Adrien Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville hold a 1-2 for Hyundai after Friday morning's loop of stages at Rally Italia Sardinia, while Sebastien Ogier lost the lead due to a puncture. The drama unfolded on SS3 when Ogier hit a large step in a rough asphalt section, damaging his front-right tire and losing 26.2 seconds to stage winner Neuville.
Ogier, the reigning world champion who will concede his crown to one of three Toyota teammates at the end of this rally, dropped to eighth place and out of the victory fight. Adrien Fourmaux won the day-opening SS2 and took the lead after Ogier's puncture, then extended his gap over Neuville to 4.6 seconds on stage four.
Elfyn Evans remains on course to become World Rally champion, though he struggled with road sweeping on SS4, going 16.5 seconds off the pace and falling to sixth behind the recovering Ogier. For Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari, a massive result is needed to have any hope of usurping Evans in the championship standings; Pajari started the rally 17 points behind and Solberg 21.
On stage four, Solberg was the class of the field, winning the stage despite being third on the road, and leapfrogging Pajari into third place, just 3.5 seconds behind Neuville. "It's all we can do, at least we are faster than Elfyn but I'm worried it's not enough. We knew this Friday morning will be really important so we try to do all we can," Solberg said.
It was a strong recovery for Oliver Solberg from SS2, where he'd suffered a slow front-left puncture and also lost time in hanging dust that had afflicted several drivers. All three contenders knew being fast on Friday would be critical, otherwise it carries a risk of a compromised road position on both Saturday and Sunday.
"It's all we can do," said Pajari of his Friday morning run, sitting 2.6 seconds behind Solberg in fourth. "At least we are faster than Elfyn but I'm worried it's not enough. We knew this Friday morning will be really important so we try to do all we can."
Several drivers suffered punctures on stage four: Takamoto Katsuta was first to stop and change a wheel, followed by M-Sport duo Jon Armstrong and Martins Sesks doing likewise. All three have fallen out of the top 10 places overall. Dani Sordo's difficult start to the rally got worse on SS3, as like Ogier he also suffered a puncture. Given he crashed on shakedown, suffered a late check-in penalty at the first time control of the rally and jumped the start of the Ittiri Arena superspecial on Thursday night, it's been a miserable event for the two-time Sardinia winner. "Honestly everything now is very difficult," said Sordo, who lost four minutes on SS3, as he was stuck in the dust of Robert Virves' Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 after his wheel change. "We try to keep the motivation."
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