crashed into the Central European Rally in the penultimate step, giving Ott Tanak a great opportunity to secure his second victory of the .
Ogier found himself plunged into an intense battle with Tanak for victory, having lost the rally lead in the early hours of the day to his rival Hyundai after passing a junction on SS15, the first of four special stages on Sunday.
This left the eight-time world champion almost two seconds behind Tanak, although Ogier managed to close the gap to 1.5 seconds after the 16th stage.
But Ogier's fight for victory was quickly ruined in spectacular fashion on the 17th stage, during the second pass. In Hochwald which had already surprised the pilot of Toyota early in the morning.
Barely 600 meters into the special, Ogier went wide in a fast right turn, causing a heavy fall. impact against trees who made your GR Yaris left the road and left.
Ogier and his co-pilot Vincent Landais They escaped the incident unscathed, but the pilot was clearly angry at the mistake.
With this retirement, Tanak will win the rally and Hyundai will increase its hopes in the fight for the manufacturers' title, as Ogier loses the 18 provisional points he had accumulated after leading the rally at the end of Saturday.
Tanak now leads the rally with a 9.4s lead over Elfyn Evans of Toyotawhile the championship leader Thierry Neuville He moved up to third position at 40”8. Now, they will add 18, 15 and 13 points respectively on Saturday if they manage to reach the end of the rally.
Evans set the fastest time on stage 17, one second ahead of Tanak, while Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) finished third, three seconds slower than Evans.
Katsuta leads the rankings Great Sunday He is 0.6 seconds ahead of Tanak and is on course to close the gap on championship leader teammate Neuville, ensuring the title fight will be decided in Japan next month.
Adrien Fourmauxof M-Sportranked third [+1.1s} en la clasificación tras disfrutar de una tanda mucho mejor en su Ford Puma, con Evans cuarto y Neuville a punto de conseguir cinco puntos en quinto lugar [+6.8s.].
The gathering will end after Power stage this afternoon.
