Every now and then sport brings a moment of brilliance when you have to step back and bow down. To appreciate it for what it is.
In 1995, England’s rugby team was introduced to a New Zealander called Jonah. The All Blacks 11 destroyed Will Carling’s team 45-29. Interviewed post-match, Carling smiled at the steamroller than had just run across him and his men in white.
Carling’s appraisal: “He’s awesome. He’s a freak. I’m hoping we don’t come across him again.”
Then there was Lewis Hamilton reflecting on Max Verstappen’s “phenomenal” season at the Qatar Grand Prix in 2023.
In Las Palmas last week, Sébastien Ogier was second fastest on 12 of 18 stages. Winners don’t like coming second. But by the end of the rally, the Frenchman could only smile.
“The only impressive one this weekend,” he said, “has been Kalle.”
That’s a demonstration of the eight-time champion’s exacting standards. He wants to win and he expects to win.
To begin with, it was a slightly strained stage-end line: he would be fastest, only for his Toyota team-mate to best his benchmark. But as the rally rolled by, the admiration and appreciation grew and grew.
A decade ago, such sentiment would have been hard to imagine from the Gap superstar. He was a different beast in the middle of his dominant Volkswagen years. He didn’t lose. Not even when the FIA changed the rules to try to force him to lose.
Ogier was that supreme competitor, the one with the mental strength to understand that, all things being equal, there would and could only be one winner.
Times change. As Ogier himself pointed out, he and Rovanperä are at either ends of their careers.
Yes, it was still frustrating and every now and then you caught the look in Sébastien’s eye when he was asked another question about the Finn’s near-perfect run. Not so long ago, he was the one running away with rallying. Now it’s the time for the next generation.
Let’s be honest, when Ogier stepped down from full-time competition and Rovanperä won his first two world titles, the guard had kind of changed. But still last week offered another micro-moment in that process.
And that, for some, led to the question of Ogier calling time on his career. I’ll be honest, that frustrated me as much as it confused me.
Yes, he’d lost to Rovanperä. But so had everybody else. And everybody else had lost to #KR69 by more – and sometimes far more on some stages – than Ogier.
He’s still got plenty to give. By his own admission, the laser-guided focus on winning at all costs might have dimmed slightly – his confession of a lift alongside some of Gran Canaria’s steepest and most vertical drops was as insightful as it was understandable – but that must be stacked up against a moment of sporting wonderment.
Ogier exercised caution in places he considered high-risk in Gran Canaria
“This weekend, Kalle was doing a performance that we haven’t seen very often in the history of this sport,” Ogier told DirtFish. “It’s the clear domination against me, but also against Elfyn [Evans] and against a lot of drivers which are also very competitive.
“This is one we will remember and I’m not sure you see that very often again.”
Ogier went on to offer an unflinching appraisal of his own future, adding: “The thing is, if it’s become a trend and like this every race, then it can be a problem. And for me, that would be then a clear sign that, OK, then I might do something else now.
“But so far, I think I still deliver, in my point of view, a pretty strong performance for my team every time I show up and that still makes me happy enough.”
Spoken like a true champion.
