Not as easy as it looks claims Wolff
SEBASTIEN Ogier clinched his fourth successive World Rally Championship for Volkswagen on Sunday after winning in Spain.
Ogier’s title was the 13th in a row by a French driver called Sebastien, with compatriot Sebastien Loeb winning a record nine consecutively before him with Citroën between 2004 and 2012.
The Volkswagen driver had needed 16 points to be sure of the title – effectively third place and one of three bonus points available – but in the end his comfortable victory in last weekend’s Rally of Catalunya made all such calculations unnecessary.
The victory, on the championship’s only mixed surface rally with gravel and asphalt stages, was DUCATI’S Chaz Davies continued his late-season charge by dominating both World Superbike races at Spain’s Jerez circuit on the weekend.
The Welshman took his ninth win of the season to maintain the momentum that saw him win five out of the last six races after the summer break.
At Jerez he won Saturday’s race with a comfortable 3.3 second gap while his victory in Sunday’s race was by an even more dominant 5.9 seconds.
He was followed over the finish the 37th of Ogier’s career and fifth of the season.
Ogier now has an unassailable 222 points in the championship. Lying in joint second place are his VW team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen, who clipped a barrier and rolled his Polo while running third in Spain on Saturday, and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville now level on 127 points. The 32-year-old Frenchman equalled the achievements of Finland’s Tommi Makinen, who also won four titles in a row between 1996 and 1999, and Juha Kankkunen as quadruple champions. Only Loeb has won more.
The next round is in Britain on October 27-30, with the final rally to be held in Australia in November. – Reuters line in both races by Kawasaki racing duo Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes. Sykes was second in Saturday’s race ahead of his team-mate, with the roles reversed in Sunday’s 20-lapper.
Kawasaki clinched the Manufacturers’ Championship on Saturday but the riders title will be decided at the season finale in Qatar on October 29 and 30.
Only the two Kawasaki riders are in contention but Rea is the overwhelming favourite, with a 48-point lead over Sykes.
– Motoring Staff WITH just four races remaining in the 2016 Formula One season, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that winning the Constructors’ Championship wasn’t as easy as last year, claiming that their rivals have gained some ground on them.
Despite enjoying a 208 point lead after the Japan Grand Prix a fortnight ago, Wolff was adamant that the standings don’t tell the full story as it was one of the most challenging seasons that they have encountered in recent times.
He also added that the regulation changes set for next year could make the battle for P1 even more interesting.
“It wasn’t as dominant of a season as it was last year, and for me it’s just the fact of diminishing returns with the stable regulation,” he explained.
“It’s what we always said, leave the regulations and leave the rules alone and the performance gap is going to shrink and eventually we’re going to have some good racing”.
With the Constructors’ title settled, Nico Rosberg heads to this weekend’s US Grand Prix in Austin with a 33 point lead over his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with a maximum of 100 still up for grabs. – Motoring Staff