Sebastien Ogier has described the running order rules this weekend in Italy as 'ridiculous' as he and teammate Elfyn Evans fight with the worst of the road conditions. At the end of the day’s last stage, Ogier was beaten by an R5 car, a rarity in the WRC. “It’s just ridiculous. It’s nothing new. Rally is [an] amateur sport and will remain an amateur sport until it’s managed in a professional way,” he explained. After Estonia and Turkey featured a new initiative where the road order changed after the first service. Ogier is unsure why this is not the norm, particularly in this season. “Honestly I don’t want to go on more about it. I say what I think because I always say what I think. I’ve lost too much time and energy in the past fighting this, so I don’t want to enter this discussion again," Ogier discussed to DirtFish after the fact. "It’s a shame for our sport, because that’s killing it and not giving it the chance to grow and make nice battles like we had in the last rallies and that’s the way it is. “My career is mainly behind me and I don’t want to lose any more energy fighting that. I’m happy with my day, I did everything I could. It’s been pretty good performance from our side and I think I did a good job against the guy I was fighting with. “This afternoon was worst than I thought it would be – it’s hard when you see R5 cars are nearly beating you on the last stage, what can you do?” His teammate, Evans, also commented on the situation. “I was pretty pissed off, I think you can see that at the end of that loop,” he said. “It’s pretty frustrating when you have no chance to fight at all with the guys behind you and he (Ogier) has had six years of this. Maybe my feelings aren’t quite as strong as his, but I can see how he ends up in that frame of mind if he’s had six years of this.”

Watch Ogier's comments below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVdc9IFU0Fw

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