It was a gamble that quite simply didn't pay off. Jari-Matti's tyre choice for Saturday's afternoon stages left the Finn 10.3 seconds adrift of World Champion Sebastien Ogier, the Frenchman able to put another 1.5 seconds on his VW teammate on the evening's super specials.
Ah, but what could have been...
In a sense, Ogier's decision to go with his tyre choice was also a gamble, given that the day was forecast to deliver rain, and it didn't eventuate, but J-ML had the worst of the setups and SebO took a lead into day 3, somewhat against the run of play. Not a huge lead, but enough that Jari-Matti was forced to push whereas Ogier could monitor the splits and only had to react to whatever the Finn was doing.
So what was surely the end of Latvala's challenge for the 2014 drivers' title was a rather sad outcome given how enthralling Rally Australia was this year.
The results are well known now, so repeating all the action here serves no useful purpose. Suffice to say that both Meeke and Neuville scored an own goal in Oz and they will both be ruing their errors. Meeke was basically guaranteed a podium before he cut a corner deeper than he'd planned and copped a one minute penalty which demoted him to the battle for fourth instead.
Hyundai's lead driver and Rally Germany winner slid wide and collected a rock on SS5, damaging his suspension. It cost the Belgian nearly two minutes, dropping him to tenth place from the fourth postion he'd held until then.
The rest of the competitors fought their own battles, some which were so exciting that you had to wonder what the WRC promoters were smoking when they decided to tinker with the format and introduce the artificial "excitement" aids for 2015. Thankfully, during the event the FIA announced that it hasn't accepted the modifications as proposed and basically the WRC will continue in much the same vein next year as for this year. Big sigh of relief all round, then...
New Zealand's rookie WRC driver impressed again, finishing the rally in sixth place overall, beating Hyundai teammates Neuville and Atkinson into the bargain. But that alone doesn't really do justice to the Kiwi's performance. He outshone drivers with much more cred and experience with stage times that he probably shouldn't be able to deliver, given that Rally Australia was just his fourth drive in a full-spec WRC car, and one that has still to match those from Ford, Citroen and VW in terms of performance.
The big surprise came from the Kiwi crew's performance against Citroen's Ostberg, trading stage times (10 "wins" each) with the much more experienced Norwegian pairing. For a New Zealander to watch his countrymen in a hugely competitive battle with one of the world's best rally exponents added a level of excitement for me on the Australian WRC round that can't be understated. In an interview with WRC TV, Mads paid the New Zealanders the compliment of taking their threat to his placing seriously, so it's clear that Paddon and Kennard have arrived!
In fact, they're doing so well that we're beginning to take for granted that it should be the norm for them to over-perform every time they start.
But that would be unfair - Elfyn Evans, M-Sport's rookie driver, has no such expectation asked of him. On the contrary, the rally press is always at great pains to remind us that Evans too is in his first year in top-level WRC, and his development is invariably met with supportive comment from the sport's pundits. I hope that courtesy will also be offered to Hayden, considering that he has competed in fewer than half as many events at this level as his Welsh fellow competitor.
And I'm also hopeful that we'll see both of these talented young men continuing to compete against each other with full-time drives in 2015. M-Sport's Wilson is reported to have confirmed that Evans will have a full calendar in the new year, but Paddon's future seems much less clear.
Perhaps in the days following Rally Oz we'll have the definitive answer, although as I write this, there's an unconfirmed suggestion that Hyundai will again field a three car team, with Neuville and Sordo under the manufacturer banner and Paddon as the third driver under the N motorsport banner. We'll see...
Volkswagen Motorsport have achieved a spectacular milestone with their 1, 2, 3 finish at Rally Australia and retaining the manufacturer's crown for 2015. Ogier's battle with Latvala was a joy to behold - edge of the seat excitement, and both competitors worthy potential victors. That SebO won is not to diminish Jari-Matti's own brilliance. The Finn is such a force this season, and while his chance for the drivers' championship has to all intents gone now, he will doubtless win again before the year ends.
Mikkelsen as always delivered some very fine stage times and his own battle with Kris Meeke was great to watch. I expect Andreas to top the podium in the near future, and it can't be long before Kris also joins the winners' club.
The WRC is a great competition right now and long may that continue!
Kubica's Korner
"Oops, I did it again..."
Robert Kubica's less than exemplary WRC career has recorded its latest glitch - the Pole pranged his M-Sport-run, Lotos-backed Fiesta WRC RS on SS12 of Rally Oz, the off costing him more than a minute, although he still managed to pick up a couple of championship points at the end of the event.
This incident was apparently caused by a yellow warning light on the Fiesta's dash distracting the driver and causing him to miss a braking point. The upside is that he was capable of continuing with little real damage and no other penalties, but the privateer just wasn't able to demonstrate the outright pace he's shown on other rallies this season.
But M-Sport boss Wilson was full of praise for Kubica's improved gravel performance on the Australian event. Not his best effort perhaps, but good pacenote practice and stage-learning for the future.
Fingers crossed for France...
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