Australia: Ogier wins his 6th title, Latvala wins

Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport) n’aura pas eu à attendre l’arrivée du Rally from Australia to enjoy his 6th world title. The new six-time champion WRC saw all risk disappear following the consecutive abandonments of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and Ott Tänak (Toyota) qui ont mis pied à terre suite à un contact avec un arbre. Cela fait désormais 15 ans que le titre Pilotes revient à un Français après le sacre de Petter Solberg en 2003.

“This season has been so hard and it all came down to two stages. Well done to the team, they are the best! I wanted to have fun in the last few kilometers with the Ford, but I hope I won’t miss it! We said to ourselves at one point that it would be hard to win this title, but we never gave up. A special thank you to Malcolm Wilson, I am very proud of him”, declared the future Citroën driver at the finish of the event who also won the scratch in the Power Stage.

Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) won his only victory of the season, the 18th of his WRC career and his first in Australia, more than half a second ahead of Hayden Paddon (Hyundai). Toyota won the Manufacturers' title with 4th place for Esapekka Lappi who finished behind the Citroën C3 WRC of Mads Ostberg.

Sébastien Ogier arrived in 5th place, ahead of his teammates Elfyn Evans and Teemu Suninen. Craig Breen (Citroën) completed the ranking of the first WRC crews in 8th place.

Drivers' championship points – Confirmation of the final points for the top three:
1. Ogier – 219
2. Neuville – 201
3. Tanak – 181 #WRC

— WRC (@OfficialWRC) November 18, 2018

Discover the analysis of the Rally Australia in AUTO issue 2192hebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.