One-two-three clean sweep at Rallye Germany, sets up Volkswagen’s world championship title win in Australia.
The inevitable finally happened as Sebastien Ogier successfully retained his world champion title after winning Rally Australia. He became only the fourth driver to win the championship three times. The other three drivers to achieve this are nine-time winner and former teammate Sebastien Loeb, Juha Kankkunen and Tommi Makinen, both have won four world titles respectively. Ogier’s teammate Jari-Matti Latvala finished ahead of Citroen’s Kris Meeke. This also ensured that Volkswagen secured the manufactures’ crown as well.
Your magazine, autoX, was invited to cover the previous rally held in Germany, where we witnessed the foundation stone being laid down by Volkswagen and Ogier to retain their titles.
When I think of the World Rally Championship, I remember Tommi Makinen in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo or the blue streak of Colin McRae’s Subaru. Those were the days when I started reading about the race against the clock format. With Internet access difficult those days, every shred of information was a cherished read and if I could even see a re-run of an old rally that would be the highlight of the month for me. I remember I used to tell my friends, I was born in the wrong country and was convinced the closest I would get to a WRC race was watching it live on the television. Well come 2015, one can’t watch WRC live on the telly in India, but my childhood dream came true as I was sent to cover Rallye Deutschland.
Ever since Volkswagen entered WRC in 2013, they have been a force to reckon with and have managed to win almost everything – except their home rally. This year, the team made sure nothing was left to chance and as confidence was soaring, they were all set to correct the previous year’s mistakes. By the time I reached the FIA office to collect my accreditation card, news was coming in thick and fast that Ogier was leading the pack. The entire day both the champion and his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala were slugging it out – but in the end the Frenchman came out on top and finished ahead on Day 1. You could sense that the Volkswagen camp wanted to erupt into a frenzy, but with luck not favouring them the previous two years, and with Ogier crashing out last year, they decided to keep the mood as sombre as possible.
As Day 1 was coming to an end, the rally drivers were lining up for some media interaction. I can’t recall any other world class motorsport event where the drivers are so accessible. As expected, Ogier was surrounded by journalists – so I decided to talk to the very jovial Latvala. He was jokingly taking a dig at Ogier, and said he was hoping to beat him at Panzerplatte – which is the most crucial stage, as it usually decides the winner of the rally. There were a lot of talk about the Finnish driver’s inconsistency, but the jovial Latvala just laughed it off and promised to put up a good show, and, of course, take on Ogier.
I finally saw my opportunity to speak to Ogier, and our hosts, the Volkswagen Motorsport team, introduced me to the champion. His first reaction was, “Wow, that must have been a long flight.” He was pleasantly surprised that there were many rally fans in India. Before I could ask him anything, he was asking me everything he could about India and told me that his wife’s best friend is an Indian and they have been trying to plan a trip. After managing to answer a volley of questions about India, I finally asked him, “As much as there is pressure to win the rally, you seem to have a calm aura around yourself.” His reply: “Looks can be deceptive.” And he didn’t want to be over confident, even though the team had a very good chance of finally breaking their jinx in Germany. Before I could ask him any more questions, he had to head to the service bay, so I decided to return to the hospitality area. Before I exited, I saw Robert Kubica standing next to his car without a windshield. I walked up and asked him, “Bad day at work?” With a mischievous smile he said, “Yeah, you know how WRC is, you miss a corner and you end up missing some parts of the car.”
Day 2 was a make or break day, and with a forecast for mild showers, Volkswagen was hoping the rain Gods didn’t throw a curve ball at them. The stage was set, and Ogier drove like a man possessed – there was nothing but victory on his mind. We were taken to Panzerplatte stage in style in a helicopter. As breathtaking as the view from above was, we reached well before the stage started. We were surrounded by a sea of supporters waving their respective team flags and guzzling down beer. The atmosphere was simply electric. Soaring temperatures kept the rain clouds at bay, and when this crucial stage began Ogier promptly took a commanding lead. Even Latvala, who was usually very good in this stage, couldn’t rival his teammate. Ogier was in the zone, and it was quite evident that it was his rally to lose – and he was in no mood to make any silly mistakes. By stage 13, the world champion consistently increased his lead. And, as the day was coming to an end, it was more or less certain that only a miracle for another driver or bad luck for Ogier could keep the Frenchman from winning the rally.
Day three was more or less a formality, but Jari-Matti refused to give up in the power stage as he dangerously pushed on – but had to settle for second place. It was finally party time for the entire Volkswagen team, as they took the top three positions. The celebrations revealed how sweet the home victory was for the team. Volkswagen remains the best team in the WRC by far, with their drivers much ahead of the rest of the field. The great thing is that Jari-Matti and Ogier continue to push each other – and now they have their young teammate Andreas Mikkelsen as well breathing down their necks.
Write your Comment