The eight-time world rally champion was largely in command during Friday morning’s loop of stages, winning two of the three tests to open up a 16.3s lead over Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi.
The highlight of the loop was a faultless first run through Monte Lerno (49.9km), where he was 12.7s faster than anyone else.
However, wet weather dominated the afternoon loop which Ogier’s feels caught his Toyota team out leading to a decision to take three soft and three hard tyres. Lappi on the other hand opted for four softs and only one hard.
Across the afternoon, Lappi took chunks out of Ogier’s lead, halving the deficit in stage five, before snatching the lead by 0.1s in the second pass through Monte Lerno.
“It was not the best afternoon but I’m still happy with the driving," four-time Sardinia winner Ogier told Autosport.
“It just went wrong at the service where we had the wrong information for the weather and we made the wrong tyre choice and also unfortunately we made the wrong choice with the set-up.
“It is that where I’m not so happy. I thought it was an acceptable afternoon and I was steady and I didn’t take too many risks in these difficult conditions. It is good to be where we are."
Source: Autosport