Maximum points for Ogier in Italy
Frenchman extends championship lead after Sardinia success
Ogier's warning to championship rivals
Sébastien Ogier has warned his rivals he won’t ease up in his quest for a third consecutive FIA World Rally Championship crown.
Ogier stretched his advantage to 66 points after netting his fourth win in six rounds at Rally Italia Sardegna last weekend, almost double the tally of closest challenger Mads Østberg.
The Volkswagen Polo R pilot, who celebrated victory by diving into Alghero harbour at the finish to cool off, also scored maximum bonus points by winning the live TV Power Stage and promised he would not change his strategy.
“As long as I’m not sure I will be champion at the end of the year I will take the maximum points I can get every time because you never know,” said Ogier.
“It is a sport where a lot of things can happen and sometimes bad luck can reach you as well, but at the moment everything is going very well and there is no reason for that to change.”
The Frenchman admitted victory on the Mediterranean island was beyond his pre-event hopes.
“I expected to suffer a lot with road cleaning. I thought I should take the maximum points I could, I had a good lead in the championship. But I’ve increased it a lot and I come out of Sardinia with an amazing lead.
“I think we did a really good rally, maybe not perfect because sometimes I did some small mistakes, but nothing really special. We had to use our minds a lot because the stages were sometimes very rough in the second loop. The key to success in these conditions was not to push hard, but to try to keep the car in one piece,” he added.
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