In the service park: David Evans

Wales Rally GB delivered a home winner in Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier’s fifth championship title, but what do their futures hold?

EMOTION. AND PETRUS. THOSE WERE THE TWO subjects Sebastien Ogier focused on in his post-event debrief with the media last Sunday night. The champ was tired, but on superb form. In truth, his mood after Wales Rally GB outshone his driving for at least two of the event’s three days.

Try as he might, Ogier couldn’t tune himself into typically tricky Welsh roads. He searched for rhythm and confidence as much as he sought grip from his Ford Fiesta WRC. Then he went off in Aberhirnant in the fog.

Remember when you were young and you were told to carry Granny’s cup and saucer through to the kitchen? Whatever you do, don’t drop them. The harder you focused, the more inevitable the crash of bone china meeting kitchen floor became. On Friday and Saturday, Ogier was carrying that cup and saucer. And on stage 15, they wobbled dangerously. But he caught them.

The front-left wheel was smashed and in need of urgent attention. The world title was wobbling. But, like world champion fighters the world over, Ogier relied on his instinct. It didn’t let him down.

He got through the next stage, got to service, then delivered that fifth crown. The moment that elevated him above such greats as Juha Kankkunen and Tommi Makinen could also be the moment that keeps him in the sport.

“What is beautiful for me is my emotion,” he said. “When I finished that last stage… I can’t explain, but in this short period of time, I have the strongest emotion I ever had in rallying. I don’t know why it was like this, why I felt like this. But I am happy I got this emotion, I’m happy this sport can still make me feel like this.” Ogier moved a long way towards considering a second season with M-sport on Sunday night.

And who could blame him? M-sport is Malcolm Wilson’s history-making band of privateers. At the start of the season, the Cumbrian talked of his desire to land his squad’s first drivers’ title in two decades at the sport’s cutting edge.

Manufacturers’ title, too? No. Not with Citroen’s red army apparently marching back into battle, and Hyundai fielding a team of drivers all of whom had won a world rally. And then there was Toyota and an allegedly limitless budget to turn the Yaris WRC into a winner. No. MW talked mid-table, at best.

Ogier won the Monte and there’s been a Fiesta WRC on the podium of every rally since. That sort of reliability and consistency wins championships. And M-sport walked this one.

“We’re not slowing down now,” Wilson said quietly on Sunday night. “We’ve got more to come. We want more.”

And nobody wants this to stop. The World Rally Championship has landed its very own David and Goliath(s) story. Forget David Sutton’s 1981 win with Ari Vatanen (the RS1800 was already a well-proven winner). Forget Kronos Racing and Sebastien Loeb in 2006 (the cars were fettled between events in Citroen’s Versailles factory). This is a genuine private win. This car was crafted in Cumbria and driven to the world’s four corners, where it reigned supreme.

Don’t get me wrong, without Ford, Wilson wouldn’t have had a car in the first place. But here’s hoping this staggering season of success for M-sport will bring a fairer division of the financial burden to rallying’s longest-standing alliance. Ford of Europe chief Gerard Quinn’s presence in Deeside got people talking. Quinn himself remained tight-lipped on the future, but he’s a man with rallying in his veins.

There was a similar reluctance to discuss the future of Wales’ very own superhero, Elfyn Evans. Given that he was five at the time, it was a fair assumption that Elfyn wouldn’t have recalled Colin Mcrae talking about his intentions after his first home win on the

1994 RAC. I informed Evans what the then Subaru star had said at Chester Racecourse 23 years ago. “I want to come back and fight for the championship next year,” the Scot reckoned.

I told Elfyn now would be a good time for him to say the same. He told me to stop putting words in his mouth. But then he agreed, it would be a good thing to say. Almost. “Can we say that’s what we’ve got to be aiming at?” he asked.

Works for me. Fact is, Evans in a Fiesta on Michelins will be a threat everywhere next year. His speed, consistency and self-belief will carry him to the top of the table in 2018.

Wilson agreed. Albeit slightly absentmindedly. Ogier, you see, had by this point on Sunday night reminded him of a topic discussed around the table between Mr and Mrs Wilson and their three drivers and co-drivers.

Wilson looked genuinely worried. Brow furrowed, he looked for a way out. “I didn’t say that, did I?”

Ogier laughed. “Malcolm, you said Petrus. So now we get started on the Petrus!” For clarity, they were talking about the Bordeaux Merlot, not the Belgian beer of the same name.

Champions, championships and world domination, like Chateau Petrus, don’t come cheap.

“We’re not slowing down now. We’ve got more to come. We want more”