Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia made it. At the ACI Rally Monza Italy they took victory number 5 of their season and were fully awarded WRC world champions for the eighth and probably last time in their extraordinary career.
The French crew managed to outdo their rivals for the event victory and for the title, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, who finished second in both rankings. For Ogier and Ingrassia this is the eighth title of their careers, climbing to second place of all time in the ranking of the most titled drivers in 4-wheel motorsport. In front of them, only Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena.
The fight between Ogier and Evans was very beautiful, which lasted the whole race with continuous leadership changes throughout the day on Saturday. Ogier, however, got the better of the decisive tests, also taking advantage of a couple of errors by Evans in the penultimate test. Here, therefore, materialize the fifth success of 2021, the 54th of their amazing career. The only thrill for Ogier at the third to last test of the day, in which he hit a concrete bollard ruining the rim and rubber, but not – incredibly – the right front suspension (photo).
Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC
Photo by: WRC.com
Now the transalpine crew will celebrate properly and then separate. Ingrassia will retire, while Ogier will continue in the WRC but part time, sailed by Benjamin Veillas. But this is the future. The present still sees them as the best of all and not even a lavish Evans in the latter part of the season has managed to stop them.
The second place of the Welshman is the clear picture of a season in which, until September, he never managed to worry Ogier except in Portugal. Then, thanks to various factors that led Séb to be much less mentally present during the last few races, he managed to recover many points on his teammate, but in the decisive moment Ogier and Ingrassia made the difference once again.
Thanks to an Ogier-Evans brace and Kalle Rovanpera’s ninth cover position, Toyota Racing achieved the Constructors’ World Championship. This, at the Japanese House, had been missing for 3 years. A title that arrived not only thanks to performance, but above all to a reliability that bordered on perfection. Here is the difference between Toyota and Hyundai, with the latter having excelled in performance, but had so many reliability problems that did not allow it to defend the two consecutive championships centered in the past two years.
However, the podium was completed by an i20 Coupé WRC, that of Dani Sordo and Candido Carrera. The Spaniards controlled the podium position well after receiving it from team mates Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe. The Belgian made a mistake in yesterday’s PS9 where he damaged his i20. For this he lost his position in favor of Sordo.
Fifth place for an excellent Oliver Solberg. The young Swede ends the year with a truly over the top performance, which bodes well for his future and that of Hyundai. A splendid fifth place, the best result of his career in the first year – part time – at the wheel of a WRC Plus car.
Solberg showed an important and constant speed. In almost all the specials he remained within the Top 6, therefore a truly perfect weekend. Sixth place instead for Teemu Suninen, who climbed all the way through the weekend on his first outing with Hyundai Motorsport. Suninen took the place of Ott Tanak (unavailable) and showed good things.
Takamoto Katsuta lost sixth place in the penultimate round, breaking the left rear suspension against a concrete bollard. The Japanese was in full recovery and was planning to finish in fifth place. But the mistake limited him. Fortunately for him, between the penultimate and the last special there was a Service, in which the team managed to fix his Yaris and make him finish the race.
Gus Greensmith finished eighth with a good race. Recall that the British raced with the new co-driver Jonas Andersson, while Adrien Fourmaux, his teammate in M-Sport, was forced to retire due to an accident on the first day of the race.
WRC2: Huttunen wins immediately with the Fiesta Rally2 M-Sport
Jari Huttunen immediately wins his debut in WRC2 at the wheel of the Ford Fiesta Rally2 of the M-Sport team. The Finn, after spending several months with Hyundai and developing the i20 N Rally2, moved on to racing for the British team this weekend and immediately hit the big time.
Jari was perfect to take advantage of the bad luck and mistakes of the TokSport team drivers and to take home the victory in the last round of the season. Andreas Mikkelsen, former 2021 champion of the category, finished second but was held back by a puncture on the first day of the race that made him lose the leadership.
Marco Bulacia Wilkinson was forced to retire yesterday after having damaged his Skoda Fabia Rally2 while he was at the top of the WRC2 standings.
WRC3: Crugnola sumptuous, Rossel world champion at the last!
Amazing tenth place overall for our Andrea Crugnola, who was also the best driver at the wheel of a Rally2 car. The Varese driver from Hyundai Italy led the i20 N Rally2 to win the WRC3 classification with a sumptuous race, culminating today in a great comeback.
Also worth mentioning is Yohan Rossel, winner of the WRC3 world title at the wheel of the Citroen C3 Rally2 after a truly excellent season. Today the Frenchman grabbed the title at the very last round of the event, beating Kajetan Kajetanowicz by a whisker.
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