On ‘pole’ in Poland: Ogier Edges Close To Defend His Title

The intra-team battle within Volkswagen seems to be petering out as Ogier edges closer to defending his title

What country do you think provides the most amount of traffic to the World Rally Championship’s official website?

France; the birthplace of the last two drivers to be crowned WRC champion since 2004? Great Britain; a motorsport mad part of the world that has been the base for many of the WRC teams for decades including those that ran the rally programmes for manufactuers like Subaru? Germany; land of the current WRC champs, Volkswagen? Finland; land of the ‘flying Finns’?

You would be wrong if you guessed any of those. The answer is Poland. Yes, Poland. The country that has not produced a single WRC rally winner and that does not boast of a major manufacturer unlike France, Germany or Great Britain.

What it can boast of, however, is hosting what is apparently the second oldest rally in the world; Rally Poland. In fact, it is only preceded by the Monte Carlo Rally which was first held ten years before the first Rally Poland edition in 1921.

Despite its longevity, however, this year’s edition was only the third time the rally has been included on the WRC calendar since the championship was first established in 1973.

It has taken everything from a change of location to lobbying for the event to making it to the WRC calendar in 2009 and this year.

In one of the competitors in the WRC field, Poland provides a pretty big draw to fans of the championship. Ex-Formula 1 superstar Robert Kubica has become a fixture in WRC after an injury to his hand in 2011 (while rallying) has prevented him from being fit enough to drive an F1 car.

BUSINESS AS USUAL

The Pole won the WRC-2 championship last year and caught the eye this year as he lead the season opening Monte Carlo Rally in its early stages when wet weather caught out the traditional favourites.

Those favourites being Sebastien Ogier and the mighty Volkswagen team that includes Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen.

For a while it seemed like Latvala’s wild days as well as his struggles of last year were behind him as he challenged Ogier for the WRC crown but his challenge seems to have slipped of late.

The gap is still just 50 points with six more rounds to go. With 25 points available for a race win and a seven point gap between the winning driver and the one in second place, there seems scope for a tight finish to the season provided Latvala can get his act together.

Finishing fifth while Ogier took the top spot on the podium at Mikolajki (current venue for Rally Poland) was a pretty big setback, however.

Although him failing to make the podium did allow Hyundai to boast of its second podium finish since its return to the WRC as a manufacturer team.

Thierry Neuville claimed third place behind Mikelsen while Hayden Paddon took eighth to mark the factory Hyundai World Rally Team’s first double points finish this year.

DEVELOPMENTS BECKON

Neuville has been adamant that the i20’s development is on the right track and fans would definitely be hoping for his optimism to translate into actual results.

It has been confirmed that the 2015 car will be completely new as it will be based on the replacement for the current i20 road car.

Following a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to freeze development of their cars this year, manufacturers will resume developing their machines in an effort to outgun each other from next year.

Hopefully that will mean a tighter fight for the WRC title rather than VW maintaining or extending its current advantage.

The Germans have not indicated a change as radical as the one planned by Hyundai. But that is no reason to assume they, or Ogier, will rest on their laurels.