Ogier closes on title with Germany win
Frenchman heads Volkswagen 1-2-3 on home event
Home win fuelled Ogier's German desire
Sébastien Ogier put Volkswagen’s desire for a maiden home victory ahead of his pursuit of a third consecutive drivers’ world title at ADAC Rallye Deutschland last weekend.
A sixth win of the season put Ogier within touching distance of the title. But he insisted his driving force on the German asphalt was to ensure Volkswagen finally won its home round of the FIA World Rally Championship after failing in the last two years.
Second for Jari-Matti Latvala and third for Andreas Mikkelsen gave the team a podium lockout and Ogier said it was the ideal way to banish the bad memories.
“It was a perfect rally and that was the target, to try to finally give a victory here to my team and I’m proud to achieve that. The third title is getting really close so that’s fantastic, but this weekend the interests of the team were bigger than mine,” he said.
“I had big motivation to correct the mistakes of the past and had a good feeling inside me. A good feeling doesn’t always give the best result, but that was the case. Rally drivers are egotistic, we think a lot about ourselves and our interests, but this week I really wanted to get it for the team.”
Ogier is the king of the live TV Power Stage, underlining his supremacy by claiming maximum bonus points from winning the final test at the last seven rounds. In Germany he had no desire to chase the points in the final Mosel vineyard test and finished sixth.
“I just wanted to finish. It would have been stupid to take a risk and break this fantastic 1-2-3. I wanted it so much for the team.
“For the team, target number one is the championship for manufacturers and drivers but the next target this year was to win the German rally. We promised it to the big boss at the end of last year and we kept this promise,” he said.
