Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia are back on the winning track – and it is asphalt: victory at the Rally Germany went to Volkswagen for the second year in a row. As they did last year, Ogier/Ingrassia won round nine of this season’s FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) with the Polo R WRC, making full use of the slight advantage that came with opening the route on the first all-asphalt race of the year.
Extremely difficult conditions, ranging from dry asphalt to wet concrete, made tyre selection a real challenge all weekend. Ogier/Ingrassia produced a display worthy of world champions to extend their lead in the Drivers’ and Co-Drivers’ Championship by 14 points to 59. Their closest rival, Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jæger just failed to take second place in a thrilling finale and ultimately had to settle for fourth.
Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila, in the third Polo R WRC, recovered from a damaged gearbox on Friday to score two bonus points on the closing Power Stage. They also fought back to finish eighth in the WRC class and contribute to Volkswagen taking a big step towards defending its title in the Manufacturers’ Championship.
An important step in the world championship for Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia in the drivers’ and co-drivers’ standings, and for Volkswagen in the manufacturers’ standings: With the fifth win of the season for the brand, the third for Ogier/Ingrassia, the team came a little closer to defending the titles in all three standings. Ogier/Ingrassia now have 169 points to their name, 59 more than Mikkelsen/Jæger in second place in the overall standings. Latvala/Anttila are in fifth place with a deficit of 80 points. In the manufacturers’ standings, Volkswagen defended a lead of 55 points.
This means that Ogier and Ingrassia could successfully defend their titles in the drivers’ and co-drivers’ standings already if they were to win the next event, the Rally France on Corsica.
