Sebastian Ogier wins 2015 WRC Title

Sebastian Ogier of VW won his third consecutive WRC title

Sebastian Ogier clinched his third consecutive WRC title with a superb win in Rally Australia ahead of his VW teammate Jari Mati Latvala. The Frenchman made a slow start to the 3 day rally owing to his starting position which meant he was first on track to face the slippery gravel, but he quickly moved up though the day to end in third position at the end of day 1.

From then on there was no looking back as the flying frenchan was involved in a very close fight with his team mate Jari Mati Latvala and Citroen driver Chris Meeke for the top position on day 2 of the rally. But the Weltmeister was untouchable on third day of rally with seven consecutive stage wins including the final powerstage to clinch rally australia and the 2015 world championship.

“It’s an amazing season, the best I’ve ever done. No mistakes, so many great performances and this one is once again a very high one. It’s the most difficult rally to open the road and still we managed to win. It’s the perfect way to get my third title,” said the Frenchman.

Following the Frenchman was his Finnish teammate Jari Mati Latvala who had a broken alternator belt before the start of the final pwestage but the team was able to fix the problem and the finn recovered to make it a VW 1-2 at the finish line.

Citroen Racing star Chris Meeke had led the rally for bulk of the time but went off pace during the night stage on day 2 of the rally and was not able to recover on day 3 handing over the lead to Sebastian Ogier.

Andreas Mikkelson failed to maked it a all VW podium after incuring a 10 second penalty for turning up to midday service one minute late. New Zealander Hayden Paddon was fling with two consecutive stage wins on Saturday morning but faoled to keep pace with the leaders on the final day of the rally finishing in 5th for Hyundai Motorsport.

M-sport’s Ott Tanak had suffered a difficult initial start to rally with balance issues with his car but he recovered well from the incidents on friday morning to finish sixth ahead of the Hyundai duo of Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo. The Spaniard, Dani Sordo had intially led the rally on Friday but ran into brake problems later on which meant he dropped down te order to finish 8th.

Elfyn Evans had a dissapointing rally as the Welshman struggled throughout the three days of the rally with the balance of his car to finish down in ninth place. WRC2 winner Nasser Al-Attiyah completed the top 10.

Final Results after Rally Australia:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	Sebastien Ogier	Volkswagen Motorsport	Volkswagen	2h59m16.4s
2	Jari-Matti Latvala	Volkswagen Motorsport	Volkswagen	12.3s
3	Kris Meeke	Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT	Citroen	32.6s
4	Andreas Mikkelsen	Volkswagen Motorsport II	Volkswagen	38.5s
5	Hayden Paddon	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai	55.1s
6	Ott Tanak	M-Sport World Rally Team	Ford	1m38.0s
7	Thierry Neuville	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai	2m08.3s
8	Dani Sordo	Hyundai Motorsport N	Hyundai	2m15.2s
9	Elfyn Evans	M-Sport World Rally Team	Ford	4m33.7s
10	Nasser Al-Attiyah		Ford	11m46.5s

Championship Standings:

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Sebastien Ogier	235
2	Jari-Matti Latvala	134
3	Andreas Mikkelsen	111
4	Mads Ostberg	90
5	Thierry Neuville	86
6	Kris Meeke	71
7	Elfyn Evans	63
8	Ott Tanak	61
9	Hayden Paddon	56
10	Dani Sordo	56
11	Martin Prokop	33
12	Khalid Al-Qassimi	9
13	Juho Hanninen	8
14	Yuriy Protasov	8
15	Nasser Al-Attiyah	7
16	Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari	6
17	Robert Kubica	6
18	Sebastien Loeb	6
19	Esapekka Lappi	4
20	Diego Dominguez	4
20	Paolo Andreucci	4
22	Pontus Tidemand	2
23	Jan Kopecky	2
24	Nicolas Fuchs	2
25	Gustavo Saba	2
26	Stephane Lefebvre	1
27	Jari Ketomaa	1
28	Lorenzo Bertelli	1
29	Federico Villagra	1