford WRT Ford 7m22.9s
10 Gus Greensmith, E.Edmondson M-Sport Ford WRT Ford 15m18.7s

Leading Powerstage times

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota 4m55.2s
2 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai 2.6s
3 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia Citroen Total WRT Citroen 3.2s
4 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota 7.3s
5 Teemu Suninen, J.Lehtinen M-Sport Ford WRT Ford 9.0s

Drivers’ championship

Pos Driver Points
1 Ott Tanak 210
2 Sebastien Ogier 193
3 Thierry Neuville 180
4 Andreas Mikkelsen 94
5 Kris Meeke 86
6 Jari-Matti Latvala 84
7 Teemu Suninen 83
8 Esapekka Lappi 80
9 Elfyn Evans 78
10 Dani Sordo 72

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