Ogier posts High Five in Finland

Sebastien Ogier is well on target to winning this year’s World Rally Championship with a controlled victory at the Neste Oil Rally Finland.

It’s the Volkswagen driver’s fifth win of the season and 12th of his career victory and he is now 90 clear in the title fight.

The Frenchman finish 36.6sec ahead of Thierry Neuville (Belgium) with the fellow Ford Fiesta RS of Norway’s Mads Ostberg another 21 secs back, after an enthralling duel which was only decided when Ostberg went off the road in the penultimate stage.

“I had a dream about winning here,” said Ogier, who is just the fifth non-Nordic driver to win this classic event.

“A lot of points for the championship and victory in Finland make it a perfect weekend.

“We pushed when we had to and backed off when necessary to save the tyres and the car,” said an emotional Ogier, who ensured that for the third consecutive year the rally was won by a non-Finn after 53 wins for the host country in the previous 60 editions.

Neuville and Ostberg were locked together all day. The advantage swung to and fro and they started the second pass through the awesome Ouninpohja stage split by one-tenth of a second. But when Ostberg went off the road avoiding a huge rock, the battle was decided.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Neuville.

“We did a great job. Yesterday we lost time with a puncture but otherwise it was a smooth, clean run. Before the rally I couldn’t have imagined this result was possible.”

Mikko Hirvonen came into the event with high expectations and a fourth place finish would be seen as a disappointment to him and the fanatical Finnish fans.

Kris Meeke was on course for fifth in another DS3 after a fine debut in the car, but the Briton rolled out in the penultimate test. There was also late disappointment for Jarkko Nikara, who retired his Mini John Cooper Works from sixth with a broken front right shock absorber.

In WRC2 Jari Ketomaa took the win and also finished seventh outright after a successful debut for the new Fiesta R5. Former F1 pilot Robert Kubica was second with Kiwi Hayden Paddon rounding out the podium.

“We wanted to try and match out times against Esapekka Lappi and I think we’ve done ourselves justice on his home turf,” he said.

“We’re not back at 100 per cent yet, that’ll take more time because I’ve been away for a long time, but at long last we have a result on the board. Hopefully this is the start of more to come.”

VIDEO: Morning stages

VIDEO: Afternoon stages

FINAL Standings:

CHAMPIONSHIP Standings  -Drivers:

CHAMPIONSHIP Standings – Manufacturers: