>>149557832
Original plan was for him to skip estonia and finland. Rally Estonia entry already closed for like 3-4 weeks now. So they could not get him in, only at the expense of someone else.
Possibly Toyota got afraid by the new found speed of hyundais on gravel (remember if neuville does not get hangooked they would been standing 1-2-3 at the end of friday) and landed a few hundred thousand euros of reasons for Ogier to have a stronger lineup on their second home event.

>>149557893
>>149558053
Already happened a few times in the past, but not in the "modern times", except when Loeb had to miss the last 3-4 rallies bc he broke his shoulder while cycling in 2006 or 2007 yet still got the championship by 1 point.
Röhrl usually skipped Safari rally for example, even in his wdc years