Ogier was set to take a huge haul of points from Paraguay, but fate had other plans. Heavy rain began to fall on the Power Stage just as it was Ogier’s turn to drive.
The downpour cost the Frenchman several extremely valuable points – in the worst case, it could even end up costing him the world championship.
Ogier won the rally, but the overriding feeling was one of great disappointment.
“As a competitor, crossing the finish line and seeing that we just lost a lot of points because of five minutes of rain coming too early – mainly for us – was tough,” Ogier lamented.
“Of course, in the moment it’s frustrating – you do close to a perfect weekend on your side, give everything you can, and don’t get rewarded. So at that moment, yeah, I needed a bit of time to process that,” Ogier admitted.
The victory was already Ogier’s fourth of the season. And the world championship battle is by no means over for him either. The Frenchman is only nine points behind his Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans, who leads the standings. That is not a significant gap, with four rallies still to go.
“But on the other hand, the most important thing is that we won the rally. We were clearly the fastest of the weekend, and that’s very positive with the mission we have now for the rest of the season,” said Ogier.
Next, the World Rally Championship continues in mid-September in Chile.
