WRC: Ogier could miss Italy for birth of child

World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier will miss next month's Rally Italy if his wife Andrea goes into labor with their first child.

The Volkswagen driver will travel to the Sardinian round of the WRC on June 9-12, but he will have a private plane waiting at Alghero airport for the duration of the rally.

"I have made a plan with the team," Ogier told Autosport. "The plane will be waiting and if I get the call then I go straight away. I'm not going to miss this.

"The actual [due] date for the baby is after the rally, but you never know what's going to happen. The team knows what this means to me and they understand – many of them have been through the same thing themselves.

"This is only the same as what Andy Murray was doing when he was at the Australian [Open tennis championship] at the start of the year."

Volkswagen team principal Jost Capito said: "Of course we understand the perspective here. If everything goes right then it's not an issue here. But if his wife needs him, for sure he will go there – of this there's no doubt."

While Ogier lives in Switzerland, his plane will be directed toward Munich, where his German wife wants to give birth.

The French driver won the first two events of the 2016 season and has finished the following three on the podium, albeit frustrated by the WRC's running order rules. Ogier leads stablemate Andreas Mikkelsen by 47 points in the drivers' championship.

Originally on Autosport.com