Toyota announces Ogier’s Sardinia WRC outing

The eight-time world champion, who is again contesting a partial campaign this year, had been tipped to make the trip to the Italian gravel rally held from 1-4 June.

Toyota has now moved to confirm Ogier’s attendance after the Frenchman completed a pre-event test in Sardinia last week. Ogier will be absent from the service park at the next WRC event held in Portugal next week.

Ogier is currently tied for the most victories in Sardinia. His fourth win on the event in 2021, having scored a hat-trick between 2013 and 2015, matched the tally of Sebastian Loeb in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2011.

This year will be the 20th running of the rally, with the event including a new mammoth 49.90km Monte Lerno stage.

“[Sardinia] is one I learned to love,” said Ogier, who has won in Monte Carlo and Mexico so far this year.

“At the beginning I struggled a bit there, but over the years I started to master it more and more.

“At least the last memory I have from here from 2021 are really good as we managed to win from first on the road, and those kind of victories are very valuable because it is normally not really possible to win from being first on the road.

“I probably won’t be first on the road at this point, so hopefully I will have a better start position, but still it is always a difficult challenge.

“Mexico [the last gravel round] was not far back but we have a very specific condition here [in Sardinia].

“It will be for me the first rally on gravel with the maximum power so therefore there is some work on the car to try to be as ready as we can.

“Testing is limited, so for sure these days are important and there is many items we will go through with the team to be ready.

“This year there will long stages, 50 kilometre and I like that honestly as it adds some spice to the race and some tyre management which is something that is normally good for me. It will be an interesting race.”