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Rally Argentina - Finish
A rally that fell short of expectations, but fourteen points that count
Despite the fact that Rally Argentina turned out to be a complicated affair from start to finish for Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, their fourth place finish allows them to maintain their position as championship leaders.
The M-Sport driver tried to improve the handling of his Fiesta WRC throughout the weekend, but all the efforts didn't produce the hoped-for results. Although he set the best time in the opening Super Special Stage on Thursday in Cordoba, he was not able to force his way into the fight for victory when the rally went into the valleys of Santa Rosa de Calamuchita and Punilla and then on to the Traslasierra mountains.
Sébastien Ogier conclusively secured fourth place overall during the second leg, a position he confirmed on Sunday when he scored two bonus points in the Power Stage. This enables him to increase his lead at the top of the world championship and he now looks towards Rally Portugal, which takes place in three weeks, hoping to experience those good sensations again.
Sébastien Ogier:
"The rally started quite well with a fairly satisfying first leg. Fourth place was quite a good outcome, taking into account our role as first car out, which is always difficult to deal with on a gravel leg. So we had reasons for optimism, and yet the results didn't match our hopes because of a lot of little problems which slowed us down throughout the weekend. Performances were not what we were hoping for. This was linked to the fact that the car had too much wheel-spin which led to a lack of traction, a lack of performance and premature tyre wear – although managing tyres has always been a strength of ours."
"We need to keep working, analysing the data from this weekend and trying to find a solution during the next tests. In the meantime, with all the difficulties we've had to deal with, we can be happy to have scored important points in the championship because, even if Thierry has gained ground on us, we increased our lead over our nearest rival, Jari-Matti. That's one of the positives I'll take from this weekend. The other is the Argentinian crowds who, once again, were amazing. Thanks a lot for your support! We're not downhearted, we mean to win Rally Argentina one day!"
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