Sebastien Ogier declared fit for WRC return in Latvia

Sebastien Ogier will make a return to the World Rally Championship in Latvia after being declared fit to compete following a reconnaissance crash that ruled him out of Poland.

The eight-time world champion and co-driver Vincent Landais escaped serious injury after being involved in road traffic accident while preparing pacenotes ahead of Rally Poland last month.

Ogier spent a night in hospital following the head-on collision with a road car, before being discharged wearing a neck brace. The Frenchman was forced to withdraw from event with his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 entry being taken over by two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera, who went on to win the rally.

Ogier has since undergone further medical checks after returning home and on Thursday was back behind the wheel of a Sebastien Ogier edition GR Yaris road car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

It was previous unclear if the Frenchman would return for next week’s round in Latvia which was recently added to the 40-year-old’s partial WRC campaign.

However, Toyota has now confirmed that Ogier and co-driver Landais are fit to compete.

“It was quite unfortunate what happened during our preparations in Poland,” Ogier said.

“Now after some rest, and some good help from my medical team, I could recover pretty quickly and I’m looking forward to being back in a rally car in Latvia. The challenge of a new rally is generally something I like and that’s one of the reasons we added this event to our programme.

“The target for us will be to find the feeling for the very high-speed roads quickly after missing Poland, but I’m always excited for a new challenge and let’s see what we can do.”

Toyota will field a four-car line-up for the WRC’s first visit to Latvia which will include full-time drivers Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta, and Rovanpera.

A total of 10 Rally1 cars are set to take part with Hyundai represented by championship leader Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanak and Esapekka Lappi. M-Sport will enter three Ford Pumas for Adrien Fourmaux, Gregoire Munster and home hero Martins Sesks.