A race at last in rallying
Should they be a creature of habit, the FIA’S engraver may slip up in November. For the first time in 15 years, they may not be writing ‘Sebastien’ on the World Rally Championship trophy. Imagine that. A non-frenchman winning the WRC…
A generation of rally fans have grown up thinking La Marseillaise is the World Rally Championship’s theme tune; the red, white and blue Tricolore its home colours and a given name of Sebastien a prerequisite for any would-be title winner. Not since a Subaru-driving Norwegian known as ‘Hollywood’ carved the words ‘Petter Solberg’ into the 2003 title has world motorsport’s most Seb-centred series been won anybody other than a Loeb or an Ogier.
Until now – perhaps.
Obviously, we’re still six rounds from home, but you would have to say this year’s drivers’ title is Thierry Neuville’s to lose. The Belgian (above) is 27 points clear of five-time title winner Ogier and it’s hard to think of a driver who has come close to bridging a divide so wide to claim the end-of-season crown.
Were roles reversed, you could crack the champagne right now; Ogier would not drop a 27-point lead across six rallies. Will Neuville? We’ll see. It’s impossible to say definitively; he’s never been here before – but he singularly failed to make the most of an advantage this time last year. When Ogier slapped his Ford Fiesta WRC against a Jukojarvi tree 11 months ago, Neuville was 19s off the lead in ninth place, but the event was only half a morning old. The bespectacled one had flown a Fiesta to second place just four years earlier, his speed through the Finnish forests beyond question. The talk over lunch that Friday was all about watching Neuville rise; he would win and walk away from Jyvaskyla with a 19-point lead over Ogier.
He finished sixth, headed to Saarbrucken level on points, shot himself in the foot in Germany and ended the year with a silver. A year on, there are still those questioning Neuville’s ability to finish the job.
If he can maintain the consistency he’s shown through the first half of the year and play to his and the Hyundai’s strengths, he can do it. He’s ahead; it’s the hunter who has the work to do. He can’t finish second to Ogier everywhere, but he can certainly take a more measured approach.
Ogier’s season has turned on two rallies: Sweden, where conditions worked 100% against him, turning his Fiesta into a glorified snowplough after winter arrived; and Portugal, where he turned in fractionally early, damaged the steering and went off the road. Five bonus points were rescued in Torsby, but everything – and possibly the title – was lost in Porto.
Ogier is rattled and on the ropes. Starting with Finland next month, we’ll see if Neuville possesses the power to finish the job, or if Ogier can stage a fightback befitting a five-time champion. Either way, we’re in for one heck of a ride through to New South Wales in November.