The race is on. Sébastien Ogier looks all set to take on the remaining four rounds of the World Rally Championship season. In the words of points leader Thierry Neuville, Ogier is his biggest threat.
During Rally Finland the eight-time world champion was keen to stress how big the gap was and that, if he did complete the rest of the season, it wasn’t going to be about chasing down drivers’ title number nine. It’s about picking up more wins and ensuring Toyota clinches the manufacturers’ championship.
A 27-point gap at this point of the season is a fairly substantial one. But it is by no means a done deal for Neuville either. Drivers have pulled off massive late-season comebacks in seasons past to steal the crown away at the very end.
If Ogier is looking for some motivation to chase down title number nine, these four WRC seasons prove he can still overhaul Neuville.
1991: Kankkuken usurps Sainz
Juha Kankkunen (R) and Juha Piironen celebrate a 1991 world title Carlos Sainz looked odds-on to claim
All was looking rosy for reigning world champion Carlos Sainz in Finland. He’d won five of the seven rallies he’d contested heading into the 1000 Lakes Rally – he’d also been leading the Safari before an engine problem took him out. He had the equivalent of two rally wins in hand in the title race over Lancia’s Juha Kankkunen and it seemed there was nothing the Italians could do to stop him.
So desperate was Lancia to play catchup, it fielded four works Delta Integrales in Argentina – but Sainz came back from losing a minute and a half with a puncture to beat them all anyway.
Yes, Kankkunen would win Finland, with Sainz only finishing fourth. But no sweat. His 40-point lead had been cut to 30 – but beating Lancia’s lead Finn in Finland was never going to be high on the priority list.
When the WRC switched hemispheres to Australia, what seemed a predestined run to the crown went south quickly.
Aboard his Toyota Celica ST165, Sainz overshot a left-hander and went off, rolling over into the shrubbery – but then got back on the road quickly. That was the warning sign to slow down. He didn’t. Later on the same stage he took an aggressive cut at a chicane and flipped the Celica six times.
Sanremo should have sealed the deal. Kankkunen was out by stage three and despite opening the road and sweeping gravel, Sainz was in the running for a podium. That was until a transmission fault cost him several minutes and dropped him to sixth.
Not being able to take advantage in Italy came back to haunt Sainz and Toyota during the WRC’s first-ever trip to his homeland. After Sunday’s action in Catalunya, all looked in hand; the Toyotas were dominant and Kankkunen was languishing down in sixth.
Defending champion Sainz's season began to fall apart despite initially looking so promising
But reliability woes struck yet again, with Sainz dropping out first thing on Monday morning with electrical gremlins. Team-mate Armin Schwarz won but with an opportunity to strike, Kankkunen put the hammer down and caught François Delecour for second on the penultimate stage.
In the space of four rallies, Sainz’s 40-point advantage had been cut to one; an all-or-nothing showdown on the RAC beckoned. Sainz was the dominant force in Wales and took the lead but Kielder Forest broke the Celica completely: he limped through with a damaged head gasket, all while transmission and power steering fluid poured out of the engine bay. Though Sainz was able to limp his ailing Toyota to third place, Kankkunen was victorious. An outcome that seemed near impossible four months earlier had unexpectedly become reality.
1992: Sainz’s revenge
The Lancia–Toyota arms race continued into 1992 after their epic scrap the year before. Toyota had replaced the Celica ST165 with the all-new ST185, while Lancia had opted to evolve the HF Integrale.
Evolution proved more effective than revolution: the ‘Deltona’, when paired with Didier Auriol, spent the first half of the season conquering everything in its path. Aside from an engine failure in Portugal, Auriol and co-driver Bernard Occelli had won every single round they’d entered – taking five in a row between Tour de Corse and Australia.
The clever money was on Didier Auriol in 1992 after a spell-binding start to the season
What really made the outcome seem a foregone conclusion was Auriol’s performance in Finland: up against Kankkunen in the same team, he simply outdrove his more esteemed colleague from start to finish.
After Auriol’s Australia win he had 14 points in hand over Sainz’s Toyota with one fewer rally under his belt – Auriol had skipped Kenya and New Zealand, while Sainz hadn’t bothered with Finland. Nor would the reigning champion go to Sanremo; he needed to skip a round as title contenders could only run 10 out of the 14 rounds. And it was Lancia’s home turf anyway.
Lancia did dominate. But only with Andrea Aghini and Kankkunen. Auriol was out of the rally on the very first stage: some recesses that needed to be drilled into the wheels to hold the brake assembly in place had been forgotten, so the front-right wheel wasn’t attached correctly and subsequently vibrated its way off the Delta Integrale.
The wheels had literally begun to fall off Auriol’s bid to win a first title.
Sainz made up for his Catalunya debut disappointment by dominating it a year later – while Auriol lost half an hour on Lloret del Mar and plummeted to 29th overall. A big push thereafter – he won every stage on the final day – meant he climbed back to 10th and captured one point.
That set up a three-way title battle for the ages on the RAC: Sainz led Kankkunen by two points and Auriol by three. Toyota’s main man was fastest out of the blocks but when the crews hit Kielder, Auriol was zoning in on Sainz’s lead. That was, until, the turbo in Auriol’s Lancia started misbehaving. Not long after, the whole engine went bang. When Kankkunen hit a rock and broke his suspension in Dalbeattie, Sainz could simply cruise to the finish and take the world title that he’d lost a year earlier.
Sainz canceled out the pain of 1991 with a second world title in '92
1981: Vatanen’s fightback
Ari Vatanen’s mindset has never really changed. There’s only one way to win something: with the throttle wide open. That approach has delivered some spectacular results, but it’s also brought some bitter disappointments.
Sanremo 1981 would probably rank among the biggest frustrations for AV. Certainly for his then co-driver David Richards and team principal David Sutton.
While it was significant, Italy wasn’t the turning point in the Finn’s second half fightback to land the world title ahead of French rival Guy Fréquelin. Back-to-back wins in Brazil and Finland were what really worked for Vatanen and his famous Rothmans-liveried Escort.
Seven events into a 12-round schedule and he was 31 points behind his Talbot Sunbeam-driving opponent. Two things to consider here: a win was worth 20 and drivers only counted their best seven scores.
Fréquelin was ahead, but by no means out of reach. He’d won once and finished second twice. A couple of solid results from Vatanen would bring him right back into play. Brazil and Finland were perfect. In the space of two rallies, the gap was slashed to six points. If he could outscore Fréq in Sanremo, the top of the table might feature a Finnish flag as the season neared the end.
Victory for Vatanen was important in a topsy-turvy 1981 season
And it looked good for Vatanen after the Frenchman’s Sunbeam retired with a blown engine. Sitting second and some distance behind Michèle Mouton’s leading Audi, a 15-pointer looked to be on the cards. When the leader hit transmission and brake trouble, her lead was cut from more than three minutes to just 34 seconds going into the final night.
Richards: “Let’s be sensible. We take second place and think of the championship.”
Vatanen: “We can win. We should go for the win.”
Richards: “Let’s be sensible.”
Vatanen: “We can win.”
Sutton: “I side with Ari.”
And into the 28-mile Ronde stage they went. What happened? They crashed. Second became seventh.
Vatanen's full-throttle approach almost cost him what turned out to be his only world championship
Almost out of budget, but with a title in sight, Sutton managed to get the team to Africa’s penultimate round, the Ivory Coast. At times, he might have wished he hadn’t bothered. Vatanen crashed head-on into a truck navigating the West African stages the wrong way. Ari jumped out of the car to discuss the matter with the truck driver, only to watch him legging it into the forest. Ironically, Fréquelin had to stop to help haul the stricken Escort out of the road.
Vatanen finished a distant eighth after the team worked tirelessly to keep the car mobile (a process which included Richards operating the windshield wipers by a piece of string). Fréquelin benefitted from teamwork of a different nature as Alain Ambrosino took a late penalty to elevate his fellow Peugeot-Talbot colleague from sixth to fifth.
Eight points separated the pair going into the RAC – far from Fréquelin’s favourite event. He was running seventh when he crashed off the road on the 51st stage (Pantperthog). Vatanen was a comfortable second at that point, enough to give him the title.
But still, there was the odd moment.
“Hannu [Mikkola] had come past us while we were stuck in a ditch on one really wet stage,” recalled Vatanen. “After the stage he came to me and he shouted at me, telling me I would not become champion if I continued to drive like this. I tried to calm down.
“Maybe I could have won the championship earlier in the season if I had driven differently, but you know me: no half-measures!”
David Evans
2001: Burns from the back
Richard Burns only led the championship once in 2001: right when it mattered most
When Tommi Mäkinen lined up at the start control of Valkola, all must have seemed in hand. Holding 10 points over Colin McRae – who, combined with Mäkinen, had won six of the eight rallies thus far – heading into the Finn’s home round, there was plenty of reason to expect Mäkinen would extend that lead and close on a fifth world title.
Only a few miles into Valkola, Mäkinen hit a tree stump and broke the suspension on his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6.5. The door had suddenly been flung open for the chasing pack to make inroads.
Finland marked a dramatic swing in the form of several teams and drivers. Both Peugeot and Subaru had been close to nowhere for much of 2001’s opening half: a pair of podiums in Argentina and Acropolis for Richard Burns at least meant something meaningful on the board for the Pleiades’ lead driver. Meanwhile, Harri Rovanperä, a factory team part-timer sharing Peugeot’s third car with Gilles Panizzi, had become its lead contender, such was the misery suffered by Marcus Grönholm and Didier Auriol and their repeated retirements.
Defending champion Grönholm ended a miserable front half of the season with victory. But more importantly, Burns had battled him all the way and wrapped up second place, finally putting a Subaru into the outer fringes of the championship battle.
Viewers couldn’t have imagined how different the end-of-season run-in would have been from what preceded it. McRae’s season would turn sour; Mäkinen’s turned into a catastrophe.
Tommi Mäkinen's season had started so promisingly, but nosedived badly
If Finland had been a turning point, New Zealand cemented the new world order. Road sweeping dominated proceedings: Mäkinen, first on the road on the opening day, was livid with the road order rules after only mustering 15th place early on. Burns didn’t do a whole lot better either but on the second day absolutely flew, racking up six stage wins to build a comfortable lead he’d manage to the finish – aided by a spin for McRae. Mäkinen could only muster eighth place – a position that paid zero points.
It only got worse from there for Mitsubishi’s main man. Burns crashed out early on in Sanremo but Mäkinen couldn’t take advantage: Mitsubishi’s ageing Group A car had finally been retired and replaced with a World Rally Car machine – but the new car wasn’t even a match for what had preceded it, never mind its rivals.
“No one has a clear idea what’s going on or what’s wrong,” rued Mäkinen during the Lancer WRC’s debut. “I hope they can fix it, otherwise there’s no point to continue because the car doesn’t work at all like it should.”
A month later Mäkinen had signed for Subaru, a brutal vote of no-confidence in the new car.
In Corsica, Mäkinen had been struggling to break into the points before he smashed into a cliff-face and rolled his Lancer, which left co-driver Risto Mannisenmäki injured. Symbolically, the first car to reach the scene and pass the stricken red machine was Burns.
By the time Rally GB rolled around, McRae, Mäkinen and Burns were separated by two points – with Carlos Sainz retaining a long-shot chance at the title. Aping his Finland fate, Mäkinen hit a hole in the road on the very first gravel stage of the rally and was out, his hopes of a fifth title in tatters.
It was then advantage McRae until he took too deep a cut on Rhondaa and barrel rolled his Focus WRC in fifth gear. As had been the case in Corsica with Mäkinen, Burns was the next car through after the championship leader had crashed – a sight so unexpected that Burns then spun off a few corners later with a momentary lapse of concentration. But he collected himself up, got going again and then picked up the points needed to take the title, having not led the standings all year.
Four rounds into the season, Burns had been 12th in the championship, 21 points adrift of Mäkinen. It was one of the most dramatic seasons in WRC history – and yet more proof that no title outcome can ever be considered a done deal.
2024: The next surprise?
Eight titles or otherwise, Ogier faces a huge uphill battle to catch Neuville for the championship. He has to average a gain of seven points per rally. Before this year, powerstage dependent, simply turning up and winning every rally would have been enough. That’s no longer the case with Super Sundays – a point he’s been at pains to highlight multiple times this year.
Post-Finland Ogier has averaged 23.5 points and Neuville 18.67; the championship continuing at its current pace would mean a first Neuville title. But just as Vatanen, Kankkunen, Sainz and Burns demonstrated in the past, you never know what late drama might befall the title favorite. It’s about being ready to pounce if that happens. And as this season has demonstrated, Ogier’s one of the best at exactly that.
Number nine is a long shot. But it’s by no means impossible either.
