Eight-time world rally champion Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais were hospitalized after a crash in Poland on Tuesday while preparing for this week’s race.
Ogier’s Toyota Gazoo Racing team said in a statement the French crew was “involved in a road accident during reconnaissance for Rally Poland and have been taken for medical checks.”
A police spokesman in Olsztyn, Tomasz Markowski, said two cars were involved near the northeast village of Wlosty, and four people were taken to hospital.
“The crash took place on a dirt road that on Saturday will be the route of a rally," Markowski told Polish PAP news agency.
“Participants of the future rally were driving in a Toyota and a driver and a female passenger were in the Ford car,” Markowski said.
The drivers were airlifted to hospital and the passengers were taken by ambulances, Markowski added.
TV footage showed an ambulance helicopter in a field and police and firefighters at the site, and photos posted by Olsztym police showed a white Toyota and a dark Ford with their fronts damaged.
The four-day Rally Poland is due to start on Thursday in a rural area not far from the border with Russia's Kaliningrad exclave.
The 40-year-old Ogier is one of the greatest rally drivers in history. He won six straight world titles from 2013-18. His most recent was in 2021.
Driving part-time in the world rally championship this year, he won the Croatia Rally in April and the Portugal Rally in May. Poland is hosting its first WRC event in seven years, and Ogier has won here twice.
