How Hyundai's broken record gave Toyota a special Sardinia 1-2
For the second WRC gravel rally in a row, a promising Friday for Hyundai turned into desolation as Toyota gratefully picked up the pieces. This time it was championship leader Sebastien Ogier who took full advantage after Ott Tanak and Dani Sordo retired to score a memorable victory, having swept the road on the first two days
They say that lightning never strikes twice, but it did for Hyundai on Rally Sardinia as victory slipped from its grasp in brutal fashion for the second consecutive event, leaving Sebastien Ogier and Toyota to clean up the spoils.
Sardinia is known as a car-breaker, with its rough, narrow, gravel stages offering the sternest of tests for both driver and machine. This was evident from a simple glance at the results sheet – only four WRC cars completed the 20 stages on the Mediterranean island, such was the high attrition rate.
Share Or Save This Story
Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.
After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.
Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.
More from Tom Howard
WRC and Dakar winner Kenjiro Shinozuka dies aged 75
Neuville clarifies WRC future amid anger over FIA technical reforms
Fourmaux: Adjusting to hybrid-less WRC cars will be a “challenge”
Toyota: More details needed for WRC Rally2 upgrade kit decision
The Rally1 inspiration behind the WRC’s latest customer weapon
The other Solberg making waves behind the scenes in the WRC
Canary Islands to host WRC in 2025 in new two-year deal
How a new 'old' challenge is capturing the spirit of British rallying lore
Latest news
Everything you need to know about the pitwall in F1 - who sits there and what does it do?
Alpine: "Shock" of having slowest F1 car triggered tech revamp
How Bruce McLaren's death shaped more than just his F1 team
Both DS Penske in the points in São Paulo
Autosport Plus
How a new 'old' challenge is capturing the spirit of British rallying lore
How Lappi survived Swedish snow carnage to snap his lengthy WRC drought
The new WRC highs Neuville reached to defeat Monte master Ogier
How Hyundai is shaping up to dethrone Toyota as WRC's conqueror
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.