The World Rally Championship King Returns

Rally fans wanting a bit of variety in the winner’s circle in WRC were probably glad at not seeing Sebastien Ogier manage to win a rally since his victory way back in February in Rally Sweden. Those, however, who thought the rule-makers went a bit too far in making the championship points leader always start stages first must have been happy with the result of Rally Deutschland.

After having spent six events literally sweeping stages for the other drivers and then having to fight and scramble to the podium, Ogier even went so far as to publicly state he would consider retiring from the WRC if the stage start order rules were not changed in 2017. The defending three-time world champion put those complaints aside for a while in Germany, however, where the tarmac stages allowed him to finally cut loose.

With no gravel to sweep aside for his rivals, Ogier scorched the rally and finished around half a minute ahead of the Hyundai’s of Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville.

It was a win that really put into perspective the success enjoyed by Jari-Matti Latvala, Hayden Paddon, Kris Meeke, Thierry Neuville and Andreas MIkkelsen; the five drivers who managed to post wins during Ogier’s regulation-enforced drought. Not to say that these drivers are not good enough to win on their day, just that they probably would have had far less of a chance to win with a fairer start order system.

The powers that be felt that it was the only way to stunt the domination of Volkswagen, but in fact Ogier’s drought shows that it only served to blunt his truly awesome talent. Something that Ogier had in spades to allow him to take four podium finishes (two seconds and two thirds) and a sixth place finish along with a problem-strewn Rally Finland where he could only manage 24th.

Free of having to play in an artificially level playing field Ogier cut loose in Volkswagen’s home rally leaving the factory i20 WRCs in his wake. The win was also the last for the German marque that has dominated the WRC since 2013 with Jost Capito in charge of the rally team.

Capito will now be entrusted with bringing the same winning efficiency to his new employers McLaren in Formula 1. Volkswagen already seems to have moved on, however, and have started testing the final version of their 2017 WRC Polo that will take to the stages next year if it is cleared by the FIA. Citroen and WRC returnees Toyota are also well into development of their cars that will be faster and better handling under the new technical regulations. Hyundai seems to have joined the development party a bit late in their efforts to place as high as possible in the manufacturers’ championship.

Volkswagen currently sit 55 points ahead of Hyundai with four rounds left after Rally China had to be cancelled owing to widespread flooding on account of heavy rain.