MOTORSPORT: Crowning glory for VW at Rally Oz

Volkswagen and its superstar driver and co-driver completed a triple hat-trick of world rally championships at the weekend's Rally Australia.

VW has won the manufacturer, driver and co-driver world titles each year since it entered the WRC with its Polo R in 2013 with Frenchman Sebastien Ogier as its lead driver and his countryman Julien Ingrassia alongside him calling the pace notes.

Ogier's victory at Coffs Harbour at the weekend was his 31st in WRC events, overtaking the 30 of Finnish great Marcus Gronholm and leaving the sport's contemporary superstar behind only fellow Frenchman Sebastien Loeb's 78.

Ogier and Ingrassia finished 12.3 seconds ahead of their Finnish teammates Jari-Matti Latvala, with Ulsterman Kris Meeke and his co-driver Paul Nagle a little more than half a minute behind the victors in a Citroen DS3 after leading the event into Saturday's final night stage.

Another VW, driven by Norwegians Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Floene, was fourth, within six seconds of the Citroen after a 10-second penalty, while New Zealanders Hayden Paddon and John Kennard, did Australasia proud with fifth in a Hyundai i20 – and within a minute of the winning VW.

The 318-horsepower four-wheel drive Polo has a win rate of 86 per cent in the WRC, with 31 victories from 36 rallies – making it the most successful model of car in the history of the championship.

This season VW has wrapped up the three titles earlier than any manufacturer has ever done. It has won nine of the rounds so far this year – with Ogier the victor seven times.

Lancia, Subaru, Peugeot and Citroen are other manufacturers to have won world titles three years in a row.

Volkswagen Motorsport director Jost Capito described the Rally Australia outcome and the latest titles as "fantastic ... a dream result".

"What a great achievement to have wrapped up all three titles so early in the season [with three rounds remaining]," Capito said.

"Our drivers and co-drivers had to pull out all the stops.

"Like the team behind them, they did a flawless job.

"It is always more difficult to defend a title than it is to win it for the first time.

"Defending it for a second time is an even greater challenge.

"The fact that our mechanics, engineers, drivers, co-drivers, physios and doctors, chefs and organisers have once again achieved superlative results and secured the WRC titles earlier in the season than ever before shows just what an extraordinary team we have."

Ogier, who had started Sunday's final 68.76km of competition just two car lengths ahead of Meeke with Latvala only 2.6 seconds behind him as well, was overjoyed to have clinched his hat-trick with his third victory in Australia.

"It has just been an incredible season," Ogier said after winning the final Power Stage, which gave him three bonus points and a total from the 10 events this year of 235 to teammate Latvala's 134.

"I think that was my best win so far. I didn't make any mistakes. I have driven so many great rallies, but this here was probably my best.

"It is a fantastic feeling to be world champion again.

"The first world championship title will obviously always be rather special, but the emotions are always overwhelming every time.

"It was an incredibly intense battle here in Australia.

"Because the gap to Kris and Jari-Matti was so small all weekend, I had no time at all to even think about the title.

"It was for sure the most difficult rally to open the roads, so it's perfect to get this win for the third time.

"On paper this one was impossible to win – so is a very beautiful result.

"It's an amazing season – it's the best I've ever done.

"I am now just really happy that Julien and I have won our third title with a victory.

"The fact that we also won the manufacturers' title with the Volkswagen team is obviously the icing on the cake."

Latvala admitted that Ogier had been"simply the better driver at this rally" but the Finn was "really happy to have done my bit towards this great success".

"I didn't make any mistakes all rally, but I just came up short," Latvala said.

"I tried everything and kept on pushing right to the final stage, even with a cracked windscreen."

Citroen man Meeke drove one of his best rallies, enhancing his chances of retention in the Citroen team after some recent doubts, but described the trio of Polos as "like a pack of wolves".

Rally Australia organisers claimed the event was the most successful since it moved to the Coffs Coast in 2011.

There were bumper crowds from the Thursday evening start in central Coffs Harbour, to the Pub With No Beer stage hub on Friday, the Valla night stage on Saturday and then at Sunday afternoon's podium presentation.

Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah won the second-tier WRC2 category, in which the best placed Australian was Coffs Coast local Nathan Quinn, who finished fourth in class and 14th outright in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX.

Rally Australia is already contracted as part of the WRC for the next two years and is likely to become the final round, with an announcement due by the end of this month.

The Australian Rally Championship round at Coffs was won by Eli Evans and Glenn Weston for Team Citroen Australia

"Just a few days ago I wasn't even sure if we'd make the start line [after crashing on Thursday's Power Stage]," Evans said.

"The team worked around the clock to repair the car and they put their faith in me to do them proud, so it feels amazing to be able to repay them in this way."

Evans' main rival for this year's ARC crown, Molly Taylor, was third at Coffs in her Renault Clio, partnered by Bill Hayes.

Sandwiched between them was young Ford driver Steve Mackenzie.

The final round of the ARC is Rally South Australia in the Adelaide hills on October 23-25.

World Rally Championship driver standings after 10 of 13 rounds – 1. Sebastien Ogier (France, Volkswagen Motorsport) 235 points; 2. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Volkswagen Motorsport) 134; 3. Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway, Volkswagen Motorsport II) 110; 4. Mads Ostberg (Norway, Citroen World Rally Team) 90; 5. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Hyundai World Rally Team 86; 6. Kris Meeke (Great Britain, Citroen WRT) 72; 7.  Elfyn Evans (GB, M-Sport World Rally Team) 63; 8. Ott Tanak (Estonia, M-Sport WRT) 62; 9. Hayden Paddon (New Zealand, Hyundai Motorsport N) 56; 10. Daniel Sordo (Spain, Hyundai WRT) 56.

WRC manufacturer standings – Volkswagen Motorsport 343 points; Hyundai Motorsport 177; Citroen World Rally Team 164; M-Sport World Rally Team 148; Volkswagen Motorsport II 76.

Remaining WRC rounds – France, October 1-4; Spain, October 22-25; Great Britain, November 12-15.