Sebastien Ogier has crashed out of the Central European Rally on the penultimate stage, handing Ott Tanak a strong chance for a second World Rally Championship victory of the season.
Ogier was locked in an intense fight with Tanak for the victory, having lost his overnight rally lead to the Hyundai rival after overshooting a junction on stage 15, the first of four Sunday tests.
It left the eight-time world champion trailing Tanak by 1.9 seconds, although Ogier was able to reduce the gap to 1.5s after stage 16.
But Ogier’s fight for the victory soon came unstuck in spectacular fashion on stage 17, the second pass through Am Hochwald that had caught the Toyota driver out earlier in the morning.
Just 600 metres into the stage Ogier drifted wide in a fast right-hander resulting in heavy impact with the trees that sent his GR Yaris across the road and into retirement.
Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais emerged from incident unscathed but the former was clearly angered by the mistake.
"It was another example that the gravel crew are doing a crucial job for us it was the only stage of the weekend where they were not allowed to go through and basically we didn’t have the information of the road evolution," said Ogier.
"This first long corner under the trees people have been cutting more anticipating. The corner was becoming very greasy and at the end I couldn’t turn basically and I understeered and went wide at the exit and hit the trees on the outside.
"I feel angry with myself in the moment and I’m very sorry for the team I tried my best. It was really my main target to help them achieve the manufacturers’ title. I think I was doing a good job so far but unfortunately it is a third weekend in a row that has not gone my way. It is a tough time."
The retirement looks set to hand Tanak a rally win and boost Hyundai’s hopes in the manufacturers’ title race with Ogier losing the provisional 18 points he accrued after leading the rally at the end of Saturday.
Tanak now leads the rally by 9.4s from Toyota's Elfyn Evans with championship leader Thierry Neuville climbing to third, 40.8s adrift. The trio will now pick up 18, 15 and 13 Saturday points respectively if they can reach the end of the rally.
Evans set the fastest time on stage 17 by a second from Tanak with Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta third fastest, three seconds slower than Evans.
Katsuta headed the Super Sunday standings by 0.6s from Tanak, who is on course to close the gap further on his championship-leading team-mate Neuville, ensuring the title fight will be decided in Japan next month.
M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux sat in third [+1.1s] in the standings after enjoying a far stronger run in his better handling Ford Puma, with Evans fourth and Neuville set to claim five points in fifth [+6.8s.].
The rally will conclude following Sunday afternoon’s Power Stage.
