Photo Credit: Volkswagen Motorsport As is normally tradition, Wales Rally GB brought the curtain down on the 2015 World Rally Championship season, a season dominated by Sebastien Ogier and his VW team. It seems only fitting then that it should be Ogier who controlled the muddy, windy, treacherous affair from start to finish. However, it was anything but straight-forward for the now 32 time WRC winner. It wasn't his WRC rivals giving him a particularly hard time though. Latvala ditched his Polo R on stage 2 and suffered transmission problems on day 2 so was never in the reckoning for a top finish. Team mate Mikkelsen drove a solid rally, but he came his customary position of 3rd, behind a great performance from Northern Ireland's Kris Meeke. The reason it was far from straight-forward for Ogier was due to the horrific events that unfolded in Paris on Friday night. It was clearly playing on the Frenchman's mind, as he revealed that he almost considered pulling out of the rally altogether, but decided it was a better sign of strength to carry on and win for the people. That he did, and there wasn't even an ounce of celebration from him as he claimed his 8th win of the season. Instead, he simply held the French flag with co-driver Julien Ingrassia across the windscreen of his Polo. Quite beautiful in a way, and was interesting to see as it's a side of a sporting champion we don't often get to see. Photo Credit: Citroen Racing Despite the dampened atmosphere and muted podium celebrations, there was still plenty to smile about for Kris Meeke and Citroen Racing, who courtesy of the Brit's first ever 2nd place finish at world level, held off Hyundai Motorsport for 2nd in the Manufacturers Championship. The battle looked to be easily won after Friday as Mads Ostberg held 4th position, but a puncture and a costly mistake for the Norwegian meant he finished 7th, behind the Hyundai's of Sordo and Paddon, but it was still enough for the French marque to slot in behind VW in the table. There are still plenty of positives for Hyundai though. The disastrous late season form of lead driver Thierry Neuville aside, it has been a solid season, going toe to toe with the best team in the WRC of the last 10 years, and of course there has been the rise to stardom of second team driver Hayden Paddon, who looks to be one to watch in the next few years. As for M-Sport, it was another rally of mixed fortunes with a sense of what might have been. Ott Tanak held 4th place on Sunday morning, only to lose it when he clipped something on the edge of the road which damaged his Fiesta RS beyond repair. Home hero Elfyn Evans suffered a puncture on Friday, and if it weren't for that could easily have finished in the top 4. He still held onto 6th place though to finish just 1 point behind Thierry Neuville in the championship. Photo Credit: Subaru Rally Aside from the main WRC action, there was the small matter of celebrating Colin McRae's World title success, which of course came exactly 20 years ago in 1995. I say small loosely however, as there was a collection of Colin's cars, race suits and other exclusive memorabilia in the service park at Deeside and a unique entry from Subaru USA, who entered David Higgins in a brand new NR4 spec Subaru WRX STI in the iconic livery McRae had in 1995 (pictured above). It is the newest rally car in the world, so you can see why I'm tracking back on describing it as small! It was a sight to behold on the stages to see a Subaru with such a distinctive and classic livery, and it was quick too as Higgins claimed 20th place overall, winning the Group N class by 5 minutes! So that's WRC 2015 over, but in little over 2 months we will be back again for 2016 on the historic Monte-Carlo Rally! A few drivers are yet to be confirmed, so keep an eye out on this blog for updates and features when that news comes!
Coming soon is also a WRC 2015 Review, so go and like my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter (@lukebarry97) for updates!
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January 2018
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