OGIER COUNTS HIS LUCKY STARS AS HE SNATCHES GLORY FROM JAWS OF DEFEAT

When Sebastien Ogier calls it quits as a full-time WRC driver at the end of this season, he’ll look back to the Croatia Rally, where he notched up career victory number 51, with a sense of disbelief.

Only Ogier’s brilliance kept him out of the same ditch that spelled almost instant retirement for his Toyota team-mate, Kalle Rovanpera, on Friday’s opening test.

That same brilliance was then needed to minimise time lost to a slow puncture on Saturday’s SS13.

And it was also very much in evidence when the Frenchman’s Yaris WRC briefly got out