Except for any Frenchman connected with VW, Jari-Matti's win on his home event was probably the most popular victory of 2015. I still find myself breaking into random smile attacks even as the rally begins its inexorable fade from my memory. Honestly, I can't think of a better outcome from the round (except maybe Hayden Paddon doing the highly unlikely and taking the win as he completed his first full-season bag of thirteen WRC rallies as a works' driver).
Jari-Mati is a gentleman racer; honest, self-effacing, modest, yet also endowed with a talent for driving at speeds that would frighten the effluent from most of his competitors. And in Finland, the Finn flew in both the motorsport senses of the word. He was simply so quick that even that 'bastion' of self-belief, Seb Ogier, was prompted to declare that the best man won. Although how he could have claimed otherwise after Latvala's performance, would be stretching credulity.
However, despite his victory in Finland, Latvala's chances of wresting the WRC crown from his French teammate are virtually nil - with five rounds left in this year's championship and an 89 point deficit to Ogier, the numerical reality is that even if he were to win every round remaining and every Power Stage for a total of 140 points, the championship leader would have to score fewer than 52 points in total in order for Jari-Matti to do so. That's not a bet I would take.
Still, if J-ML were to win every round from here to Rally GB, it would certainly dent the confidence of the VW #1 while boosting his own confidence going into 2016. But we're realists at the end of the day, and while we might like to see something so extraordinary occur, it just ain't happening. And Jari-Matti would be the first to laugh it off as a fantasy.
So, even this far out from the end of the season, the result for the championship is a foregone conclusion - Ogier will be crowned for the third consecutive year. I'm calling it now, in spite of various improbable scenarios which involve SebO being run over by a tram, being attacked by galloping gangrene, spontaneously combusting or being told to stay home by his wife.
Well I suppose the latter is slightly more likely than the others...
The carnage I predicted prior to Rally Finland was a bit of fizzle. Yes, there were mechanical problems, Rally 2 re-starts and retirements, many more than in Poland, but really, not many more than the average WRC top-level action. Probably the saddest outcome of the event though was that once again, the final day was a fait a compli. The closest fight over those final two stages was between the VW #1 and #2 drivers, and with only 30km of stage distance to achieve something, it never looked like going any other way than at the end of SS18 the previous day.
I've said it before and here it comes again. This short final day is actually making the WRC less exciting, not more. Yes, I know it's down to the promoter shoehorning something to broadcast in a neat one-hour package in order to reach the TV audience, but their reasoning is flawed. A 60 minute special with no drama will sooner than later fail to attract the viewers, once they get used to nothing being decided. That outcome would have been signaled the previous day. Just as it was here in Finland, in fact.
I love this sport. Having competed in years past at national level as both a co-driver and driver, I doubt the passion will ever go. But I freely admit that the intensity of that passion for the WRC waxes and wanes with the closeness of the competition. When there are foregone conclusions as a matter of course, then my interest in the sport fades appreciably, so I can't imagine how boring it all must seem to those spectators and viewers who don't have the passion that I do.
What my gut tells me is that without genuine competitive uncertainty up to the last minute, World Rallying is going to struggle. It's time the FIA told the promoter to dump the "short Sunday" and make each day around the same competitive distance. Are you listening guys?
And on a similar topic... The Super Special stages, while a nifty way to get a mass of spectators who really know or care little for the WRC along to the event and in doing so impress the folk running the competition, they have bugger all to do with the championship. If you really must have Super Specials, at least make them relevant - make the results determine the running order for the top tier crews. Then there'd be something for the drivers to compete for and for the spectators to actually care about.
Edit: My maths were based on six remaining rounds when there are actually only five left. The figures have now been updated to reflect reality. Thanks for the correction from several sharp-eyed readers.
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