Sébastien Ogier isn’t just a ludicrously fast man. He’s also a good dude to our four-legged friends. Five-time World Rally Championship winner Ogier nearly lost his chance to beat the WRC’s other fast Seb, nine-time WRC champ Sébastien Loeb, at Rally México. Ogier had to risk his own finish to avoid hitting a dog on the stage. (Again!)
Per Ogier’s description, there was already one dead dog in the road, and another dog was hanging around the dog’s body. Ogier’s wife in particular is a big-time animal lover, so needless to say, he did what he had to do to get around the two dogs.
“Unfortunately I think someone in front hit a dog but I saved a second one. I nearly went off and lost a bit of time but I had to otherwise I would have lost my marriage!” Ogier said on Twitter after the incident.
Ogier noted to SuperSport that he nearly lost control of his Ford Fiesta WRC car in a ditch to get around the fuzzy friend:
There was a dead dog, and another that seemed to be watching over him. I had to break sharply and ended up half in the ditch to avoid them.
My wife is so protective over animals that I wouldn’t have scored any points with her if I hadn’t avoided him, but it almost cost us dear.
Either way, my canine rally-watching partners for the weekend certainly appreciated that he took that risk.
This isn’t the first time Ogier has had to dodge a dog on the stage roads this season. Here’s his too-close near miss from Rallye Monte Carlo:
Ogier took over the lead on Stage 14 after Loeb was taken out of contention by a flat tire, and cruised home to an overall rally win this afternoon, finishing over a minute ahead of Dani Sordo’s Hyundai.
No updates on the dogs were given, but here’s hoping the living dog made it somewhere safe with many belly rubs.