Sebastien Ogier, fresh from his maiden World Rally victory in Portugal, joins Peugeot UK’s IRC Champions Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle in Sardinia as Peugeot braces itself for a major battle on the gravel stages of Sardinia this weekend.
Ogier will swap his Citroen C4 WRC car for a Peugeot 207 S2000, and lines up in Peugeot colours alongside Meeke and Nagle, Bruno Magalhaes, Franz Wittman, Thierry Neuville, Paulo Andreucci and the Turkish lady star Burcu Çetinkaya.
It’s the biggest Peugeot line-up this year, and is there to help Peugeot defend their manufacturers’ title in the teeth of strong opposition from Skoda’s Juho Hänninen, Jan Kopecky and Guy Wilks.
And Meeke and Nagle need all the support they can in a very strong field, especially after the disappointments of Argentina and Canarias.
Co-driver Paul Nagle comments: “We’ve simply got to get everything right at Sardinia. It’s the biggest field of the year so far. Along with the normal suspects we have P-G Andersson in a Mitsubishi and Andreas Mikkelsen in a Fiesta. We’re looking for a good result this weekend. It’s vital to our championship defence.”
Ogier was last seen on an IRC event at Monte Carlo in January when he came agonizingly close to a back-to-back victory in the event. To have the new superstar of world rallying alongside him is a huge boost to driver Kris Meeke: “Sébastien is a huge talent – anyone who can beat Loeb has got to be. It’s great to have him competing for Peugeot and sharing our area of the Service Park. With Seb on board we can pose a genuine challenge to the Skodas. We’ll have to work very hard indeed to beat them. But try and beat them we will, because that’s the best way to score points, not just in the drivers’ title race, but also for Peugeot in the manufacturers.”
– Credit: ircseries.com