‘The Champ’ is stronger than the challenges that shuffled the lead and returns to the service park with 15-seconds over Ott Tänak. Fourmaux punctures and loses over three minutes. Rovanperä enters the podium zone.

Olbia, June 7th 2025 - Many surprises at Rally Italia Sardegna on the second day with many changes at the top, but it is still Ogier at the lead, after winning two of the three special stages: ‘Coiluna-Loelle’ and ‘Tula-Erula’.

"It was a complicated morning: good pace on the first stage today, but in the second one we were too cautious and then we found Fourmaux's dust. The 15-second lead over Ott can disappear in an instant in stages like this." Ogier's words.

It was on the special stage with the famous Micky's Jump that the most striking twist came with the puncture for Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria, at that moment second behind Ogier. They stopped to change the tyre, but despite completing the operation in a very short time they were almost three minutes behind. At the restart after the pit stop, Fourmaux found himself just ahead of Ogier, who was slowed down in his dust until he sportingly stopped to let him pass. Race Direction then awarded the new time to Ogier for SS8, allowing the multiple world champion to get the lead back.

On the final stage of the day, there was also a small issue for Ott Tänak who just five kilometres before the end, he suffered a lack of pressure on his left rear. The Estonian driver did well to control the situation and minimise the time lost.

"It was similar to what happened to us in Portugal, first a slow puncture and then we tried not to get the tyre on the rim. This afternoon will also be tricky for the tyres because if you push it can happen like that, we had the tyres completely gone at the end of Tula. Ogier clearly feels good in his car,' Tanak's words.

Fourmaux's problems continued on SS9 “Erula-Tula” with a spectacular off-road run at Sa Mela and just before that a straight through the trees, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were back in the podium positions, third and 37.5 seconds behind. The gap might seem rather wide, but given how quickly things can change on these very technical stages, the 2022 and 2023 world champion is in a good situation.

"Yesterday we made some changes and the situation improved. I feel better in the car today, and then I was starting in a better position. It was incredibly tough, even more than we expected, we managed to get through. There is always a chance to go fast, but also to make mistakes, and in the afternoon we will have to be good at going fast without any mistakes," Rovanperä said.

Fourth place for Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen, again in a Toyota, who also had a little shudder on SS9 but came through and are now 55.4 seconds off the lead. Fifth place for championship leaders Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, who nevertheless have a rather sizable margin (2'00.7).

In WRC2 the situation evolved in an equally complex morning during which series leader Yohann Rossell, with Arnaud Dunand, had to stop after breaking a steering arm. In the lead, behind a super Gryazin who leads in Rally2 but not scoring points, are Emil Lindholm and Reeta Hämäläinen leading with more than a minute over Lauri Joona and Samu Vaaleri and 1'24 over Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak.

Fourth place went to Italian Roberto Daprà, with Luca Guglielmetti, the first of the Italian drivers and also first among the ACI Team Italia standard bearers. The gap to Daprà is 1'38, so the fight for the podium is still wide open and the management during the afternoon will be crucial, with the special stages that will present a rougher ground situation and will require an effective but clean drive..

PS10 ‘Coiluna-Loelle/2’ will start at 15:05 and will also be broadcast on RAI Play (streaming) with commentary by Gianfranco Mazzoni and Andrea Nicoli. It will be rebroadcast on RAI sport this evening at 24:00.