Photo Credit: Volkswagen Motorsport Round 7 of the 2016 World Rally Championship season was contested on the ultra fast and flowing gravel roads of Poland.
The first two rounds of the championship were won by defending champion Sebastien Ogier, but since Rally Sweden in February the Frenchman has failed to win, mostly struggling with opening the road for two consecutive days, which has seen a run of five different winners in five consecutive events with Jari-Matti Latvala, Hayden Paddon, Kris Meeke and Thierry Neuville all joining Ogier in the 2016 winners circle. In Poland, we incredibly witnessed the sixth different winner in as many events, but it wasn't who we were expecting. It was Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen who took his second career victory after finishing second in Poland the last two years, and his first WRC win with co-driver Anders Jaeger. This result moved Mikkelsen back into second in the drivers standings, 51 points behind Ogier and 20 ahead of Paddon. Ott Tanak and Raigo Molder however were the ones in control of the event, impressing in their DMACK Ford Fiesta RS WRC, leading the event up until the penultimate stage where his lead of 20 seconds was wiped out by a puncture. He was cruelly denied of his maiden WRC win through no fault on his own, but he still took a career best second place. Hayden Paddon and John Kennard took third overall after two retirements on the last two rallies, making this a much needed result for the New Zealander. However, he only just clung onto his podium as Thierry Neuville finished just 0.8 seconds behind his team mate after struggling with his pace notes at the start of the event. Jari-Matti Latvala struggled for confidence early on but rediscovered his mojo to take fifth overall, ahead of team mate Sebastien Ogier, who for the first time since Rally Spain last year where he crashed out of the lead on the final stage. Seventh went to Craig Breen and Scott Martin after an enthralling battle between him and Abu Dhabi Total WRT team mates Stephane Lefebvre and Gabin Moreau, in what is expected to be a battle for a Citroen factory seat in 2017. Breen did his best to play the contest down while Lefebvre did the opposite, but the net result was seventh for Breen and ninth for Lefebvre as the French driver broke his suspension on the final day when the weather turned from sunny to wet, muddy and treacherous. Mads Ostberg was far off the pace in Poland, spending most of the rally behind his less experienced team mate Eric Camilli, but profited from rivals' misfortunes to take eighth. Camilli broke his suspension to take ninth, while Dani Sordo ended his run of four consecutive fourth place finishes with retirement as he too damaged his car. WRC2 winner Teemu Suninen took tenth. The WRC returns at the end of the month for the second half of the season, starting with the roller coaster ride that is the Neste Oil Rally Finland. Will we see a seventh different winner?
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January 2018
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