Ogier’s championship place in doubt after Radnor crash

Sebastien Ogier’s chances of taking the runner-up spot in this year’s drivers’ championship were dealt a hammer blow on Saturday’s opening stage, when the Frenchman crashed out of Wales Rally GB.

Ogier was in the thick of the fight for lead when he drove his Citroen C4 WRC off the road 500 metres before the finish of the slippery 14.78km Radnor stage (SS8). Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia were uninjured in the crash, but their car collected serious damage to its roof, which looks likely to rule them out of the rally altogether.

“I came too fast in corner and that was it,” said a distraught Ogier. “The car rolled once - but slowly - but now we are stuck and it’s impossible to restart. The conditions were as slippery as I expected them to be. I’m stupid.”

Ogier, who has held second place in the series since his win in Rally Portugal, came to Wales eleven and sixteen points ahead of his rivals Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg respectively. Now either one could snatch the position from him.

Solberg moved into the lead of the rally after taking the stage win on SS8. The Norwegian holds the position from second placed Sebastien Loeb by just 0.3sec. Mikko Hirvonen moved up to third but remains 45.7sec behind the lead pair.

Dani Sordo is now fourth, 5.3sec adrift of Hirvonen, with Latvala 14.2 sec further back in fifth.

Overall standings after SS8: