Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia claimed their fifth FIA World Rally Championship victory of the season today, the French crew holding off Polo R WRC team-mates Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Floene after a thrilling battle to the finish of Rally Poland. A stunning performance from the Ford Fiesta RS WRC crew of Ott Tanak and Raigo Molder rewarded them with their first podium of the season, the Estonians beating Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila, who also clouted a tree in the final stage as they fought to make it a clean sweep of the podium for Volkswagen.

In the FIA World Rally Championship, Ogier holds a commanding 78 point advantage at the mid-point of the season, the Frenchman ahead of Mikkelsen and Citroën’s Mads Østberg. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, Volkswagen Motorsport is 89 points clear of the Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, which is just two points ahead of Hyundai Motorsport.

Today was a short dash to the finish, with less than 30 competitive kilometres for the top four contenders to fight for their positions. Ogier went into the final day, which ran over just one repeated stage, with a 5.6 second advantage over Mikkelsen and fastest time in the first run extended his lead to a more comfortable 8.1 seconds. By then, Mikkelsen had effectively run out of kilometres but nevertheless claimed one extra point for third fastest in the Power Stage, behind Ogier who yet again claimed the maximum points. Tanak has driven the rally of his life, winning a number of stages as well as leading on Friday. Going into the final Power Stage he and Latvala were neck and neck but second fastest time, coupled with an off for Latvala, secured the Estonian the second podium position of his WRC career and Molder’s first-ever WRC podium. While Latvala managed to reach the end of the stage, a damaged radiator halted his progress on the road section back to service and ultimately the Finn incurred penalties for lateness, dropping him to fifth.

Hayden Paddon therefore climbed to an unexpected fourth in the lead Hyundai i20 WRC and team-mate Thierry Neuville finished sixth behind Latvala. The Belgian was also lucky to reach the finish, having rolled in the first stage. Kris Meeke climbed to seventh, benefitting when national star Robert Kubica was slowed with a diff and handbrake problem in the opening stage and then a puncture in the Power Stage. Mads Østberg and Dani Sordo rounded off the top 10, doubtless happy to get Rally Poland behind them.

In the FIA WRC 2 Championship, Esapekka Lappi and Janne Fern took their first win of the season and the first WRC victory for the new Skoda Fabia R5, and in the FIA Junior WRC Championship Simone Tempestini and Matteo Chiarcossi took the win in their Citroën DS3 R3T.

The FIA World Rally Championship contenders now take a three-week break before heading to the land of the 1000 lakes for Rally Finland (30 July – 2 August).

Lotos Rally Poland – Final Unofficial Results

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 7 of 13 rounds)

FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 7 of 13 rounds)