Sébastien Ogier is lamenting the victory he thought was certain at the WRC rally in Portugal—yet he also sees many positives
Sébastien Ogier expressed disappointment over the lost victory at the World Rally Championship (WRC) in Portugal and described it as “hard to accept” that the almost certain win had slipped away from him. The Frenchman attributed this to “bad luck,” after a flat tire on the penultimate special stage (SS) ended his run.
The eight-time world champion delivered an impressive masterclass on Saturday under difficult, rainy conditions. He started the final four stages on Sunday with a 21.9-second lead and was heading straight for his eighth victory at the Rally Portugal.
Double setback for Toyota
But all hopes of victory were dashed when Ogier suffered a rear-right tire puncture on the penultimate SS. The necessary tire change cost him two minutes and, with it, the lead. For the Toyota team, it was a double blow: third-place driver Sami Pajari also suffered a flat tire at exactly the same spot.
Ogier ultimately brought his GR Yaris home in sixth place overall. The victory went to Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville, who celebrated his 23rd career win and ended his team’s drought, which had lasted since November 2025.
For Ogier, who had delivered one of his trademark stellar performances under the most adverse conditions over the weekend, the moment when all that hard work went up in smoke in a matter of seconds was hard to swallow.
“No other explanation than bad luck”
“I feel like Vincent [Landais, co-driver] and I deserved better, but that’s just how the game goes in motorsport,” Ogier explains to our leading English motorsport website Motorsport.com. “Unfortunately, we ran out of luck today. There’s no other explanation for that tire failure. I’m sure we were all driving in the same line—in the ruts, in the sand, and between the tight rocks, there’s only that one line.”
The Frenchman adds: “We saw those small rocks, and for most people it seemed to go well, but Sami [Pajari] and I cut our tires there. It happened very early in this long stage, so there was no other option but to stop and change the wheel. That dashed any hope of a top result.”
The pace is still there
Despite the disappointment, the 42-year-old is taking positives from the weekend. He has proven that he still has the pace to compete at the top of the world stage.
“There are definitely plenty of reasons to keep our heads up. I can’t deny that it hits us hard when we have so much bad luck after all the hard work this week—especially since we did everything right to get through these difficult conditions,” said Ogier.
“We were so close to victory; that’s hard to swallow right now. But I’ve been in this long enough to know that things can go this way. I have to put this behind me now and head to Japan with the certainty that I still have the pace to compete at the very front anywhere and anytime. That’s a good reason to stay optimistic.”
