Sebastien Ogier explains Central Europe WRC exit

Sebastien Ogier believes there was “nothing he could have done” to prevent his retirement from the Central European Rally, which has blown the World Rally Championship title race wide open.

The WRC points leader suffered a high-speed crash in stage 10 while fighting for the rally lead, which he had just lost to title rival and Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanpera.

Ogier ran wide at a right hander, which resulted in his GR Yaris running into a ditch before hitting a tree that ripped a front wheel from his car. Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais were unharmed in the crash.

Speaking following the crash, Ogier revealed that his car had suffered a front left puncture that had gone undetected by his car’s tyre pressure system.

Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 (Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool)

“Unfortunately we had a puncture on the front left and unfortunately at the same time my sensor was not working, so I didn’t get the info about this puncture, and I just realised it coming into this insignificant corner and the car would not turn at all, and the car went in the ditch, and we ended up in a tree,” said Ogier.

“At the end there is nothing I could have done, and I don’t know if it is more or less frustrating in this case.”

The Frenchman’s first retirement of the season has handed Rovanpera a healthy 39.2s lead over Ogier’s nearest title rival Elfyn Evans, with Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, an outside contender for the title, climbing to third – 1.3s behind Evans.

Speaking at the tyre fitting zone, Evans, who was yet to learn what had happened to Ogier, admitted the stage that turned the rally on its head was particularly tricky.

“It was very difficult. I’m not sure what happened to him as I haven’t seen it, but you could have picked a hundred corners where something could have gone wrong,” Evans told Motorsport.com.

“Of course, [fending off Tanak] is all we have to do as Kalle has been very strong this morning so that is unreachable really, but it is very close with Ott.”