Rally News

Dashboard distraction prompted rare Ogier mistake at Rally Portugal

Tom Howard

Ogier rejoined the rally on Saturday morning after a double puncture put him out of action on Friday, but the eight-time world rally champion’s return lasted only three stages.

The Frenchman carried too much speed entering a left-hander on stage 10 and clipped a bank sending his GR Yaris into a spin, before becoming beached on the edge of the road.

Unable to push the car back onto the road, Ogier and co-driver Benjamin Veillas eventually received assistance once all the Rally1 cars had passed through the stage.

The car suffered damage to the rear and a brake issue, which triggered a small fire at the start of the morning’s final stage.

Ogier admitted the crash was down to his mistake after losing concentration while distracted by a message on the dashboard when a hybrid issue struck.

The Frenchman, competing in a partial campaign this year, will return to action on Sunday in a bid to pick up some manufacturer points for Toyota, should any dramas strike teammates and rally leader Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera.

“We lost the hybrid a couple of hundred metres before I crashed,” Ogier told Motorsport.com.

“It was my mistake. I was watching the screen, I lost concentration and I didn’t listen to the next pace notes for the next corner. I came in a little bit too fast, hit the bank and spun. I just got stuck with not too much damage.

“There was no spectators there, so it was a while before we got back out. We did the whole of the next road section but just before the checkpoint on my last brake I realised the pedal went to the bottom, there was a leak and just on the exhaust there was a fire [at there start line]. We had to stop that. Eventually we managed to repair the car and finished the morning.

“The team do not want to take the risk to make me restart today with a car that is not perfect so that is why we have stopped today.

“I am back tomorrow. I cannot say that the motivation will be that high but there is this possibility that if anything…

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