Not unlike some other motor racing disciplines, the World Rally Championship tends to be ruled by dynasties. The late 1980s were dominated by Lancia, Toyota won a succession of titles in the early 90s, Mitsubishi and Subaru traded top spots in the late 90s and Citroën dominated from 2003 through 2012. But these days its all about Volkswagen.
The German automaker jumped into the WRC last year with the Polo R WRC and proceeded to win ten out of the thirteen rounds, losing only three to Citroën and clinching the championship by some margin. And now, with the Wales Rally still to be contested, VW has already claimed the 2014 title as well.
With their win at Rally Spain this past weekend, the defending duo of Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia put themselves so far in the lead that the title is safely in their hands. And over whom, exactly, have they extended their lead? Matti Latvala and Miika Anttila, who also drive for… you guessed it: Volkswagen. So does the duo of Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene, who currently sit in third place.
With one more round to go, VW has won eleven out of twelve rallies this season, losing only the German round to the Hyundai duo of Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul when both the leading Polos retired early. With the VW pilots locking out the top of the standings, Wolfsburg can now comfortably claim the drivers’, co-drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles for the second year in a row.
Related GalleryVolkswagen at Rally Spain 2014
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FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), Rally Spain
World champions again*! Winners in Spain! Ogier and Ingrassia defend WRC title with Volkswagen
- World champions*: Ogier/Ingrassia out of reach after seventh victory of the season
- Eleven victories in one season: another record for Volkswagen in the WRC
- Ogier ahead of Latvala and Mikkelsen: three Volkswagen drivers in front at the end of the season*
Wolfsburg (26 October 2014). A big day for Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia. A big day for Volkswagen. With their victory at the Rally Spain, the old world champions have been crowned the new world champions*. After their seventh victory of the season, the 23rd of their career, the French duo cannot be caught in the overall standings of the FIA World Rally Championship. Not even by their team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (FIN/FIN), who with second place in Spain clinched the tenth one-two victory for Volkswagen in the WRC and staged a thrilling battle with their team-mates for the rally win. Going into the WRC finale at the Rally Great Britain, Ogier/Ingrassia have extended their lead over Latvala/Anttila to 31 points. Only 28 of those can be reduced in three weeks’ time. In the “mini final”, Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene also achieved an early result with seventh place in Spain – no one can push Andreas Mikkelsen out of third place in the drivers’ standings.
The crowning glory: Ogier/Ingrassia new kings of the rally world
World champions in the drivers’ and co-drivers’ standings for the second time in a row: Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia are only the fourth duo since 1977 to have successfully defended their title. This made the ninth time of popping champagne corks for Ogier and Ingrassia this season all the more special on the podium at the Rally Spain: Seven victories and two second places secured them the early title victory. In 2013 Ogier and Ingrassia won the titles in the drivers’ and co-drivers’ standings with Volkswagen. They are now the eighth duo to be added to the list of double world champions. Before them Walter Röhrl, Juha Kankkunen, Miki Biasion, Carlos Sainz, Tommi Mäkinen, Marcus Grönholm and Sébastien Loeb achieved more than one world championship title.
Icing on the cake: The battle of the season was the battle for the Rally Spain
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia’s team-mates didn’t exactly make it easy for them to defend the title before the end of the season. Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila kept up the pressure until the finish line. It was clear going into the Rally Spain: If Ogier finished before Latvala, the title would be decided. If it was the other way around, the concluding Rally Great Britain would be the grand finale. An appropriately thrilling duel developed right up until the final day. While Latvala/Anttila lost 36.6 seconds on gravel on Friday, on the following two days on asphalt they reduced this to 11.3 seconds bit by bit.
It’s all in the mix: Gravel and asphalt make for a unique challenge
138.54 kilometres on gravel, 234.42 on asphalt – the Rally Spain is a real challenge for drivers, co-drivers and teams alike. Besides needing a good feel for the gravel, total precision on asphalt is required – without any time for the drivers to adjust. Also typically Spanish: On the gravel stages on Friday the clouds of dust stirred up hung around in the windless conditions between the hills and limited visibility. On Saturday the special stage “Escaladei” that was driven twice was a focal point of the Rally Spain. In unusually warm temperatures, the 50-kilometre longest stage pushed the asphalt tyres to their limits.
Record for Volkswagen: eleven victories in one WRC season
Twelfth rally, eleventh victory – with the success at the Rally Spain, Volkswagen secured another top spot in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) rankings. Eleven victories in one season equals Citroën’s previous two best results (2005 – eleven out of 16 rallies; 2008 – eleven out of 15 rallies). One rally before the end of the season and Volkswagen has already achieved the highest winning ratio in WRC history. At least eleven out of a possible 13 victories means a rate of 84.61 percent – a solitary top score.
XXL team performance: the mechanics’ rally
The mechanics’ performance at the Rally Spain was also record-breaking. On Friday evening they modified the Polo R WRCs from a gravel to asphalt set-up in less than 75 minutes. Exactly how much effort is required, a task usually completed in an hour, is illustrated by the number of individual components that were swapped. The mechanics swapped a total of 13 components that are made up of 1348 parts on each car – making a total of 4044 on all three Polo R WRC. The Rally Spain is the only rally on the WRC calendar that is held on both gravel and asphalt, and the service on Friday evening is the longest that is scheduled for the season.
Statistics update – the Rally Spain facts
14 of 17 special stages won, 20 additional top 3 times achieved – Volkswagen added more successes to their statistics at the Rally Spain. The number of special stage victories now stands at 327 out of a possible 463. With regard to top 3 times, the number increased to 751 out of a possible 1313 since first competing with the Polo R WRC at the Rally Monte Carlo in 2013. For Volkswagen it was the 21st rally victory in 25 WRC appearances and the 39th and 40th podium spots.
The Volkswagen drivers’ favourite discipline: the power stage
Bonus points are particularly appealing to the Volkswagen drivers. Bonus points, which are awarded to the top three for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ standings, have gone to drivers of a Polo R WRC 43 times on 24 power stages. At the Rally Spain, Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila bagged the three points for the best time, one went to Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene.
Quotes from the day 03 at the Rally Spain
Sébastien Ogier, Volkswagen Polo R WRC #1
“It’s a fantastic feeling to become world champion for a second time! I’m over the moon, it was a real battle to defend the title. In particular, my team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala showed an incredibly strong performance in the last few months. Now Julien and I have a great sense of happiness and relief. Big thanks to our fantastic team at Volkswagen. Not just for giving us a fantastic car throughout the season. But also for the unique solidarity that we have. It doesn’t matter whether things are going well or badly – the team stands by every driver crew and that is extremely motivating. I’m happy and proud to be part of this team. Today we will have a big world championship party, that much is clear!”
Jari-Matti Latvala, Volkswagen Polo R WRC #2
“Congrats to Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, they showed a strong performance here in Spain and deserve to be world champions. My co-driver Miikka and I tried to keep the fight for the title open for as long as possible. Unfortunately we lost too much time on gravel on Friday for us to be able to make up the deficit on asphalt. I was very happy with our performance on asphalt, but we still have some work to do on loose gravel. We’ll deal with that when we are next testing, but first the whole Volkswagen team will party hard this evening.”
Andreas Mikkelsen, Volkswagen Polo R WRC #9
“First I’d like to congratulate my team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia on winning the title. They prevailed despite Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila not making it easy for them. Hats off to them for that performance too. With regard to my own rally, I intended to do more than finish seventh. However, I’m happy with the result. A flat tyre on Saturday cost me more than two minutes on Saturday. If that hadn’t happened I might have made it onto the podium. It was unlucky. Then all that was left was for me to fight Thierry Neuville for sixth place. In the end we lost that battle because we were too late starting the final stage and received a ten second time penalty. But at least we got a point in the power stage – for Ola, who is still fighting for third place in the co-drivers’ standings.”
Jost Capito, director of Volkswagen Motorsport
“A worthy winner of a fantastic battle throughout the season. Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia are deserved old and new World Rally Champions*. They withstood the pressure from Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila perfectly, managed their advantage cleverly, and emerged victorious from this battle. That deserves the utmost respect. All three drivers showed an outstanding performance, unfortunately Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene were a bit unlucky on Saturday and lost more than two minutes through no fault of their own. With eleven victories in one season, Volkswagen has set a new record. That’s thanks to the whole team, on site, in Hannover and in Wolfsburg. All in all a great day for Séb, Julien and Volkswagen.”
Title winning facts
Age of the three youngest double world champions in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC)
- Juha Kankkunen (1986, 1987): second title win aged 28 years, seven months and 26 days
- Carlos Sainz (1990, 1992): second title win aged 30 years, seven months and 17 days
- Sébastien Ogier (2013, 2014): second title win* aged 30 years, ten months and ten days
Successfully defended titles in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC)
- Juha Kankkunen (1986, 1987)
- Tommi Mäkinen (1996, 1997)
- Sébastien Loeb (2004–2012)
- Sébastien Ogier (2013, 2014)
All double world champions in the history of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC)
- Walter Röhrl (1980, 1982)
- Juha Kankkunen (1986, 1987, 1991, 1993)
- Miki Biasion (1988, 1989)
- Carlos Sainz (1990, 1992)
- Tommi Mäkinen (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999)
- Marcus Grönholm (2000, 2002)
- Sébastien Loeb (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
- Sébastien Ogier (2013, 2014)
And then there were …
… the most beautiful dents imaginable for chassis 21. In Spain this particular Polo R WRC was used for Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia for the sixth time this season. One of its highlights: the Rally Australia. The World Rally Car had a lot to put up with there – seven team members celebrating on its roof after Volkswagen secured the manufacturers’ title* in the WRC. Although the roof was fixed properly afterwards, you can still just about see the dents. Talking about today: New dents were added thanks to Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia’s second title.
And then there were also …
… 150 employees from the Volkswagen plant in Pamplona/Spain. The body in white for the Polo R WRC, on which the World Rally Cars are based, is made in Pamplona. Invited by Volkswagen Spain, the employees attended the twelfth race of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) season in their home country and saw their three Polo R WRCs in action.
* Subject to the official publication of the results by the FIA.
FIA Rally World Championship (WRC),
Rally Spain – Final Results
1.
Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (F/F), Volkswagen
3h 46m 44.6s
2.
Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (FIN/FIN), Volkswagen
+ 11.3s
3.
Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (FIN/FIN), Ford
+ 1m 42.2s
4.
Mads Østberg/Jonas Andersson (N/S), Citroën
+ 2m 13.3s
5.
Dani Sordo/Marc Martí (E/E), Hyundai
+ 2m 22.2s
6.
Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (B/B), Hyundai
+ 4m 01.0s
7.
Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (N/N), Volkswagen
+ 4m 02.9s
8.
Martin Prokop/Jan Tománek (CZ/CZ), Ford
+ 8m 06.8s
9.
Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (NZ/NZ), Hyundai
+ 9m 12.4s
10.
Nasser Al-Attiyah/Giovanni Bernacchini (Q/I), Ford
+ 12m 39.8s
FIA Rally World Championship (WRC),
Rally Spain – Power Stage Results
1.
Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (FIN/FIN), Volkswagen
10m 00.1s
2.
Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (GB/IRL), Citroën
+ 1.7s
3.
Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (N/N), Volkswagen
+ 1.9s
FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), Overall Standings
Drivers’ Championship
points
1.
Sébastien Ogier
242
2.
Jari-Matti Latvala
211
3.
Andreas Mikkelsen
150
4.
Mikko Hirvonen
108
5.
Mads Østberg
92
6.
Thierry Neuville
91
7.
Kris Meeke
84
8.
Elfyn Evans
71
9.
Martin Prokop
42
10.
Dani Sordo
40
11.
Henning Solberg
26
12.
Bryan Bouffier
20
13.
Juho Hänninen
20
14.
Hayden Paddon
18
15.
Robert Kubica
14
16.
Ott Tänak
11
17.
Benito Guerra
8
18.
Chris Atkinson
7
19.
Pontus Tidemand
6
20.
Dennis Kuipers
4
21.
Jaroslav Melichárek
4
22.
Nasser Al-Attiyah
4
23.
Lorenzo Bertelli
2
24.
Matteo Gamba
2
25.
Craig Breen
2
26.
Yuriy Protasov
2
27.
Jari Ketomaa
1
28.
Karl Kruuda
1
29.
Khalid Al-Qassimi
1
Manufacturers’ Championship
points
1.
Volkswagen Motorsport
416
2.
Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT
187
3.
M-Sport
180
4.
Hyundai Motorsport
175
5.
Volkswagen Motorsport II
133
6.
Jipocar Czech National Team
45
7.
Hyundai Motorsport N
26
8.
RK M-Sport WRT
25
FIA World Rally Championship (WRC),
Rally Spain – Results
Thursday,
23 October 2014
km
#1
Ogier/
Ingrassia
#2
Latvala/
Anttila
#9
Mikkelsen/
Fløene
SS 01
Barcelona
03.20
P02
(+ 1.8s)
P04
(+ 3.1s)
P01
Overall classification
P02
(+ 1.8s)
P04
(+ 3.1s)
P01
Friday,
24 October 2014
km
#1
Ogier/
Ingrassia
#2
Latvala/
Anttila
#9
Mikkelsen/
Fløene
SS 02
Gandesa I
07.00
P08
(+ 4.3s)
P11
(+ 6.0s)
P06
(+ 2.9s)
SS 03
Pesells I
26.59
P02
(+ 2.1s)
P04
(+ 4.1s)
P07
(+ 9.1s)
SS 04
Terra Alta I
35.68
P01
P09
(+ 19.2s)
P08
(+ 18.9s)
SS 05
Gandesa II
07.00
P01
P05
(+ 1.3s)
P02
(+ 0.6s)
SS 06
Pesells II
26.59
P06
(+ 5.3s)
P07
(+ 5.5s)
P02
(+ 2.4s)
SS 07
Terra Alta II
35.68
P01
P02
(+ 10.9s)
P03
(+ 16.9s)
Overall classification
P01
P02
(+ 36.6s)
P04
(+ 37.3s)
Saturday,
25 October 2014
km
#1
Ogier/
Ingrassia
#2
Latvala/
Anttila
#9
Mikkelsen/
Fløene
SS 08
Tivissa
03.96
P02
(+ 1.0s)
P01
P03
(+ 1.6s)
SS 09
Escaladei I
50.00
P02
(+ 2.0s)
P01
P06
(+ 19.5s)
SS 10
Colldejou I
26.48
P02
(+ 5.3s)
P01
P03
(+ 7.3s)
SS 11
Escaladei II
50.00
P01
P02
(+ 4.6s)
P21
(+ 2m 43.5s)
SS 12
Colldejou II
26.48
P03
(+ 5.0s)
P01
P08
(+ 13.0s)
SS 13
Salou
02.24
P03
(+ 0.7s)
P02
(+ 0.1s)
P01
Overall classification
P01
P02
(+ 27.3s)
P07
(+ 3m 48.2s)
Sunday,
26 October 2014
km
#1
Ogier/
Ingrassia
#2
Latvala/
Anttila
#9
Mikkelsen/
Fløene
SS 14
La Mussara I
20.48
P03
(+ 4.6s)
P01
P05
(+ 10.6s)
SS 15
Riudecanyes I
15.55
P02
(+ 0.8s)
P01
P03
(+ 3.1s)
SS 16
La Mussara II
20.48
P05
(+ 8.0s)
P01
P03
(+ 5.1s)
SS 17P
Riudecanyes II
15.55
P04
(+ 2.6s)
P01
P03
(+ 1.9s)
Overall classification
P01
P02
(+ 11.3s)
P07
(+ 4m 02.9s)
News Source: Volkswagen
Category: Motorsports, Volkswagen
Tags: julien ingrassia, rally spain, sebastien ogier, vw, vw polo, vw polo r wrc, wrc
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