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Rally Argentina - Finish
Some valuable points despite a difficult rally in Argentina
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia took fourth place in Rally Argentina, an event that turned out to be a tricky one for them.
And yet the rally began promisingly. After winning the opening gravel stage on Friday, the championship leaders were only 13 seconds off second place at the end of the first leg. However, their hopes of a podium finish disappeared on Saturday, especially on the 40-kilometer morning stage, where they didn't take all the risks when faced with low visibility in the fog.
Placed fourth following Kris Meeke's puncture in the last stage on Saturday, the M-Sport crew defended their position against Andreas Mikkelsen during the final leg. Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia also managed to glean some bonus points by setting the second fastest time on the Power Stage and came away from this season's fifth event with 16 precious points.
Sébastien Ogier:
"This weekend in Argentina was a difficult one for us, but we still managed to get some important points for the championship, which is the main thing. The rally began well, we made a solid start on Friday, despite the road-sweeping involved in being first out. It's true that, although it was a disadvantage for the rest of the day, that opening position helped us out on the first stage because we were the only ones not to be blinded by the dust. The time we posted allowed us partly to make up for the handicap represented by this starting order over the whole of the first leg."
"The target at that point was to get second place, because Ott already had a big lead and behind him the time differences were very small. Unfortunately, Saturday was disappointing. Our performance was not up to our expectations. On top of that the conditions in the morning stages were difficult; I wasn't prepared to take all possible risks in the fog and that cost us dearly. On the other hand, we finished the weekend well by defending our fourth place on Sunday when Andreas was coming up strong behind us and by scoring extra points on the Power Stage."
"In the end, I can't say that I'm satisfied because the goal was to finish on the podium, but nevertheless the result is fairly positive. Congrats to our former team-mates Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja for their performance this weekend, they were clearly the best in Argentina. We'll meet up again in Portugal!"
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