Despite the best efforts of Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala, Sébastien Ogier has been crowned WRC Champion for the second consecutive year. The Frenchman drove a faultless, even clever event, and while it would have been a really great ending to the season for the drivers' championship to have been decided on the final round in Wales, it wasn't to be.
So, sincere congratulations are due to SebO and Julien for their performance this season. With both drivers' and manufacturers' titles under their belts, VW Motorsport can look on their victory in 2014 as a hard-fought reward in an unrelenting competition, helped in no small part by having arguably the best drivers and the best cars. All three crews have been re-signed for next year's competition.
J-ML can take much solace in defeat with his resurgence this season. A new positivity, undoubted speed and competitiveness, all contributing to a performance that has shown that in driving ability, he's at least Ogier's equal, quite probably his superior (Latvala won 8 stages in Spain as opposed to Ogier's 4). Only in the tactical area does he concede to the world champ and it's clearly the area he'll concentrate on going into next year. 2015 will be very interesting.
The Rally of Spain was fascinating to observe. It's an unusual format, the mixed surfaces delivering a unique combination of challenges and opportunities, as the drivers were constantly reminded while the event unrolled across the three days. To say that the teams found it tough is an understatement, but that's part of what makes the WRC such an interesting competition for both fans and competitors alike.
So to the highlights...
EVENTFUL FRIDAY
Complaints from SebO about road-sweeping were notably absent after the day's opening stages, despite the gravel surface. The Frenchman had to cope with sweeping the loose, but that was much less problematic than the hanging dust and low sun that affected the drivers who followed him during the first loop. So Ogier was able to take advantage and build what was to be an unassailable 36 second lead at the end of the rally's first day.
Kris Meeke won the day's opener but two punctures on the following stage with only a single spare onboard forced the Northern Irishman to retire on the next liaison section. Sadly for Meeke's teammate Mads Osberg, he had the misfortune to be the next competitor, and the slow pace of Kris coupled with his Citroen's dust caused the Norwegian significant time loss and he dropped a place,
SS3 was won by New Zealander Hayden Paddon, his first stage victory at the top level of WRC and the first by a Kiwi since 1999. Tragically for the rookie, a mistake on the first corner of the following stage caused an impact that punctured two tyres and resulted in a massive six minute time loss.
However, the Kiwi still showed his class on the loose stuff with three 4th fastest times before having a spectacular moment on SS7 which saw him clout a bank and spin 360º while airborne. The impact damaged a wheel and his time suffered as a result. But Paddon was unfazed by the mistakes and promised to continue searching for competitive times.
Thierry Neuville had held first place overall at the end of SS3, thanks to his two third fastest times and the Belgian was just 4.6" behind Ogier at the end of SS6 following a stage win and 2nd and 3rd fastest times, but a mistake on SS7 saw him hit a bank and puncture, with the loss of 2' 20".
Elwyn Evans retired for the day following a series of mishaps, the last of which punctured the Fiesta's radiator.
Local hero Dani Sordo had been competitive until his co-driver misread a start time, and the Hyundai pairing lost 30" to their competitors.
SIMILAR SATURDAY
Having completed their cars' conversion to tarmac specification overnight, the teams rolled out for the first day of tarmac competition.
Even before the opening of SS8, the drama began - Robert Kubica's Fiesta suffered a failed rear diff due to, reports say, the Pole heating his tyres on the liaison section. The crew completed the stage but their time suffered substantially. The decision was made by M-Sport that they continue if possible and they eventually made it through the morning's stages and into service and badly needed repairs.
Jari-Matti Latvala won SS8, a big confidence boost to the Finn who had uncharacteristically underperformed on the previous day. The Margin over his teammate Ogier was only 0.1 seconds though - Latvala would have to do even better, And he made good with two further fastest times on the morning loop.
The unlucky Kris Meeke clipped a rock while cutting a corner and punctured, the tyre change adding another two minutes to the ten minute Rally2 penalty from his previous day's retirement. Despite the misfortune, the Brit confirmed his commitment to learning and going for fast times.
Surprise of the day was Mikko Hirvonen's new-found pace, as he moved steadily up the order to finish the day in third outright.
Hayden Paddon struggled with his lack of tarmac experience and testing, and he was having trouble adapting to the new composition tarmac tyres, used for the first time this year. His competitors had enjoyed the benefit of Germany and France as recent experience yet the Kiwi was still clearly disappointed that his times weren't closer. Changes to the i20 at service appeared to help somewhat, and his times picked up during the latter half of the day. Having started the day in 14th overall, Paddon moved steadily up the rankings to 9th at day's end.
Andreas Mikkelsen, who had seemed comfortable with third in his battle with Hirvonen, stopped to replace a punctured tyre which cost him two and a half minutes and dropped the quick Norwegian down to seventh.
Kubica, having survived the broken differential of the morning loop, then ripped the Fiesta's right front wheel off just 5km from the end of the day's final stage. M-Sport announced that they would repair the car and continue under Rally 2 regs. So Kubica's run of self-inflicted retirements continues in spite of his undeniably good stage times in Spain and his obvious improvement in pacenote skills.
Czech rally champion, Martin Prokop, had to stop on the final stage with what he believed was a puncture, but inspection suggested it was a damaged driveshaft instead. Although he was able to complete the stage and reach service for repair, the three minute stop threatened his 8th place, the fast improving Paddon by then just 57.5 seconds in arrears.
SUNDAY TIMES
In spite of the heroic efforts by Latvala the previous day, Ogier had done enough to secure a 27 second lead overnight and it was clear to all that the Finn's only hope was for some misfortune to befall the Frenchman. As history records, no such misfortune occurred and even though Latvala won every remaining stage, Ogier won the event with 11 seconds to spare, confirming his status as the WRC Champion for 2014.
Surprise third podium position of the event went to the inspired Mikko Hirvonen who at last appeared to enjoy his job and set about elevating himself to the kind of place that his talent and experience always suggested he belongs. M-Sport are understandably happy and relieved at the result.
Citroen's Mads Ostberg never managed to recover from his day one dust cloud and balking by teammate Meeke, but completed the event in fourth. He could well have taken the third podium spot with a smidgeon more luck, having driven a well-paced and studied drive.
The Hyundai Shell WRT people had reason to feel disappointed with their result though - Neuville and Sordo, particularly, would have expected to have finished higher in the standings given their tarmac specialist status - but Paddon also, as he'd spoken of how well the PET on tarmac had gone prior to the start in Spain.
All three drivers commented on the excessive understeer they had experienced over the two tarmac days, Paddon reporting that he'd used the handbrake 30 - 40 times on a single stage as the only way he could get the i20 to turn in. Clearly there was a mismatch between the chassis setup and the new tyres. Sordo finished 5th overall with team leader Neuville a place behind.
VW's Mikkelsen had what was for him a poor event. He's regularly demonstrated his speed on recent rallies and had managed two stage wins over the weekend, so his 7th place would have left him disappointed. The top 10 were completed by Martin Prokop, Paddon and Yuri Protasov.
WHAT WE LEARNED
WRC Spain will be remembered as the event where Sébastien Ogier became World Champion for the second time and the event where Mikko got his mojo back. Where Hayden Paddon proved he was as fast on gravel as any current WRC driver. Where Robert Kubica proved to his fans that despite his native pace, he's temperamentally unsuited to top level WRC.
And it proved forever the utter folly of short final days in the WRC - only 70-odd km vs 140-160km on the previous days. Had the final day had the same competitive distance as those previous days, it would have had the kind of drama that the WRC Promoter and WRC Commission are so desperate for, there being sufficient kms left for J-ML to have perhaps overhauled Ogier and would have ensured the Frenchman wasn't in a position to just "cruise" to protect his position.
So WRC administrators, if you're genuine about making the competition more exciting, dump this ridiculous short final day trend. The competitors and fans will thank you for it.
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