With a little help
from his friends

Ogier stunned the establishment by scoring a stage best and finishing fifth overall in a Super 2000-specification Skoda Fabia, which is less powerful and less advanced than the headlining World Rally Cars.

The youth team of the Ski Club Orcieres 1850, of which Ogier was a member during his ski racing career as a teenager, were impressed by what they saw, as was Capito, who was quick to praise the 27-year-old.

“An outstanding showing by Sebastien - beating the more powerful WRC cars on a gravel stage underlines his class as a driver and his cleverness,” said Capito. “He recognised the situation that the stages in Sardinia at times put a very heavy strain on the tyres and made perfect use of it.”

Capito also praised Ogier’s team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen, who finished seventh overall on Rally Italia Sardegna. “Andreas showed a strong performance as well and took his Fabia to the finish at this really difficult rally without making any mistakes,” said Capito. “I’m also pleased with the performance of the engineers and the mechanics, without which the result wouldn’t have been possible. They provided both driver pairings with perfect cars through the entire rally.”