Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais triumphed following an incident-filled Sunday that saw the pair inherit the lead after Hyundai driver Neuville and Toyota’s Evans both crashed in stage 18 of 20.
Ogier took the first win of his 2024 partial campaign from Evans by 9.7s, while Neuville had to settle for third [+45.9s] after his costly error.
The battle for victory developed into a three-way fight from Friday’s opening leg as Neuville started strongly and took advantage of opening the road to surge into the lead.
After stage six Neuville opened up a 10.1s advantage over Evans before witnessing his lead reduce to 0.1s after picking up a front right puncture caused by a rock in the middle of the road towards the end of the stage.
Evans managed to edge into the lead on stage seven but Neuville fought back on the day’s final test to incredibly end Friday tied for the rally lead with Evans after 119.74 competitive kilometres.
The stage however belonged to Ogier, who was 9.2s quicker than his nearest rival, a time that hauled himself into the victory fight to sit 6.6s behind Neuville and Evans.
The intense fight for the lead continued into Saturday when the expected heavy rain failed to arrive and tyre decisions played a factor. Neuville’s decision to take more hard tyres compared to Evans and Ogier, who took more softs in anticipation of rain to arrive, proved the marginally correct call.
Source: Autosport