Rally of Italy Won By Thierry Neuville
Rally of Italy Won By Thierry Neuville: Belgium’s Thierry Neuville threw caution to the wind as he won the last six stages of the Rally of Italy on Sunday to overturn a 6.8-second deficit and edge Frenchman Sebastian Ogier.
Neuville, driving a Hyundai, was still 0.7 seconds behind Ogier (M-Sport Ford) entering the closing 6.96km Powerstage but gained 1.4 seconds to finish the race 0.8 seconds ahead.
“I really gave it all this weekend,” said Neuville, who recorded an overall time of 3hr 29min and 18.7sec as he increased his lead at the top of the World Rally standings to 27 points over Ogier.
Ott Tanak (Toyota) who finished eight remains third overall but is now 70 points back.
“We lost the battle, but clearly not the war: there are six rallies left,” Ogier said. “There are rallies in which Thierry will be at a disadvantage.”The Frenchman’s second place could be in danger following a strange incident at the end of the penultimate stage when Ogier drove off without collecting his time card. It was delivered to him by former team-mate Tanak.
Finn Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) finished third in the rally, 1:56.3 slower than Neuville with New Zealander Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) third and Norwegian Mads Ostberg (Citroen) fourth.
Neuville and co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul began Sunday’s stages 3.9s behind their rival but won all four of the day’s tests to eclipse Ogier, in what was the equal third closest finish in WRC history.
| POS | DRIVER | TEAM | CAR | GAP |
| 1 | Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 3h29m18.7s |
| 2 | Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford | 0.7s |
| 3 | Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 1m56.3s |
| 4 | Hayden Paddon, S.Marshall | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 2m55.2s |
| 5 | Mads Ostberg, T.Eriksen | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 3m10.9s |
| 6 | Craig Breen, S.Martin | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 4m31.7s |
| 7 | Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 11m22.1s |
| 8 | Jan Kopecky, P.Dresler | Skoda Motorsport II | Skoda | 13m14.6s |
| 9 | Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 13m18.2s |
| 10 | Teemu Suninen, M.Markkula | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford | 15m30.4s |
Drivers’ standings
| POS | DRIVER | POINTS |
| 1 | Thierry Neuville | 149 |
| 2 | Sebastien Ogier | 122 |
| 3 | Ott Tanak | 79 |
| 4 | Esapekka Lappi | 70 |
| 5 | Dani Sordo | 60 |
| 6 | Andreas Mikkelsen | 56 |
| 7 | Elfyn Evans | 46 |
| 8 | Kris Meeke | 43 |
| 9 | Jari-Matti Latvala | 37 |
| 10 | Craig Breen | 34 |
| 11 | Mads Ostberg | 26 |
| 12 | Teemu Suninen | 24 |
| 13 | Hayden Paddon | 22 |
| 14 | Sebastien Loeb | 15 |
| 15 | Pontus Tidemand | 11 |
| 16 | Jan Kopecky | 9 |
| 17 | Bryan Bouffier | 4 |
| 18 | Gus Greensmith | 2 |
| 19 | Lukasz Pieniążek | 2 |
| 20 | Pedro Heller | 1 |
| 21 | Yoann Bonato | 1 |
| 22 | Stephane Lefebvre | 1 |
Cycling: Welsh rider Geraint Thomas supplied Team Sky with their 6th Criterium du Dauphine success in the past eight years .
Welsh rider Geraint Thomas supplied Team Sky with their 6th Criterium du Dauphine success in the past eight years.
Thomas held off Briton Adam Yates, winner of the concluding seventh stage, with France’s Romain Bardet taking third in the overall standings.
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