MOTORSPORT: Ogier wins Rally Australia

It was as dominant a display as the sport of rallying has ever seen. Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, along with co-driver Julien Ingrassia, won 19 of the 22 stages to complete a comprehensive victory at the Coates Hire WRC Rally Australia around Coffs Harbour over the weekend.

However, in an amazing late-rally twist, he failed to seal the 2013 World Rally Championship.

Heading into Australia, the 10th of the 13-round WRC, Volkswagen Polo R WRC-mounted Ogier needed to finish nine points clear of second-placed Thierry Neuville, piloting a Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

Neuville, the shining Belgian star of Ford, kept the championship alive with a fighting second place, denying the brilliant Frenchman the chance to take the title by a measly, solitary point.

In many ways, the relatively inexperienced Neuville’s performance was as impressive as Ogier’s, doggedly holding third place and staying within striking distance of long-time second-place holder, Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen, a three-time Rally Australia winner.

In a twist worthy of a Hollywood script, Hirvonen’s Citroen DS3 WRC suffered a puncture on the very last stage of the day, the bonus-points Power Stage, and the time loss was enough to drop the popular Finn to third place behind Neuville at rally’s end.

“What a crazy end to the rally! Of course I’m pleased to have won here in Australia, but it’s pretty disappointing to be on course to win the world championship title the whole time and then lose it again in the last kilometre.

“Apart from that, it was a fantastic rally for us Down Under. We won 19 of the 22 Special Stages and collected three points in the Power Stage too,” said Ogier after the Power Stage.

He now heads to his home rally in France, an all-tarmac event that will provide him with a further hurdle to conquer… in the form of returning nine-time champion, countryman and at-times bitter rival Sebastien Loeb.

It will be Loeb’s fourth and final WRC appearance in 2013, the barometer of world rallying deciding on a limited program aboard his usual Citroen DS3.

Behind the podium placers was flamboyant Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, his Polo being the last car to finish under two minutes behind Ogier.

Latvala paid the penalty for a poor qualifying effort, his eighth position dictating that he run third on the road across stages which were covered in a loose film of gravel, offering little grip.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment came at the hands of Kris Meeke, the Brit installed into the second works Citroen at the expense of Dani Sordo after impressing on the quick gravel of Rally Finland.

In what was essentially a job interview for 2014, Meeke set the qualifying stage alight on Thursday, meaning he had the best road position for Friday’s first leg.

At every interview, Meeke reiterated his desire to carry out the team’s request, which was simply to bring the car home in the points. He was set for a big swag of them too, holding an increasingly comfortable fourth position before the second passing of the mammoth Nambucca stage on Saturday.

Meeke rolled his DS3 seven times after entering a corner about 5km/h too fast.

“I thought I'd got away with it, but the car just slipped off the road. It nearly stopped, but unfortunately there was a very steep bank down into a field and it just kept tumbling.”

Incredibly the Citroen mechanics were able to rebuild the car within the three-hour service limit, enabling Meeke to re-start under ‘Rally2’ regulations, which impose a time penalty of five minutes per stage missed. Despite suffering another puncture, Meeke was able to finish 12th outright.

Mads Ostberg (Ford) benefited from Meeke’s misfortune with an uneventful drive to fifth place, with the third VW of Andreas Mikkelsen – who actually led the rally after Thursday night’s runs on the 1.6km Super Special Stage, finishing sixth. Evgeney Novikov was seventh in the last of the Ford Fiesta WRCs.

Local boy (in the true sense of the word -- he grew up on the Coffs Coast) Nathan Quinn was able to gain sufficient sponsorship for a one-off WRC entry driving a MINI JCW WRC.

Though tentative as he gained experience in the car, Quinn quickly asserted himself ahead of regular WRC competitor Khalid Al-Qassimi (Citroen), running confidently into an eight place outright with a sixth place on the fifth running of the Super Special town stage being a particular highlight.

Quinn was beaming at each stage’s end, regularly supplying the visiting press with ‘ockerisms’ such as ‘living large’ which was ‘translated’ as him saying ‘live and large’ by some outlets! The Aussie “got friendly with some barriers” at times but brought the car home less than 10 minutes behind Ogier after four days and 22 stages of competition.

Further down the field, leading WRC2 runner Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari took WRC2 honours and 10th outright, but another competitor took the hearts of the Coffs crowd, Kiwi Hayden Paddon again reaffirming his world-class ability with a brace of times in his S2000 Skoda Fabia that put some WRC drivers to shame. If only he didn’t suffer an electrical failure on Thursday night, he could have finished in the top six!

The leading front-wheel drive car home was the diminutive Fiesta R2 of Tasmanian Stephen Turner, who also came 15th outright despite running without turbocharging, a 2.0-litre engine or all-wheel drive.

After the fast, dusty gravel of the Coffs Coast, the WRC teams now have three weeks to prepare their cars for the French tarmac.

Ogier has to head in as favourite, despite Loeb’s presence, but will the younger Seb fight Loeb or settle for championship points and take the title? And will the tidy-driving Neuville, whose speciality is tarmac driving, show both of them up?

Images: WRC supplied and Geoff Ridder

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