Sebastien Ogier extends his lead with a superb win in Sardinia

Rally d’Italia Sardegna is over, Sebastien Ogier won ahead of Mads Ostberg and Jari-Matti Latvala. Today’s stages were simply too short and gaps were too big for any major changes in top positions, but there was enough excitement on the final stage of the event. Ogier came in third, Latvala grabbed second position with Andreas Mikkelsen claiming the top spot along with three extra points. Volkswagen pretty much did it again, grabbing the opportunity when it presented itself, even though it didn’t look too good for them at the start of the event. But, soon enough, mistakes and breakdowns started creeping in and Ogier and Latvala ended up in the lead. It’s not so much that other teams are not on the pace with Volkswagen, but it also is a bit of that, for sure. Put simply, Volkswagen does have the best combination of budget, reliability, pace and drivers and it shows each time they compete.

Despite the obvious Volkswagen domination, Citroën, Hyundai and M-Sport have positives to take from Sardinia. Mads Ostberg managed to keep calm and focused and he was awarded by runner up position. Elfyn Evans did a very solid job for M-Sport by grabbing fifth spot overall and Hyundai can be very pleased with the obvious progress, even though they still have a lot of work to do.

All in all, we were once again forced to enjoy the fact that with better cost control and more teams and seats available there could be a better chance of more close fights, but these things look good in theory, so it’s hard to guess if rally will ever be a closely fought kind of motor sport.