2018 Rally Italia Sardegna

Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul entered the round with a nineteen-point lead in the World Championship for Drivers and Co-drivers. In the World Championship for Manufacturers, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT held a thirteen-point lead over M-Sport Ford WRT.

The following crews were entered into the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2, and the World Rally Championship-3. The final entry list consisted of fifteen World Rally Cars, twelve World Rally Championship-2 entries, and four World Rally Championship-3 entries.

No.	Entrant	Driver	Co-Driver	Car	Tyre
World Rally Car entries
1	M-Sport Ford WRT	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
2	M-Sport Ford WRT	Elfyn Evans	Daniel Barritt	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
3	M-Sport Ford WRT	Teemu Suninen	Mikko Markkula	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
4	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Andreas Mikkelsen	Anders Jæger-Synnevaag	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
5	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
6	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hayden Paddon	Sebastian Marshall	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
7	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
8	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Ott Tänak	Martin Järveoja	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
9	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Esapekka Lappi	Janne Ferm	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
11	Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT	Craig Breen	Scott Martin	Citroën C3 WRC	M
12	Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT	Mads Østberg	Torstein Eriksen	Citroën C3 WRC	M
21	MP-Sports	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	D
22	Yazeed Racing	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Michael Orr	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	M
23	"Piano"	"Piano"	Jean-François Pergola	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	D
24	Cyrille Feraud	Cyrille Feraud	Aymeric Duschemin	Citroën DS3 WRC	D
World Rally Championship-2 entries
31	Škoda Motorsport II	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	Škoda Fabia R5	M
32	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Takamoto Katsuta	Marko Salminen	Ford Fiesta R5	M
33	Škoda Motorsport II	Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	Škoda Fabia R5	M
34	ACI Team Italia WRC	Fabio Andolfi	Simone Scattolin	Škoda Fabia R5	P
35	Printsport	Łukasz Pieniążek	Przemysław Mazur	Škoda Fabia R5	M
36	BRC Racing Team	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	Hyundai i20 R5	M
37	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Hiroki Arai	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Fiesta R5	M
38	Citroën Total Rallye Team	Stéphane Lefebvre	Gabin Moreau	Citroën C3 R5	M
39	Nicolas Ciamin	Nicolas Ciamin	Thibault de la Haye	Hyundai i20 R5	M
40	Motorsport Italia	Benito Guerra	Borja Rozada	Škoda Fabia R5	P
41	Citroën Total Rallye Team	Simone Tempestini	Sergiu Itu	Citroën C3 R5	M
42	Lotos Rally Team	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciej Szczepaniak	Ford Fiesta R5	M
World Rally Championship-3 entries
61	Équipe de France FFSA Rally	Jean-Baptiste Franceschi	Romain Courbon	Ford Fiesta R2T	M
62	Enrico Brazzoli	Enrico Brazzoli	Luca Beltrame	Peugeot 208 R2	D
63	Taisko Lario	Taisko Lario	Tatu Hämäläinen	Peugeot 208 R2	P
64	Louise Cook	Louise Cook	Stefan Davis	Ford Fiesta R2	M
Other major entries
86	Team MRF Tyres	Gaurav Gill	Glenn MacNeall	Ford Fiesta R5	MR
Source:[6]

Citroën terminated their contract with Kris Meeke (pictured) and Paul Nagle before the rally.

The Citroën pairing of Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle were entered into the rally, but were subsequently withdrawn when the team released Meeke from his contract.[7] The team did not enter another crew in their place.

Defending world champion Sébastien Ogier, driving a Fiesta, took a slender 0.1 second lead over Andreas Mikkelsen. Championship leader Thierry Neuville was another 0.6 second behind. Elfyn Evans was fourth, followed by Hayden Paddon and Esapekka Lappi. Teammate Teemu Suninen was seventh, while the shakedown winner Jari-Matti Latvala in eighth. Mads Østberg and Ott Tänak were in ninth and tenth respectively to complete the top ten.

Stéphane Lefebvre led the rally in WRC-2 after Friday.

Muddy roads, caused by unpredictable rainy weather, made the first day of Sardegna very tricky. In uncharacteristic conditions, defending world champion Sébastien Ogier took a dramatic lead over the championship leader Thierry Neuville by 18.9 seconds after Andreas Mikkelsen retired from the day due to gearbox issue. Because of teammate Teemu Suninen's off road and Ott Tänak's radiator damage caused by a heavy bump, Jari-Matti Latvala climbed up to the podium place, followed by his teammate Esapekka Lappi, another 4.4 seconds behind. Two Citroën drivers Mads Østberg and Craig Breen were in sixth and eighth respectively, sandwiched Hayden Paddon in a Hyundai i20. Elfyn Evans dropped out of top twenty after breaking a steering arm due to hitting a rock in his Ford Fiesta.[8] WRC-2 category leader Stéphane Lefebvre, Jan Kopecký and Nicolas Ciamin completed the leaderboard.

After a fifteen-stage fight, title rivals Sébastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville only separated by 3.9 seconds on the top. Jari-Matti Latvala, eighth overall, originally ended the day in third, but an alternator problem forced him to retired from the day, which made his teammate Esapekka Lappi snatch the podium place.[9] Hayden Paddon and Mads Østberg presented us another great fight. Eventually, the Hyundai edged the Citroën by only 2.1 seconds. Craig Breen was in sixth, over a minute further behind, with WRC-2 category leader Jan Kopecký in seventh. Ott Tänak, who was running under Rally2 regulations, recovered to ninth after yesterday's engine damage, followed by Martin Prokop completed the top ten.

The fastest times of the morning stages were all taken by the championship leader Thierry Neuville, which reduced the gap between the rally leader Sébastien Ogier to just 0.8 second. In the Power Stage, the Hyundai star took another stage win and overtook the defending world champion to snatch the victory from Ogier. The difference between two title rivals was only 0.7 second, the third tightest winning margin in WRC history, which shared with 2017 Rally Argentina.[10] Esapekka Lappi ran out of the podium place in a Yaris, followed by Hayden Paddon in fourth overall. Two Citroën drivers Mads Østberg and Craig Breen were in fifth and sixth respectively, ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala, who was running under Rally2 regulations. WRC-2 category leader Jan Kopecký was in eighth after Ott Tänak received a forty-second penalty due to a four-minute late, while Teemu Suninen completed the top ten.

The following crews finished the rally in each class's top ten.[lower-alpha 1]

Position		No.	Driver	Co-driver	Entrant	Car	Time	Difference	Points
Event	Class								Class	Stage
Overall classification
1	1	5	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	3:29:18.7	0.0	25	5
2	2	1	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	3:29:19.4	+0.7	18	4
3	3	9	Esapekka Lappi	Janne Ferm	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	3:31:15.0	+1:56.3	15	0
4	4	6	Hayden Paddon	Sebastian Marshall	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	3:32:13.9	+2:55.2	12	0
5	5	12	Mads Østberg	Torstein Eriksen	Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT	Citroën C3 WRC	3:32:29.6	+3:10.9	10	0
6	6	11	Craig Breen	Scott Martin	Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT	Citroën C3 WRC	3:33:50.4	+4:31.7	8	0
7	7	7	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	3:40:40.8	+11:22.1	6	0
8	8	37	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	Škoda Motorsport II	Škoda Fabia R5	3:42:33.3	+13:14.6	4	0
9	9	8	Ott Tänak	Martin Järveoja	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	3:42:36.9	+13:18.2	2	3
10	10	3	Teemu Suninen	Mikko Markkula	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	3:44:49.1	+15:30.4	1	0
World Rally Championship-2
8	1	37	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	Škoda Motorsport II	Škoda Fabia R5	3:42:33.3	0.0	25	—
12	2	33	Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	Škoda Motorsport II	Škoda Fabia R5	3:45:35.9	+3:02.6	18	—
13	3	39	Nicolas Ciamin	Thibault de la Haye	Nicolas Ciamin	Hyundai i20 R5	3:45:52.0	+3:18.7	15	—
15	4	34	Fabio Andolfi	Simone Scattolin	ACI Team Italia WRC	Škoda Fabia R5	3:49:05.5	+6:32.2	12	—
16	5	35	Łukasz Pieniążek	Przemysław Mazur	Printsport	Škoda Fabia R5	3:49:44.6	+7:11.3	10	—
20	6	40	Benito Guerra	Borja Rozada	Motorsport Italia	Škoda Fabia R5	4:08:14.4	+25:41.1	8	—
23	7	42	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciej Szczepaniak	Lotos Rally Team	Ford Fiesta R5	4:20:29.1	+37:55.8	6	—
24	8	38	Stéphane Lefebvre	Gabin Moreau	Citroën Total Rallye Team	Citroën C3 R5	4:24:57.7	+42:24.4	4	—
World Rally Championship-3
21	1	61	Jean-Baptiste Franceschi	Romain Courbon	Équipe de France FFSA Rally	Ford Fiesta R2T	4:07:40.2	0.0	25	—
22	2	63	Taisko Lario	Tatu Hämäläinen	Taisko Lario	Peugeot 208 R2	4:10:16.0	+2:35.8	18	—
26	3	64	Louise Cook	Stefan Davis	Louise Cook	Ford Fiesta R2	4:32:32.1	+24:51.9	15	—
30	4	62	Enrico Brazzoli	Luca Beltrame	Enrico Brazzoli	Peugeot 208 R2	5:17:19.0	+1:09:38.8	12	—
Source:[11][12]

The following notable crews finished the rally outside top ten.[lower-alpha 1]

Position		No.	Driver	Co-driver	Entrant	Car	Class	Time	Points
Event	Class								Stage
14	14	3	Elfyn Evans	Daniel Barritt	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	WRC	3:47:15.2	1
18	18	4	Andreas Mikkelsen	Anders Jæger-Synnevaag	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	WRC	3:55:07.0	2
Source:[11][12]

The Power stage was a 6.96 km stage at the end of the rally. Additional World Championship points were awarded to the five fastest crews.

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Diff.	Pts.
1	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	4:52.9	0.0	5
2	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Ford Fiesta WRC	4:54.4	+1.5	4
3	Ott Tänak	Martin Järveoja	Toyota Yaris WRC	4:54.5	+1.6	3
4	Andreas Mikkelsen	Anders Jæger-Synnevaag	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	4:55.4	+2.4	2
5	Elfyn Evans	Daniel Barritt	Ford Fiesta WRC	4:57.2	+4.3	1

The following notable crews were given time penalty during the rally.[lower-alpha 1]

Stage	No.	Driver	Co-driver	Entrant	Car	Class	Reason	Penalty
SS1	24	Cyrille Feraud	Aymeric Duschemin	Cyrille Feraud	Citroën DS3 WRC	WRC	1 minute early	1:00
SS1	42	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciej Szczepaniak	Lotos Rally Team	Ford Fiesta R5	WRC-2	Jump start	0:10
SS7	62	Enrico Brazzoli	Luca Beltrame	Enrico Brazzoli	Peugeot 208 R2	WRC-3	6 minutes late	1:00
SS8	36	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i20 R5	WRC-2	1 minute late	0:10
SS9	33	Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	Škoda Motorsport II	Škoda Fabia R5	WRC-2	1 minute late	0:10
SS12	23	"Piano"	Jean-François Pergola	"Piano"	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	WRC	14 minutes late	2:20
SS13	22	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Michael Orr	Yazeed Racing	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	WRC	7 minutes late	1:10
SS15	36	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i20 R5	WRC-2	8 minutes late	1:20
SS15	44	Max Vatanen	Christopher Guieu	Max Vatanen	Hyundai i20 R5	WRC-2	9 minutes late	1:30
SS17	32	Takamoto Katsuta	Marko Salminen	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	WRC-2	9 minutes late	1:30
SS19	61	Jean-Baptiste Franceschi	Romain Courbon	Jean-Baptiste Franceschi	Ford Fiesta R2T	WRC-3	16 minutes late	2:40
SS20	38	Stéphane Lefebvre	Gabin Moreau	Citroën Total Rallye Team	Citroën C3 R5	WRC-2	6 minutes late	1:00

The following notable crews retired from the event.[lower-alpha 1] Under Rally2 regulations, they were eligible to re-enter the event starting from the next leg. Crews that re-entered were given an additional time penalty.

Stage	No.	Driver	Co-driver	Entrant	Car	Class	Cause	Re-entry
SS3	23	"Piano"	Jean-François Pergola	"Piano"	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	WRC	Mechanical	Yes
SS5	37	Hiroki Arai	Jarmo Lehtinen	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	WRC-2	Accident	No
SS6	41	Simone Tempestini	Sergiu Itu	Citroën Total Rallye Team	Citroën C3 R5	WRC-2	Mechanical	Yes
SS6	42	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciej Szczepaniak	Lotos Rally Team	Ford Fiesta R5	WRC-2	Mechanical	Yes
SS7	4	Andreas Mikkelsen	Anders Jæger-Synnevaag	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	WRC	Gearbox	Yes
SS7	62	Enrico Brazzoli	Luca Beltrame	Enrico Brazzoli	Peugeot 208 R2	WRC-3	Mechanical	Yes
SS9	8	Ott Tänak	Martin Järveoja	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	WRC	Radiator	Yes
SS9	3	Teemu Suninen	Mikko Markkula	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	WRC	Off road	Yes
SS11	38	Stéphane Lefebvre	Gabin Moreau	Citroën Total Rallye Team	Citroën C3 R5	WRC-2	Mechanical	Yes
SS12	62	Enrico Brazzoli	Luca Beltrame	Enrico Brazzoli	Peugeot 208 R2	WRC-3	Mechanical	Yes
SS14	40	Benito Guerra	Borja Rozada	Motorsport Italia	Škoda Fabia R5	WRC-2	Mechanical	Yes
SS15	22	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Michael Orr	Yazeed Racing	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	WRC	Mechanical	No
SS15	41	Simone Tempestini	Sergiu Itu	Citroën Total Rallye Team	Citroën C3 R5	WRC-2	Accident	No
SS16	7	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	WRC	Alternator	Yes
SS16	24	Cyrille Feraud	Aymeric Duschemin	Cyrille Feraud	Citroën DS3 WRC	WRC	Mechanical	No
SS18	32	Takamoto Katsuta	Marko Salminen	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	WRC-2	Driveshaft	No
SS20	36	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i20 R5	WRC-2	Withdrawn	No