Rally - Done and dusted

Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia won the Rally Australia, ahead of team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila, to secure their third World Championship title in a row in the Drivers’ and Co-Drivers’ competitions. Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene finished fourth to ensure that Volkswagen wrapped up their third back-to-back Manufacturers’ Championship with rallies still to come.

The Volkswagen drivers have won nine of the ten rallies so far this season. Either Sébastien Ogier or Jari-Matti Latvala, were victorious in Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Finland, Germany and Australia. Over the course of the ten rallies, the Polo R WRC has claimed a total of 19 podium finishes.

Ogier went into the final 68.76 kilometres of the Rally Australia just two car lengths ahead of Kris Meeke, who was second overnight. Over the course of the final day’s five special stages, he extended this lead to 32.6 seconds. Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala started Sunday 2.6 seconds off the lead, and eventually came home 12.3 seconds behind Ogier.

Afterwards Sébastien Ogier said: “It is a fantastic feeling to be world champion again! I am overjoyed. The first World Championship title will obviously always be rather special, but the emotions are always overwhelming every time. It was an incredibly intense battle here in Australia. Because the gap to Kris and Jari-Matti was so small all weekend, I had no time at all to even think about the title. Even this morning I only had one approach: flat-out. I am now just really happy that Julien and I have won our third title with a victory. It will probably take a while for what we have achieved together with our fantastic team over the past three years to really sink in. The fact that we also won the Manufacturers’ title with the Volkswagen team is obviously the icing on the cake.”

Jari-Matti Latvala commented: “Winning all three titles here make this a fantastic day for the Volkswagen team. I tried everything again today and kept on pushing right to the final stage, even with a cracked windscreen. Unfortunately we came up just short and I will have to settle for second place today. On the other hand, I have extended my advantage over third place in the overall standings. Congratulations to my team-mate Sébastien Ogier. He deservedly won the rally and is also a deserved world champion.”

One more thing, the silly hats! The smurf hats and special tee-shirts were provided by team partner Salomon who have provided all the team gear this year - and had a box ready and waiting for just such a moment!

WRC Drivers' Points:

1. Sébastien Ogier, 235

2. Jari-Matti Latvala, 134

3. Andreas Mikkelsen, 111

4. Mads Østberg, 90

5. Thierry Neuville, 86

6. Kris Meeke, 71

7. Elfyn Evans, 63

8. Ott Tänak, 62

9. Hayden Paddon, 56

10. Dani Sordo, 56

Manufacturers' Championship:

1. Volkswagen Motorsport, 343

2. Hyundai Motorsport, 177

3. Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT, 164

4. M-Sport, 148

5. Volkswagen Motorsport II, 76

6. Hyundai Motorsport N, 49

Rally - Evans off colour

The last time he was in  Australia, Ott Tänak was in a Ford Fiesta R5, this time he was at the wheel of M-Sport's top-spec Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Getting to grips with the nature of the region's unique roads, Tänak and co-driver Raigo Mõlder came into their own on the final day's speed tests and finished in 6th place overall.

Out performing a number of their more experienced rivals, they secured a third fastest time on SS9 followed by a second fastest time on SS10 – just 0.6 seconds adrift of the stage victory.

In the sister M-Sport Fiesta RS WR, Elfyn Evans simply could not get to grips with the nature of the Australian roads. The Welshman struggled for confidence all weekend and the pace he was able to extract from the unfamiliar terrain was far from what he hoped. Gradually improving their pace as the event went on, he and co-driver Daniel Barritt were able to make some inroads, but with little to fight for, this is an event they'll be keen to forget, finishing 9th overall.

At the finish Ott Tänak (6th) said: "It's been a really tough rally. This was my first experience of these stages with a world rally car so there was a lot to discover. We made a lot of changes to the notes and it was good to see that the speed was still good enough to set some competitive stage times. With the experience we have, it was very hard to follow the top crews but we have learnt a lot and I am sure that we will be able to compete at the highest level in the future."

Elfyn Evans added: "It's been a really tough rally for us. We managed to make some small inroads throughout the weekend, but we still weren't where we wanted to be. It's important that we go back to the office and work out what was wrong so that we can ensure that we don't have another rally like this for a very long time! Now, my mind is firmly fixed on Corsica where I hope that we can rebuild our confidence and start to show the speed we know we are capable of."

Team Principal, Malcolm Wilson observed: "We have seen some encouraging performances from Ott this weekend. Considering that he has never driven these stages with a world rally car, the times that he was able to set clearly show that the potential is there. Obviously this is a rally that Elfyn will want to forget, but we need to understand why he wasn't able to compete at the level we all know he is capable of. We'll analyse all of the data when we get back to the UK and I know that he'll already be focussing on Corsica."

Rally - Podium for Kris

At the end of Day 2, Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle were holding second place in the Coates Hire Rally Australia, just 0.3 seconds behind Sébastien Ogier. With 5 stages to go on the final day, any one of the top six were in with a chance of victory. For sure, the Volkswagen squad were as strong as ever, but the Citroens, Hyundais and Fords were pushing them harder than they've been pushed elsewhere this year.

In fact, just 9.1 seconds covered the top four as they started the final Leg. The running order was changed again, and although Kris continued to set a strong pace from the opening kilometres, he was unable to hold off Jari-Matti Latvala. However there was some satisfaction to be had as he managed to hold off Andreas Mikkelsen to finish third. After just missing out on a podium at Rally Australia in 2014, Kris made sure of a top-three result this year.

After his setback on Day 1, Stéphane Lefebvre was quicker on the second run over the stages and finished thirteenth overall, claiming one manufacturers’ championship point in the process. 

The Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team now heads back to Europe for the eleventh round of the season. In France, the DS 3 WRCs are set to contest the Tour de Corse for the first time. The last four occasions the rally featured in the WRC, between 2005 and 2008, it was won by Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena in the Citroën Xsara WRC and Citroën C4 WRC.

Afterwards, Kris said: “We achieved the first target which was to make it to the finish and be consistent. I would point out that we led the rally for almost two days. I think we did a very good job and we couldn’t really have expected to do much more on the final leg. We have to keep working hard.”

Marek Nawarecki (Deputy Team Principal) commented: “We knew that Kris could be very competitive in Australia. He got the best out of the car, the conditions and his strategy. He was able to grab the lead in the early stages of the rally and defended his podium spot right to the end. Obviously, we’re sorry that Mads was injured during recce. We hope he will recover quickly, in time to take part in pre-event testing for the Tour de Corse.”

FINAL PROVISIONAL OVERALL STANDINGS:
1. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) 2:59:16.4
2. Jari-Matti Latvala / Miikka Anttila (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) +12.3
3. Kris Meeke / Paul Nagle (DS 3 WRC) +32.6
4. Andreas Mikkelsen / Ola Floene (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) +38.5
5. Hayden Paddon / John Kennard (Hyundai i20 WRC) +55.0
6. Ott Tänak / Raigo Molder (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +1:38.0
7. Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) +2:08.3
8. Dani Sordo / Marc Marti (Hyundai i20 WRC) +2:15.2
9. Elfyn Evans / Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +4:33.7
10. Nasser Al-Attiyah / Mathieu Baumer (Ford Fiesta RRC) +11:46.5...
13. Stéphane Lefebvre / Stéphane Prévot (DS 3 WRC) +16:10.4

Rally - M-Sport in Oz

On what is his first taste of a WRC machjine on Rally Austrlia stages, Ott Tänak set some encouraging times but a stall and a spin on SS4 set the M-Sport team leader back. He reported back to the team that something didn't feel right and the transmission was changed on his Fiesta RS WRC, in an impressive 13 minutes, to ensure there were no potential problems and Tänak ended the day in eighth place.

Elfyn Evans reported similar issues and lacking in feeling and confidence, the Welshman's times were down on what was expected with worse to come. He spun and hit a bank on the first pass of 'Newry Long' (SS4), and picked up a left-rear puncture which cost him more than a minute to the leading pack.

Ott Tänak commented: "Some stages have been quite good today but unfortunately we made a few little mistakes and I was struggling with the car for the last few stages this afternoon. We know what we need to do to improve and even though this is my first time here in a world rally car we still need to push hard. My target is higher than where we are at the moment so we want to climb higher. We know that we and the car have the potential to go faster, so we just have to go out there and prove it tomorrow."

Elfyn Evans added: "It's fair to say that we have really struggled today. The spin and the puncture [on SS4] obviously didn't help, but I've mainly been lacking the confidence and the feeling to drive like we know we can. If you have the confidence, then the times rocket up. Unfortunately it's going in the opposite direction for us at the moment. I'm not 100 percent happy, that's affecting the level of confidence and that's affecting the times in turn. We just need to look at everything for tomorrow and try again. I know that I can be better than this so we need to go out there, give it all we've got, and see what happens."