SEBASTIEN Ogier enhanced his legend yesterday by claiming his sixth straight World Rally Championship title.
Winning a three-man fight for the crown against Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak, the French rally great survived another day of drama at the season-ending Rally Australia in Coffs Harbour to seal the season championship.
Ogier had just a four-point lead coming into the decider and was faultless as his rivals came
unstuck in the Coffs Harbour mud.
The 34-year-old Ogier is now three championship wins away from equalling Sebastien Loeb’s all-time record of nine WRC crowns.
“It’s been an incredible season’’ Ogier said.
“It has been so close. Not so long ago we were thinking it was going to be tough to grab this title but we never gave up. We gave everything, with a fantastic team behind us who kept fighting and in the end we grabbed it in the last rally. It’s so emotional’’
Ogier has his sights set on becoming just the second driver to win title with three
different manufacturers following his final drive with Ford.
“It’s hard to leave,’’ Ogier said.
“It’s like leaving a girl you love. It’s like ‘why are we doing that, we achieved everything we
wanted these two years?’.
“But it’s an exciting adventure ahead and we’ve had the best way to say goodbye to each
other.”
Ogier’s championship win overshadowed the efforts of Jari-Matti Latvala, who outlasted
New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon, to win the Australian Rally.
“It has been two long years,’’ Latvala said.
“I was losing hope that I wouldn’t win a rally this year. This morning things changed again
and these difficult conditions came in my favour. I’m really happy it is such an amazing
feeling to be confirming the manufacturer title. I’m so happy for our team.’’
Neuville’s title dream was crushed when he hit a bank in the morning session to make it a
simple mission of survival for Ogier.
“We’ve been giving everything and took some risks to try to get the title,” said Neuville.
“We had nothing to lose anymore. In SS22, the conditions were really bad. We went wide,
clipped a tree, damage our car and had to retire.”
