MOTORSPORT: Ogier makes it four rally title wins

Sebastien Ogier has joined an elite club of four-time world rally champions, but Hyundai has made the French superstar’s manufacturer Volkswagen wait another two weeks for its fourth straight teams’ title.

Mattias Ekstrom has further enhanced his claim to be the world’s most versatile race driver, Sweden’s two-time DTM (German Touring Car Championship) and three-time Race of Champions title winner clinching the World Rallycross Championship in an Audi.

After the heartbreak of seeing what would have been its first Le Mans victory slip away in the last couple of minutes of the 24-hour classic four months ago, Toyota has won its home round of the World Endurance Championship – by 1.4 seconds from an Audi, with Mark Webber’s Porsche also within 17.5 seconds in third.

Alex Zanardi, the man with prosthetic legs after his horror crash 15 years ago, won the final race in the Italian GT Championship at his first motorsport competition for 15 months – and his debut event in BMW’s M6.

And 55 cars, representing 13 manufacturers, are on the early entry list for the Bathurst Six-Hour production car race next Easter, with almost another five months until the deadline.

Ogier takes his place among WRC legends
Sebastien Ogier has done what only his French compatriot Sebastien Loeb and Finns Juha Kankkunen and Tommi Makinen had achieved before him – win four World Rally Championships.

Loeb did it nine times in a row with Citroen from 2004 to 2012, while Ogier has done it each season since for VW.

Makinen did it consecutively too, with Mitsubishi in 1996-99, while Kankkunen’s titles came with three manufacturers and not all consecutively – with Peugeot in 1986, Lancia ’87 and ’91, and Toyota in ’93.

But Ogier has done something none of the other three have done. This year’s title has come without him having won an all-gravel rally – something he and VW would say is because of the starting order rule that has often worked against him as the championship leader.

Ogier’s fourth title – all with fellow Frenchman Julien Ingrassia as his co-driver – was sealed with victory in Rally Spain on Sunday.

It was the fifth rally they have won in the 11 rounds of the WRC so far, with just Rally Great Britain in Wales now in two weeks and then Rally Australia on November 17-20 at Coffs Harbour.

Spaniard Dani Sordo led on Friday’s wet and muddy leg in his Hyundai i20 but Ogier took charge on Saturday and Sunday’s asphalt stages, with the final margin 15.6 seconds between them.

“The tension ahead of the closing Power Stage (in Spain’s Catalunya) was greater than usual, given the fact that we were within touching distance of the title, and bearing in mind the mistake we made last year – but we did it, despite the more difficult regulations,” Ogier said.

It was the 37th victory for the French pair and the 30th in 50 rallies with VW’s Polo R.

Hyundai new-generation i20s filled the next three places in Spain, with Belgian Thierry Neuville almost a minute behind Sordo, and New Zealander Hayden Paddon another 12.8 seconds back in fourth – his best finish in a WRC with tarmac stages.

Neuville is now tied with VW’s Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen for second in the championship, but Paddon could yet snatch that spot as the last two rounds are on gravel.

Mikkelson rolled out of the Spanish event on Saturday, while VW’s exceptionally fast but crash-prone Finn Jari-Matti Latvala hit a barrier on Friday and retired from that leg, but returned to pick up valuable manufacturer points, including three for winning the Power Stage ahead of Ogier.

VW heads Hyundai by 62 points and will claim the manufacturers’ title if it is still at least 43 points clear after Rally GB.

World Rally Championship driver standings after 11 of 13 rounds – 1. Sebastien Ogier (France, Volkswagen Polo R) 222 points; 2.  Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway, Volkswagen Polo R) 127; 3. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Hyundai i20) 127; 4. Hayden Paddon (New Zealand, Hyundai i20) 114; 5. Dani  Sordo (Spain, Hyundai i20) 111; 6. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Volkswagen Polo R) 104; 7. Mads Ostberg (Norway, Ford Fiesta RS) 90; 8. Ott Tanak 61 (Estonia, Ford Fiesta RS) 61; 9. Kris Meeke (Northern Ireland, Citroen DS3) 54; 10. Craig Breen (Ireland, Citroen DS3) 36.

WRC manufacturer standings - 1. Volkswagen Motorsport 322 points; 2. Hyundai Motorsport 260; 3. M-Sport (Ford) World Rally Team 144; 4. Volkswagen Motorsport II 136; 6. Hyundai Motorsport N 124.

Ekstrom rates World RX the best of his titles
Even if the rallycross world champion of the previous two seasons, Norway’s Petter Solberg, scores the maximum 30 points at the final round this season in Argentina on November 25 and Mattias Ekstrom none (which would probably require him skipping it), the Swede has won more events and would claim the title on a countback.

Citroen DS3 driver Solberg was runner-up at Estering in Germany at the weekend to another Swede, Kevin Eriksson – the seventh winner in 11 rounds this season, driving a Ford Fiesta ST – while Ekstrom was fifth in his Audi A1.

Solberg and Ekstrom started on the front row but Eriksson, in his first final of the year, made a brilliant sideways move at the first corner to grab the lead and never surrendered it, although Solberg gave him stiff competition.

Although the Norwegian’s second place lifted him back into second in the championship, ahead of yet another Swede, Johan Kristoffersson, whose VW Polo suffered a puncture on the third lap, Solberg conceded his crown was lost to Ekstrom.

“I hoped it would go down to the final round [in Rosario, Argentina], but Mattias is a very worthy winner,” Solberg said.

Ekstrom said that “to become an FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) world champion is what I have always wanted – and it is the best feeling in the world”.

“This is the best day in my whole motorsport career – it feels like I have electricity running through my whole body,” Ekstrom said.

“I have a lot of amazing memories – from winning the Swedish Touring Car Championship back in 1999, my first DTM title in 2004, my Race of Champions win against [Sebastien] Loeb in Paris, and also against Michael Schumacher in 2007, then my second DTM title.

“Now I’m the new World RX champion and this feeling beats it all, because when I started [my own team] EKS from scratch less than three years ago this was my dream.

“I have always wanted to go to an FIA prize-giving ceremony and now I finally can.”

EKS is poised to win the teams’ championship too, taking a 17-point lead over Team Peugeot-Hansen to Argentina.

Toyota’s strategy shines brightest at Fuji
Toyota’s victory in the Fuji Six-Hour was its first in the World Endurance Championship since it won the manufacturers’ title in 2014.

It also was the Japanese company’s fourth victory in five years in the Fuji round, although one of those races was abandoned without a lap having been run under green.

The latest success was a strategic triumph, with Toyota opting to short-fuel its lead TS050 Hybrid on its second last stop and have Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi drive a double stint on the same set of tyres.

Audi gave its lead R18 e-tron quattro fresh tyres for Frenchman Loic Duval’s last stint, but while he narrowed the gap from about 13 seconds to little more than one second with a lap to go he could not find a way past.

Audi has blown several rounds this year, and in this one – in which it looked the winner for at least five hours – it was slower pitstops that cost it, with Kobayashi snatching the lead on the last round of stops after having trailed by nine seconds.

His co-drivers were Frenchman Stephane Sarrazin and Briton Mike Conway, while Duval was partnered in the Audi by Brazilian Lucas Di Grassi and Brit Oliver Jarvis.

The Porsche driven by Australia’s retiring Mark Webber, New Zealander Brendon Hartley and German Timo Bernhard, finished third, 17.339 seconds behind the victorious Toyota.

Winners of the previous three WEC rounds, they ran second initially after starting on the front row but had aerodynamic problems in the latter stages.

Another New Zealander, Earl Bamber, and Brit Nick Tandy are vying to replace Webber next season. They partnered German Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg to outright victory at Le Mans last year in one of the Porsche 919 Hybrids.

They have been racing Porsches in North America this year and the manufacturer’s chief of its WEC team, Andreas Seidl, said “they would both be able to do a good job” in Webber’s place.

Toyota’s other TS050 was the only other car to finish on the same 244 laps at Fuji.

The Porsche 919 of the trio leading the WEC driver standings – Frenchman Romain Dumas, Swiss Neel Jani, and German Marc Lieb – was a lap down in fifth.

Their advantage over the lead Toyota trio has been trimmed from 37.5 points to 23 with two rounds remaining, in Shanghai on November 6 and Bahrain on November 19 – which will be Webber’s finale.

The second Audi retired at Fuji after just an hour with a hybrid motor failure.

Ford dominated the GTE Pro class, giving the British arm of American Chip Ganassi’s operation its first win in WEC. The Ford GT driven by Brits Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx beat the sister car of Frenchman Olivier Pla and German Stefan Mucke by 15 seconds. They did 212 laps.

One of the American Ganassi Ford entries won the class at Le Mans, but Ferrari with its 488s has taken the manufacturers’ championship by nine points ahead of Aston-Martin and its Vantages.

'Unbelievable' … Alex Zanardi wins in BMW M6
It just keeps getting better for Alex Zanardi.

After his two gold medals and a silver in handcycling at the Rio Paralympics, he went to the Mugello circuit in Tuscany near his Bologna home at the weekend to race a BMW M6 GT3 for the first time.

In the car with specially-adapted hand controls for the driver who lost his natural legs 15 years ago in a Champ Car (Indy) crash, he finished sixth in the penultimate race of the Italian GT Championship on Saturday.

Then on Sunday the man who designed and built his prosthetic legs and will turn 50 next Sunday won!

“There are no words to describe what I feel. Today I saw the sun setting and it never looked that beautiful,” Zanardi said.

“What a year, not only what a day. Once more I enjoyed beautiful moments in Rio de Janeiro, and now just jumping into this beautiful car was amazing.

“But to win the race is something else. I did not have the start I wanted, but I had a great car underneath me.

“So I knew it was just a question of putting in some good laps as soon as the guys in front of me pitted, and that is what I did.

“When I came back on the circuit I found myself with a very comfortable lead, and I had the speed to stay away from the guys behind me and finish with the victory.

“It is unbelievable.”

Fifty five and counting for Six-Hour
Bathurst Six-Hour event director James O’Brien – the man who sold his share of the Bathurst 12-Hour to [V8] Supercars – thinks he might have Australia’s biggest endurance race field on his hands next Easter.

O’Brien says he has 55 cars of 13 makes on what he calls the ‘early-bird’ entry list.

“There are other competitors intending to participate and thus we are anticipating a very large grid come Easter,” he said.

“It will be quite a site with cars stretching from the start-fine line right back around Murray’s Corner and up the hill towards the bridge on Conrod Straight.”

Entries for the April 16 race close on March 10.

Barry Morcom, who entered the BMW 335i Turbo in which his son, Nathan, and Supercar star Chaz Mostert won this year’s Six-Hour, will defend that victory with a new Ford Focus RS.

Nine Mitsubishi Lancer Evos are entered, with BMW, HSV and Subaru also among the entries in Class A for “extreme performance” cars.

The provisional entry list can be seen here.

The Bathurst 12-Hour on February 5 also is boasting more than 50 entries, representing 16 makes. Thirty of those cars are GT3. Entries for the 12-Hour close on December 16.