Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia notched up their eighth victory of the 2013 FIA World Rally Championship season today, winning RallyRACC Rally de España, the 12th round of the series. In doing so they - and their team-mates - have secured the Manufacturers’ Championship for Volkswagen Motorsport in a remarkable debut season for the German marque*. Second position was taken by Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila and third overall was claimed by Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen.

  

In the FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers, Thierry Neuville and Latvala continue to fight for second position behind newly-crowned World Champion Sébastien Ogier*. The Belgian remains ahead of the Finn and the rivals are split by 14 points as they go into the last round.

 

Former Formula One driver Robert Kubica also won his first-ever rally title after claiming the FIA WRC 2 Championship win in Spain, securing an unassailable lead in the series with one round remaining*. It was Kubica’s fifth category win from seven events and the Pole finished Rally de España in ninth position overall.

  

The final day of competition took in two identical loops of three stages covering 138.54 competitive kilometres and was the scene for a sensational fight-back by Ogier. The Frenchman started the day in fourth, 45.6 seconds adrift of the lead, but by the lunchtime service had slashed the deficit to just 14.4 seconds. This afternoon a string of fastest stage times saw him overhaul his rivals to claim an emphatic victory. Running first on the road, Latvala had better conditions in some of the dusty stages but was nevertheless still sweeping the roads of loose gravel for those behind. He was unable to hold off a charging Ogier, and was seriously hampered by transmission problems and also lucky to escape damage from an under-bonnet fire at the end of SS14. Hirvonen climbed from an overnight fifth to third, benefitting when team-mate Dani Sordo was forced into retirement with broken suspension.

  

Behind the leading trio, Neuville lost more than 30 seconds in SS11 with a puncture; he claimed fourth ahead of Evgeny Novikov who has enjoyed a trouble-free event. Mads Østberg rounded off the top six.

  

The final round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes the contenders to Wales Rally GB (14-17 November), an all-gravel event this year based in north Wales.

   

* Subject to the official publication of the results by the FIA

 

RallyRACC Rally de España – Final Unofficial Classification (subject to scrutineering)