Sebastien Ogier has produced another vintage Rally Italia Sardegna performance, surviving a final-stage scare to defeat Hyundai's Ott Tanak by 7.9 seconds and claim a record fifth win at the Sardinian gravel classic.
The eight-time World Rally Champion, now competing only a partial 2026 campaign for Toyota Gazoo Racing, controlled the rally from the front through Friday and Saturday's gruelling Sardinian stages before defending a comfortable buffer on Sunday's Power Stage loop. Tanak's relentless pace in the closing stages turned what had been a one-minute cushion into a single-digit margin, with Ogier admitting after the finish that his GR Yaris Rally1 had been "a little sick" over the final two stages.
Rally winner: 1. Ogier — 3:34:24.5, 2. Tanak (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +7.9s, 3. Rovanpera (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +50.5s.
The result extends Ogier's stranglehold on the Italian round of the WRC. The Frenchman has now won Sardegna in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2026 — the most by any driver in the event's modern era and one ahead of Sebastien Loeb's tally.
It also reshapes the title fight in dramatic fashion. Tanak's run from 4th early on Friday to 2nd by the flag means he leaves the island still leading the drivers' championship, but Toyota's overall haul of P1 and P3 — with Elfyn Evans bringing his GR Yaris home in P4 — gives the Japanese marque a hefty manufacturers' points swing as the championship heads to the next round.
Hyundai's Sardinian campaign was the bittersweet farewell the team had warned about all weekend, with Dani Sordo, Hayden Paddon and Esapekka Lappi all rotated through the third i20 N Rally1 entry as the Korean team builds towards its 2027 prototype programme. Sordo, the long-time Sardegna specialist, finished sixth, while Lappi crashed out of the lead group on Saturday morning's longest stage.
There was further drama at the back of the Rally1 order, with Adrien Fourmaux suffering a hybrid system failure on the second pass of Coiluna-Loelle that dropped him behind the WRC2 leaders for the remainder of the day. Recovery work in service meant he was able to score a handful of manufacturers' points for M-Sport Ford on Sunday.
WRC2 honours went to Yohan Rossel after Skoda team-mate Pepe Lopez retired on Saturday's penultimate stage, while Italian privateer Lorenzo Bertelli delivered a strong run to second.
The championship now heads off the island for a five-week break before the next round, with Toyota holding the manufacturers' lead and Tanak still topping the drivers' table from Rovanpera and Ogier. The Frenchman's part-time programme means his pursuit of a ninth crown remains a long shot — but on this evidence, his appearances will continue to decide the outcome of the season.
Sardegna's return to the May calendar slot, after a multi-year June residency, also drew mixed reviews from teams contending with hotter mid-30s temperatures across all three competitive days. Multiple crews flagged tyre degradation on Saturday's longest loop, with Hankook's first season as exclusive WRC tyre supplier facing its first true heat-stress test in Sardinia.
The 2026 event, based once again out of Alghero, concludes with the rally now confirmed for the same window on the 2027 WRC calendar.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports](https://motorsports.global/article/ogier-record-fifth-rally-italia-sardegna-2026-tanak-rovanpera). Visit for full coverage.*
