WRC - Rally Turkey: Sebastien Ogier leads 1-2 victory for Citroen

Citroën Racing’s Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia are the winners of the Rally Turkey Marmaris, the eleventh round of the 2019 FIA World Rally Championship season. For the sixth-time world champions, this is the third win of the season and 47th victory in a career.

Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm doubled the celebration for Citroen with the second-place finish in the rough gravel event, ending the 17-stage event with the 34.7sec gap behind the winning crew. Hyundai Motorsport’s Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jaeger finished third, what is their third podium this year.

Sebastien Ogier’s #1 Citroen C3 WRC

Ogier’s victory spiced up the battle for the championship title because his main rivals ended the rally far behind him, experiencing lots of problems on the field (Neuville’s off-road) but also between stages (Tanak’s electrical issue). Thierry Neuville (Neuville) finished eighth and added four more points with second place at the Power Stage. Ott Tanak (Toyota) finished out of points in the general classification (16th) but at least he earned five points with the fastest time at the Power Stage.

Ogier was third on the Power Stage and added three points to his account. He now has 193 points, seventeen less than Tanak and thirteen more than Neuville, with three more events on the calendar (Wales, Catalunya, Australia).

Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia

The other points scorers in Turkey are Teemu Suninen (Ford, 4th), Dani Sordo (Hyundai, 5th), Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota, 6th), Kris Meeke (Toyota, 7th), Pontus Tideman (Ford, 9th) and Gus Greensmith (Ford Fiesta R5, 10th). Greensmith was the winner of the WRC2 Pro competition while 12th-placed Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Škoda Fabia R5) took the the victory in WRC2 category.

In the Manufacturers’ standings, Hyundai leads the championship with 314 points, nineteen more than Toyota. Citroen is third with 259 points, Ford is fourth with 184 points.