Competing in his sixth WRC rally of the season, Ogier is in second place at Rally Finland. He has won in Croatia and Portugal this season, while finishing second in Monte Carlo, Sardinia, and Latvia.
A tired but happy Frenchman arrived at the evening service. He trails his teammate Kalle Rovanperä by over 40 seconds.
“I don’t even find my words. I’m quite tired to be honest. But the job is done,” Ogier sighed.
“We are one more time bringing maximum points for the team. So that’s that’s the great news. Sad news about Elfyn. Of course. I would have preferred to fight with him the whole day, but since he had this issue this morning,” Ogier continued.
Evans suffered a transmission failure in Päijälä in the morning, which eventually knocked the Welshman out of the points for the long race. After Evans’ issue, the situation between Rovanperä and Ogier was set.
“We were having a bit of a different approach to try to secure this. Kalle was flying. I think it would have been stupid to try to make this internal fight,” Ogier said.
“It would have been anyway, quite difficult one. It’s a positive result tonight, but it’s been a long day, and I need some sleep before the last push tomorrow,” the French champion added, referring to the extra points available on Super Sunday.
In Västilä and Päijälä, Ogier played it safe in the challenging afternoon conditions. However, he enjoyed the classic Ouninpohja stage, despite trailing Rovanperä’s fastest time by 4.8 seconds.
“Especially in Päijälä it was a mix of rough conditions plus quite muddy sections. I decided to take the safe approach, but I didn’t feel comfortable at all in the car. I did do a little moment because that’s the way these rally cars need to be pushed, otherwise they are not working very well,” Ogier chuckled.
“I was glad to finish that one but my highlight today was on Ouninpohja. I really enjoyed driving the stage. I think that it should be every year. I’m not sure if I come so often again in this rally, but so far I enjoyed my decision to come here.”
