Ogier Claims Rally Germany Win
Sebastien Ogier's victory on Rally Germany helped the German manufacturer lock-out the three steps of the podium, with Ogier securing his 30th World Rally Championship win in the process, despite team mate Latvala clawing back some time on Sunday morning, and winning the powerstage, Ogier cruised home to win by 23 seconds.
Andreas Mikkelsen scored third after suffering a scare on Sunday morning as Dani Sordo reduced the gap on the two early stages but despite testing new differential settings for Cosica, the Norwegian was able to hold off the charging Spaniard's Hyundai to conclude Sunday's action.
Fourth proved Sordo's best finish of the year and he also took a point from the powerstage. Thierry Neuville was inconsistent throughout the rally, with last year's winner struggling with the i20, with understeer through the 28-mile Panzerplatte stage costing the Belgian a large amount of time and just behind Neuville, Elfyn Evans was the only non-VW driver to win a stage.
He suffered from set-up and brake issues on Saturday, but delivered at times the best pace of any of the rest. Mads Ostberg had a typically steady weekend, managing seventh behind Evans. He took over the position from Evans' M-Sport team-mate Ott Tanak, who went off on Saturday afternoon and struggled to get the Ford Fiesta going again.
Ostberg's Citroen team-mate Kris Meeke experienced another difficult weekend. A trip off the road while pushing Mikkelsen for third on Friday led to a 10-minute delay after a compression strut broke and two points for second on the powerstage was little consolation for a driver fighting for his seat at Citroen next year.
Robert Kubica was never a factor: incurring a five-minute pre-rally penalty for an engine change, losing another five minutes when a trip through a vineyard meant he had to smash his windscreen to see on Friday afternoon and then hitting one of the infamous hinkelsteins on Saturday.
Final Results after SS21:
Pos.... Driver.... Team.... Car.... Gap
1 Sebastien Ogier Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 3h35m49.5s
2 Jari-Matti Latvala Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 23.0s
3 Andreas Mikkelsen Volkswagen Motorsport II Volkswagen 1m56.6s
4 Dani Sordo Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 2m09.3s
5 Thierry Neuville Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 2m33.8s
6 Elfyn Evans M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 2m52.1s
7 Mads Ostberg Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 3m12.5s
8 Ott Tanak M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 4m26.6s
9 Hayden Paddon Hyundai Motorsport N Hyundai 4m46.8s
10 Stephane Lefebvre Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 4m54.5s
23rd August, 2015