The sixth round of the World Rally Championship in Sardinia ended with a third place overall for the pair Kalle Rovampera and Jonne Halttunen, allowing them to retain their championship lead. The other two TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Team cars finished 4th with Evans and Martin and 14th with Ogier and Landais.
The WRC Toyota Challenge Program pair of Katsuta and Johnstone, who are not competing for ranking purposes, but to grow and reach the level to then compete in the world championship, showed the right speed to win, but due to an accident on special stage 8, from which they suffered serious damage to the car, they were unable to materialise the result.
The weekend started on Thursday with the shakedown, in which the drivers made their first contacts with the terrain. This was followed by SS1 in which the GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRIDs placed 4th with the Japanese driver, 5th with the 2022 World Champion, 6th with Ogier and 8th with Evans.
On Friday, the French driver in the No. 17 Toyota finished second at the end of the day, just 0.1 tenths from first place. Ogier won four special stages, which allowed him to remain firmly at the top of the standings. Rovampera, on the other hand, encountered some difficulties with the slippery terrain as he was the first to start. Despite the situation he managed to climb from 7th to 4th position at the end of the day. Evans got off to a good start, but then due to a tyre problem dropped to 6th place overall.
On Saturday, Ogier was faced with a problem that prevented him from finishing the day. After winning SS8, SS10, SS11, SS12 and SS13 in the penultimate special stage he went off track due to the slippery conditions of the course. Therefore, the team decided to retire his Toyota and start again the following day. After the Frenchman's retirement, the 2022 Finnish champion driver moved up to third position, followed by Evans who finished 4th after damaging the front of his car. The Japanese driver was also forced to retire after suffering major damage during the course.
Kalle and his co-driver who had stayed out of trouble the previous days were able to show off their aggressive driving to recover positions and finish on the podium at the end of the final day of the Italian weekend. After setting the fastest time of 4.7 seconds, the Finnish pair also managed to get the five bonus points that gave them a 25-point lead in the world classification. Evans took 4th place overall, securing at least two of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRIDs in the top five. Thanks to the points collected, Team GAZOO leads the manufacturers' standings by 23 points.
Ogier and Katsuta returned to action on Sunday after Saturday's problems and finished 14th and 40th respectively.