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

Tom Howard Jun 7, 2021, 3:46 PM

Upd: Jun 7, 2021, 5:32 PM

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

Author Tom Howard

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.