Ogier completes dominant Poland win

sebastienogier

The Volkswagen driver headed into Sunday's final four stages with a healthy advantage, and was able to seal victory by a comfortable one minute and 7.7 seconds over team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen.

Mikkelsen had been locked in a tense battle with Ogier earlier in the event, but the Norwegian made a series of errors and encountered brake problems on Saturday to curtail his hopes.

Ogier now has a 50-point lead over Jari-Matti Latvala in the standings, and he was thrilled to take another step towards retaining his title. 

"I think it was the perfect weekend for me," he said. "I am really happy - victory and a good step for the championship [too]. The stages were good fun and high speed."

Despite his disappointment at missing out on top spot, Mikkelsen was able to cruise to second place, and he reflected on a solid weekend.

"It has been a great weekend for me," Mikkelsen commented. "I really enjoyed the stages. We battled hard with Seb [Ogier]. It was a shame we lost time yesterday with the brakes and a mistake from me, but still a very positive weekend." 

The biggest intrigue on the final day was whether Latvala could regain ground after losing time on Saturday due to suspension trouble.

The Finn had already been struggling for pace before those problems, and he was sixth heading into Sunday's stages.

He soon usurped Hyundai's Juho Hanninen into fifth, and quickly set about gunning down Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and Mikko Hirvonen (M-Sport Ford) who were third and fourth respectively.

Despite Latvala's valiant effort, Neuville pulled clear to claim the final spot on the podium, while Hirvonen managed to scrape fourth by just seven tenths of a second.

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