There’s just no stopping Sebastien Ogier this year. He has won Rally Finland for the first time – an achievement he described as “a dream come true” – ahead of the up-and-coming M-Sport pair of Thierry Neuville and Mads Ostberg. Citroen’s top man Mikko Hirvonen had to settle for fourth, the highest placing Finn.
This is Ogier’s fifth and Volkswagen’s sixth WRC victory in this season’s eight rounds so far. In the three he didn’t win, Ogier finished second to fellow Frenchman Sebastien Loeb twice in Monte Carlo and Argentina, and fell foul of a fuel feed problem to finish tenth in Greece. His teammate Jari-Matti Latvala won that round for Volkswagen.
It’s looking bleak for Ogier’s rivals in the race for the driver’s championship. With just five rounds to go, he holds a commanding 90-point lead over joint second placers Latvala and Neuville, who each has just 91 points next to Ogier’s 181. Citroen’s challenge is trailing away, with Hirvonen and Dani Sordo losing touch in fourth and fifth places.
Volkswagen looks set to clinch both the driver’s and manufacturer’s titles in its first full season in WRC with the VW Polo R. Rallye Deutschland, the team’s home event, is the next round up in less than two weeks’ time.
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VW would have won even more if not for their faulty DSG gearbox. Hahahahahaha.
BTW: Where’s Toyota in the WRC-Championship? Possibly they are not allowed to start because of safety reasons (faulty brakes and cars rolling over in curves)? :D
Heng Lee, Toyota are not competing in WRC, period. Currently they experimenting Toyota Yaris R1 course car for future car development and involved in SASOL / South African Regional Rally Championship with Toyota Yaris S2000 under Team Castrol.
any normal production gearbox will fried the moment these factory WRC cars launch from starting line with full 400+ Nm torque…
VW needs to get in Formula 1 with Red Bull Racing ASAP! Since the engines are being downsized to 1.6 Turbos anyway, this relationship needs to go a step further into F1.
if not mistaken, VW’s subsidiary Porsche is planning to enter F1 while Audi will concentrate on Lemans and Ducati is involved in Motogp. VW itself are doing rally. anyway, quite good strategy by the VW group, lets their brand flourish in their niche market.
Porsche is fighting with Audi in Le Mans next year. Ferrari might considering to “migrate” newest technology to La Sarthe circuit somewhere in year 2015, don’t worry…they will still hanging around in F1 circus.
Not just engines or other technical stuff since all ruled and controlled by FIA anyways, they need to secure good drivers. It’s the most important element in any professional races.
Paid drivers bring no excitement but lackluster performance and more boring races.
With downsize midget technology to reduce big and massive budgets, I don’t think VW would want to commit to F1 circus to compete as whole team, in fact they would rather to supply engines to current team in couple years time.
Jangan haraplah kalau Loeb ada!!!