BARCELONA, Spain - France's Sebastien Ogier took his second successive World Rally championship title for Volkswagen on Sunday (Oct 27 2014) by winning the Rally of Spain.
Ogier led led for most of the four-day event and beat Finnish team mate Jari-Matti Latvala by 11.3sec to retain the title with one round remaining.
The Frenchman, now the eighth man to
win multiple championship titles but only the fifth to claim consecutive titles,
now has 242 points to Latvala's 211.
VW EQUALS RECORD
The 30-year-old's only difficult moment came on Saturday when he was forced to drive 20km with a damaged tyre but he held on to register the 23rd victory of his career.
The win was VW’s 11th of the season and equalled the record set by Citroen in 2005 and 2008.
"It was my target at the start of the year to prove my title last year wasn't a one-off and I've done it," said Ogier. "I'm so happy. It's been a fantastic weekend. It was tough, I was pushing so hard on Day 1 and then it was a long two days on tarmac where I had to watch Jari-Matti flying.
"I had to be clever and watch him all the time. The car has been fantastic all weekend. Big thanks to VW for giving me such fantastic tools.
"That was the target of the season definitely - to prove that the first was no one-off. It's everything I wanted!"
Result from the Rally of Spain on Sunday
1 Sebastien Ogier
(France) Volkswagen 3hr46min44.6
2 Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland) Volkswagen +11.3sec
3 Mikko Hirvonen
(Finland) Ford +1min42.2
4 Mads Ostberg
(Norway) Citroen +2min13.3
5 Daniel Sordo
(Spain) Hyundai +2min22.2
6 Thierry Neuville
(Belgium) Hyundai +4min01.0
7 Andreas Mikkelsen
(Norway) Volkswagen +4min02.9
8 Martin Prokop
(Czech Republic) Ford +8min06.8
9 Hayden Paddon (New
Zealand) Hyundai +9min12.4
10 Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar) Ford +12min39.8