A quick glance at the results suggests little changed in the World Rally Championship in 2013, with a man named Sbastien doing the bulk of the winning and nobody else really making a mark.
This time around, though, it was Sbastien Ogier—not nine-time WRC champion Loeb—on top following a dominant campaign in Volkswagen’s all-new Polo R World Rally Car.
Loeb—with a switch to the World Touring Car Championship planned for 2014—limited his WRC schedule with Citron to four events, thereby ruling out a push for a 10th world title.
The decision effectively left Ogier and Volkswagen to clean up as the younger Frenchman’s rivals failed to pose a significant season-long threat.
Never was this more apparent than at Citron; it was often a shadow of its former opposition-crushing self, particularly during the nine rounds Loeb skipped. Mikko Hirvonen, in his second season with the French team, failed to muster a solitary win—the first time since 2005. Dani Sordo, back with the red team after two years driving Minis, found himself out of sorts often. His breakthrough win in Germany came when Ogier retired after making a rare error, but he was benched for the trip to Australia.
Neither Hirvonen nor Sordo did their employment prospects much good in the season-closing Wales Rally Great Britain on Nov. 14-17, with Finn Hirvonen wrecking his DS3 in a high-speed crash, and Spaniard Sordo coming home a lackluster seventh. He would have been sixth if not for a five-minute time penalty. Yes, it was really that bad.
Briton Kris Meeke, the late WRC star Colin McRae’s former protg, replaced Sordo in Australia after impressing and then crashing in a third factory Citron
in Finland. He repeated this performance Down Under, effectively ruling out a last chance on Rally GB. He remains under consideration for a 2014 Citron seat, as do Hirvonen and Sordo, but his absence from his home WRC round remains a source of extreme frustration.
Citron turned instead to ex-Formula One racer Robert Kubica for the third DS3 WRC entry in Great Britain after the Pole had wrapped up the second-tier WRC 2 title in the previous round in Spain in the lower-spec DS3 Regional Rally Car.
With no prior event knowledge, limited running in his new car and a last-minute co-driver (and language) switch to contend with after season-long partner Maciej Baran called it quits, Kubica was always going to face the tallest of tall orders. He rolled his car on consecutive days, with his second inversion proving terminal — and not how he wanted to end his first full season competing following his infamous crash on a local-level rally in Italy in February 2011 that almost claimed his life.
Kubica didn’t get a proper crack at the WRC finale in what was his new-generation World Rally Car debut, a real blow for a man who deserved so much more on the back of a stunning debut season. Many now hope he doesn’t walk away from the sport.
Like Kubica, the British M-Sport team was left high and dry at the 11th hour when Ford pulled funding from its 2013 WRC effort. However, it regrouped, landed backing from Qatar and signed Thierry Neuville on the eve of the new season to partner fellow promising youngsters Evgeny Novikov and Mads stberg.
Neuville sparkled with eight podiums and the runner-up in the final standings behind Ogier in his Fiesta RS WRC, but Novikov and stberg endured wretched seasons in their sister cars. Although stberg was the only driver, apart from Ogier, to score in all 13 rounds, two third-place finishes were a paltry return from a season he began with many picking him as a title contender. WRC watchers ranked Novikov the most gifted of the M-Sport drivers, but he was never the same after he retired from a comfortable lead on the Acropolis Rally, which has lost its WRC status for 2014—a fate the young Russian could face based on the lack of interest in his services for next season.
One driver inundated with offers for 2014 was Neuville; both M-Sport and Citron approached him before he opted for a megabucks Hyundai deal.
It returns to the WRC next year after a decade away.
Neuville belied his 25 years and limited WRC experience with a rigorous work ethic and some blistering performances; his M-Sport crew punched above its weight given its lack of funding compared to Citron and Volkswagen.
So what of Volkswagen? After spending 2012 preparing its Polos through an exhaustive test-and-development program, the German marque hit the ground running when Ogier went fastest of all in the first stage of the season in Monte Carlo. Although Loeb eventually got the better of his former teammate and understudy (one of two wins he claimed in 2013), the writing was on the wall for VW’s rivals when Ogier won in Sweden, a feat he repeated in quick succession in Mexico and Portugal.
Car troubles ruled out wins in Argentina and Greece, but he was peerless in Finland and mighty in Australia and France, where he bagged his maiden world title in early October with two events still to run. Season-ending wins in Spain and Wales further underlined a brilliant campaign for the 29-year-old.
His only big mistake came in Germany, where he crashed early in the rally after leading; teammate Jari-Matti Latvala also faltered there, and junior driver Andreas Mikkelsen failed to start after his co-driver Mikko Markkula discovered he’d broken his back on a heavy landing in Finland.
While Ogier had spent 2012 honing the Polo to his liking, Latvala struggled to adapt to his new ride after a lengthy stint with the factory Ford team, often reporting a lack of confidence. He scored a solitary win in Greece and played a key role in VW’s manufacturers’ title, but there were few other notable highlights.
Mikkelsen scored several fastest stage times in nine starts, but podiums eluded the double Intercontinental
Rally champion.
Meanwhile, American Ken Block’s sole WRC appearance in Mexico netted seventh place and six points; the Gymkhana star is likely to contest the Mexican event once again in 2014.
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