Sebastien Ogier is world rally champion, again!

Sebastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia and Volkswagen Motorsport conquers the world, again, third year in a row. French pair in Volkswagen Polo R WRC won Rally Australia and secured enough points to celebrate third consecutive world championship title, three rallies before the end of the season. Same thing happened in manufacturer’s title fight, which is again dominated by German manufacturer and their third title.

Ogier started the last day of Rally Australia as a leader, ahead Citroen’s Kris Meeke and VW’s Jari-Matti Latvala. In the case of Latvala’s victory, for Ogier it was enough to finished second to secure points for title. But, Ogier decided to take a new world title in a great style – with five more special stage wins, including Power Stage. Ogier earned maximum points and showed that everybody else can count on victory only of he stayed at home.

Latvala finished second with 12.3 seconds gap and Meeke was third with 32.6 seconds gap to Ogier. With podium place Meeke gets important points for manufacturer classification, where Citroen Racing and Hyundai Motorsport are fighting for second place.

Hyundai made a good choice when nominated Hayden Paddon as a driver for main team, because he was the best placed of three Hyundai’s drivers. Paddon finished fifth, behind Andreas Mikkelsen (VW) and ahead Ott Tanak (Ford). Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo, both  in Hyundai i20 WRC, finished seventh and eighth respectively. Elfyn Evans (Ford) finished ninth, ahead the best WRC2 driver Nasser Al-Attiyah.