The French champion, co-driven by Landais , won three of the six stages to retain the lead in the Championship. With three stage wins, Tanak-Jarveoja are close behind. Thousands of fans who travelled to the island to follow Rally Italia Sardegna could not have asked for anything better, with a heated duel set to continue until the very last day of the race.

Day 2 delivered plenty of excitement and drama on the tough and demanding special stages, particularly on the punishing “Tula – Erula”, the last stage of the loop that also included “Lerno - Su Filigosu” and “Coiluna – Loelle”, from which Sebastian Ogier once again came out unscathed and is still leading the overall standings.

The race, organised by Automobile Club Italia in partnership with the Region of Sardinia, proved to be one of the toughest on rallying calendar, with bumps, jumps, dust, water crossings and a surface that crumbles to reveal rocks and stones. Under the Sardinian sun, the experienced Ogier made fewer mistakes than anyone else, setting the fastest time in three of the six stages.

‘Tomorrow we will continue to push, that's the plan,’ commented Ogier. "I don't care how it ended last time, or at least I try not to think about it. On the rocky sections, you try to avoid problems, but it's never easy. We'll see how it goes. Last year we had a 17-second lead before the last day and lost everything due to a puncture. This time we're 11 seconds ahead, so it's also important to rest and prepare. I know San Giacomo quite well from testing, but Ott knows it too. We'll have to be at our best."

However, the lead gained does not allow him to sleep soundly, because Ott Tanak's Hyundai is chasing hard . The Estonian was just a hair's breadth behind his rival this morning, but on SS9 he lost over 10 seconds due to a loss of pressure in his rear left tyre but then won another two stages, closing the gap to Ogier to 11.1 seconds. The duel is postponed until tomorrow, when the important points of ‘Super Sunday’ and the Power Stage will be up for grabs on new and once again very complicated stages that could make for a thrilling finale, just like last year, once again between Ogier and Tanak.

‘I wasn't pushing hard this afternoon, I was just managing the tyres. Tomorrow's stages are really tricky, so we need to stay focused, especially on San Giacomo,’ explained Tanak. ‘I think we did a good job today. There are important points up for grabs tomorrow, so our goal is to try and get them.’

Young Rovanpera, who has never been comfortable on Sardinian gravel in the past, seems to have finally found a rhythm that suits his abilities. However, this second day of competition, the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver began to push hard after adjusting the setup of his car, taking advantage of the twists and turns to secure a provisional podium place at 55.5 seconds. The crucial moment of the day was when Adrien Fourmaux had to retire after he rolled his car on SS11. Punctures characterised the second loop of stages in the afternoon, with Elfyn Evans, Sami Pajari and Takamoto Katsuta all having to stop in SS11 to change a tyre. Despite this, Evans, with Scott Martin, is currently in 4th place, while Pajari, alongside Marko Salminen, is fifth, both more than 4'30 behind the leader.

Among Rally2 cars  Nikolay Gryazin and Aleksandrov. Behindis are still leading the category standings, having managed to maintain a substantial lead over his pursuers.
 Behind  Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson  closed the gap to the top, winning five of the six special stages. Now, just before  the last day, the gap between Gryazin and Solberg is 32.4 seconds.
 However, the top two crews in the Rally Italia Sardegna are of no consequence for the WRC2 standings, where  Emil Lindholm and Reeta Hamalainen,, are currently leading the way after winning the first stage of the ‘Coiluna Loelle’ leg. The most significant episode of this second day for WRC2 was when Yohan Rossel,  was forced to retire due to a broken suspension arm on SS8 ‘Lerno-Su Filigosu’, which stopped him from starting the next stage. This twist benefited Lindholm, who took the lead in WRC2 with a margin of 1'11' over  Lauri Joona  and 1'27”' over Kajetan Kajetanowicz.
 Unlucky for italian   Roberto Daprà, driving for ACI Team Italia with Luca Guglielmetti  who had managed to climb up to fourth place, 14 seconds off the podium at the halfway point of the day, before slipping back with a 1-minute loss due to a radiator problem.

Matteo Fontana and Alessandro Arnaboldi continue their solo escape in WRC3, the Italian Under-21 crew scored another three stage wins  and increased their lead over all their chasing rivals to over three minutes.
 Behind them,  Nataniel Bruun managed to move into second place with Matteo Chatillon.

Super Sunday 8 June will see the closing stages of 77.94 km that will crown the 2025 winner of  Rally Italia Sardegna. The two special stages  are new and will be repeated twice to complete the 320 km. The first new section  will be  “San Giacomo-Plebi” (25.19 km), which returns after more than ten years but only partly follows the route taken in the past. “Porto San Paolo” special stage (13.78 km) will host the final power stage and is a completely new section, with sweeping views of the sea and the spectacular profile of the island of Tavolara. The final podium is scheduled to take place in Olbia at 4 p.m. on the Isola Bianca stage.

OVERALL STANDINGS IN THE RALLY ITALIA SARDEGNA AFTER SS12: 1. Ogier-Landais (Toyota Gr Yaris Rally1) in 2:32'38.9; 2. Tänak-Järveoja (Hyundai I20 N Rally1) +11.1‘; 3. Rovanperä-Halttunen (Toyota Gr Yaris Rally1) +55.5’; 4. Evans-Martin (Toyota Gr Yaris Rally1) A 4'33.3; 5. Pajari-Salminen (Toyota Gr Yaris Rally1) +4'56.3; 6. Gryazin-Aleksandrov (Skoda Fabia Rs) A 5'59.6; 7. Katsuta-Johnston (Toyota Gr Yaris Rally1) +6'11.4; 8. Solberg-Edmondson (Toyota Gr Yaris) A 6'19.5; 9. Lindholm-Hämäläinen (Skoda Fabia Rs) +6'36.6; 10. Joona-Vaaleri (Skoda Fabia Rs) +7'48
WRC2 CLASSIFICATION AFTER SS12: 1. Lindholm-Hämäläinen (Skoda Fabia Rs) in 2:39'15.5; 2. Joona-Vaaleri (Skoda Fabia Rs) at 1'11.5; 3. Kajetanowicz-Szczepaniak (Toyota Gr Yaris) at 1'27.7; 4. Prokop-Ernst (Skoda Fabia Rs) at 2'22.5; 5. Daprà-Guglielmetti (Skoda Fabia Rs) at 2'44.2.