French driver Sebastien Ogier has led Citroën’s 1-2 this Sunday at Rally Turkey 2019 and eleventh appointment of the World Rally Championship (WRC). Ogier has led teammate Esapekka Lappi by 34,9 seconds. Third qualified, Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) arrived over a minute behind the winner. 

With this, his third victory of the year after Monte Carlo & Mexico, the French six-time-champion has narrowed his distance with the leader of the standings, Toyota’s Ott Tänak to just 17 points. The Estonian, who has finished in sixteenth place, has been one of the great victims of the gruelling rally, one of the most feared ones in the season’s Calendar.

At least, the champion from Kärla managed to snatch five very valuable points after winning the Power Stage, ahead of title rivals Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and Sebastien Ogier. Neuville was the other casualty of the cruel Mediterranean appointment. After a string of misfortunes, the star from the Alzenau team has finished in eighth place. Despite this, the battle for the title has become a little bit closer with the Three Mousquetaires roughly 30 points, or leen than a race, apart.

Sunday battle: Ogier’s expertise prevails

The battle for Sunday’s win started with Ogier on the lead by just 2-tenths of a second over Lappi. The Scandinavian lost his lead to the French title holder on the opening leg of the day and fell 5,7 seconds behind him. 

From then on, the second most successful rally driver in history opened his leading gap steadily over the following stretches to finish the day 35 seconds ahead. The performance of the driver from Gap was outstanding on the decisive moments of the day. Lappi has been unable to contain the French hurricane.

Saturday: Ogier takes the lead from Lappi

Both the Citroën drivers, Ogier and Lappi, started their very own battle on Saturday when they were rolling just 2-tenths of a second apart. After Friday’s bloodshed, only their Hyundai enemy, Neuville, posed a real threat 18 seconds behind. Soon afterwards, however, the Belgian adversary was out of the game. The member of the South Korean team went off track on the first special of the day (S8) losing almost five minutes as a result! It was a farewell to his chances of success. 

On the following leg, it would be the turn of the championship leader. Ott Tanak’s Yaris WRC suffered a mechanical fault that knocked him out too. Another rival gone. The double misfortune would alter not only the outcome of the Turkish Rally but perhaps the results of the whole championship. 

The first and second classified in the standings were out in the face of one of the most dreaded races in the WRC calendar. As things turned out, the boys from the French team had a clear path to success. But the Rally Turkey 2019 still had a surprise in store for them. Lappi made a mistake at the penultimate stage of the day. 

Lappi stalled his C3 WRC handing the head of the race on a silver plate to Ogier by two-tenths of a second. Behind them, another exciting battle was taking place for the bronze. Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) and Teemu Suninen (M-Sport), were engaged in a fierce showdown. 

The Norwegian came on top by just nine seconds, but still one minute and 17 seconds away from the top. Meanwhile, Dani Sordo settled into the fifth position at 2,24 seconds from Ogier. The Spaniard was busy fending off Latvala and Meeke, sixth and seventh respectively. 

Friday: Citroën 1-2 at the Turkish inferno

After Thursday’s inaugural leg at the Rally Turkey 2019, things started heating up as they usually do at Rally Turkey. Loyal to its reputation, the rally soon started wreaking havoc among the participants. Sordo, Ogier and Tidemand suffered a puncture. 

Taking advantage of his rivals’ misfortunes, Esapekka Lappi (Citroën) climbed to the top of the race during the morning session. The worst, however, was still to come in the afternoon when the rain took centre stage, hitting Toyota the hardest. 

Despite the weather and technical difficulties, Lappi held onto his leading position, 17,7 seconds ahead of teammate Sebastien Ogier and 18,8 seconds before Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), who was third. One position below was the Fin from M-Sport Teemu Sunninen followed by Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai), fifth, at the Rally Turkey 2019. 

Inmediately behind the wonderful five was Dani Sordo. Despite losing 47 seconds following a puncture, he managed to he bounce back during the second stretch of the day (S3) with two third positions over the following two stages and a victory in the last one. A great performance that lifted the Spaniard to the provisional sixth place. 

Further down Kris Meeke finished in seventh place, a position above his head of ranks, Tänak, and two above the third Yaris WRC of Jari-Matti Latvala, ninth. The Estonian leader of the championship finished eight at 1:37.4 seconds from Lappi. A worrisome result after having lost so much ground at the Rally Turkey 2019. 

Images of ‘Rally Turkey 2019’: Citroën Racing Twitter