The 2013 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) has reached the halfway point, and Volkswagen looks to be tightening its grip on the event. Sébastien Ogier won the Rally d’Italia, his fourth rally win this year after Sweden, Mexico and Portugal, and it’s VW’s fifth win in the seven rallies contested so far.
Ogier, in the Polo R WRC, finished 1m 16.8s over Ford’s Thierry Neuville, and increased his and co-driver Julien Ingrassia’s lead in the driver/co-driver rankings to 64 points. Volkswagen team colleagues Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila finished third in spite of having dropped back to twelfth place due to a flat tyre during the first stage.
The result puts the two Finns – winners in Greece – in second place in the championship rankings at 90 points, with Neuville in third at 70 points, pushing past semi-retired legend Sebastian Loeb, who is at 68 points. Of course, Loeb is scheduled to contest only four rounds of the WRC, and having done three (won two, Monte-Carlo and Argentina), that’s not even the least bit bad.
In the manufacturers’ standings after Sardinia, Volkswagen leads the table with 220 points, 46 ahead of defending champions Citroën. Looks like Sébastien may be a very good first name for a rally driver.
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not too bad a first name for an f1 driver too
P1 for ex F1 star Robert Kubica in WRC2.