Sébastien Ogier finished fifth at Kennards Hire Rally Australia on Sunday, but the finish was more than good enough kick off a celebration, as top championship contenders Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak each crashed out and failed to finish.
Ogier came into the final rally of the season with a slim three-point lead over Neuville and 20 points over Tänak — giving each challenger hopes of ending one of racing's greatest championship runs. In the end, Ogier cruised to the championship with 219 points. As fof Neuville and Tänak, who both finished out of the points in Australia, Neuville finished 18 points back in second, and Tänak finished a distant third, 38 points behind Ogier.
The championship was the sixth straight for Ogier, who has wonh eace WRC championship since 2013 and moved to within three titles of rally legend Sébastien Loeb on the WRC all-time championships list.
Jari-Matti Latvala won the final rally of the WRC season. He finished a comfortable 32.5 seconds ahead of Haydon Paddon. First-leg leader Mads Østberg was third in a Citroën C3, despite hitting a tree and peeling the rear right door panel off his car.
Esapekka Lappi fourth and Ogier fifth. No needing to push down the stretch, Ogier was 2 minutes, 30.8 seconds behind the leader in his bid for what would have been his 45th career win.
"It’s been an incredible season, so close," Ogier said. "Not so long ago, we were thinking it was going to be tough to grab this title but we never gave up. We gave everything, with a fantastic team behind us who kept fighting and in the end we grabbed it in the last rally. It’s so emotional."
Ogier’s calmness shone through after heavy rain transformed the gravel forest roads into a muddy mess. He was faultless while both Neuville and overnight leader Tänak escaped contact with the scenery during the final morning’s opening three speed tests. However, Neuville's Hyundai i20 was sent to the sidelines three stages from the finish after swiping a bank and ripping a rear wheel. In the next test Tänak slithered into a tree and his Toyota Yaris ground to a halt with no drive.
Ogier could afford a celebratory drive through the final Power Stage in the knowledge the championship was already secured in his final appearance in M-Sport’s Ford Fiesta before switching to Citroën in 2019.
Tänak’s first trip into the trees handed the lead to teammate Latvala and Tanak's exit helped to give Latavala his first victory since February 2017. It also preserved his record of winning at least one WRC rally in every season since 2008.
Toyota Gazoo Racing won the manufactures' title in its second season back in the WRC after a 17-year absence.
“It has been too long, almost two very long years. I was losing hope that I would win a rally but these tricky conditions went my way,” said Latvala.
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