Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, after winning his first WRC title on Thursday, came back from fifth overall to add yet another win to his 2013 tally, with Volkswagen Motorsport teammate Jari-Matti Latvala helping the squad toward the manufacturer’s title with third overall.
After the celebration of Thursday’s news, Ogier started slow on Friday, falling behind the rest of the field – with Belgian championship rival Thierry Neuville and Spaniard Dani Sordo charging off and Latvala also in contention for the win.
But Ogier pulled back some stage wins to face the final day as favourite for the win, just five seconds separating the top four, and cemented his position as the WRC’s undoubted number one when he dominated the first stage of the last day and went on to finish 12 seconds ahead of Sordo’s Citroën DS3 WRC – with Latvala a further 7,3 seconds behind in the second Polo R WRC.
“There has been so much emotion this weekend. After the excitement of winning the title on Thursday, it was difficult to get back into the race. But we couldn’t stay like that all weekend and decided to react yesterday. We pushed to the maximum then and this morning we soon made a gap at the front. We started the story from zero with Volkswagen last year, and now we’re close to the manufacturers’ title as well,” Ogier said.
Eight-time champion Sebastien Loeb didn’t quite finish his WRC career the way he would’ve liked, after rolling his DS3 WRC soon after starting the event. After competing in only a handful of rallies this year, the Frenchman will now concentrate on circuit racing.
“I lost the rear in a fast right corner, and then we had a spin and I finished in the ditch. And that was the race over. I would have preferred to have finished my last rally here, but it didn’t go according to plan,” Loeb said.
The penultimate round of the World Rally championship is Rally de Espana, a mixed surface event which will happen in the Tarragona region of Spain from 24-27 October.
