Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier secured his twelfth career victory today in Finland, tightening his grip on the FIA World Rally Championship with a 90 point cushion between himself and team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala.
Ogier, only the fifth non-Nordic driver to win here, controlled the rally from Friday afternoon eventually finishing with a lead of 36.6 seconds, ahead of the battling Ford duo of Thierry Neuville and Mads Ostberg. The Frenchman also picked up two bonus points on today’s power stage.
Andreas Mikkelsen, at the wheel of the #9 Polo R WRC, managed to finish tenth despite his car suffering a fault on Friday, while Latvala in the #7 Polo damaged his suspension on the second stage and could only manage 17th on the event with the consolation of a power stage point for his efforts.
“I had a dream about winning here. 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 ecstatic Ogier.
2013 Rally Finland results after 23 stages
1. Sebastien Ogier VW 2h43m10.4s
2. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford +36.6s
3. Mads Ostberg M-Sport Ford +57.6s
4. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen +1m21.6s
5. Dani Sordo Citroen +6m08.5s
6. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford +8m39.7s
7. Jari Ketomaa Autotek Ford +11m19.2s
8. PG Andersson AT Ford +11m41.5s
9. Robert Kubica PH Citroen +12m48.1s
10. Andreas Mikkelsen VW +13m42.0s
[Source: Volkswagen Motorsport]