Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila claimed their second Rally de France victory today, this time on the notoriously tricky Tour de Corse. The Finns looked unbeatable for most of the event and powered to victory by nearly 50 seconds. Elfyn Evans and Daniel Barritt claimed their best-ever result in the FIA World Rally Championship by finishing second after a great fight to the finish with Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Floene.

In the FIA World Rally Championship, behind provisional 2015 World Champion Sébastien Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen continue to hold second and third respectively. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, however, the Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team has overhauled Hyundai Motorsport for second position by just one point.

Today’s route for the Rallye de France-Tour de Corse covered three stages and 94.91 competitive kilometres, the drivers setting out from the Porto Vecchio overnight Parc Fermé and heading back towards Ajaccio for the finish. Latvala started the day with just two seconds in hand to Evans, but the Finn extended his lead in the opening stage, Evans finding the conditions difficult in the first and second stage. In the end, both took no risks in the final stage and Latvala claimed one additional Power Stage point on the way to his third victory of the season and Volkswagen Motorsport’s 10th win this year. After a terrible event on the previous round in Australia, Evans put in the performance of his life, from start to finish. The Welshman claimed his best-ever result in the Championship and his first podium on tarmac. He and Mikkelsen fought to the finish and while the Norwegian slashed the deficit, he finished just 3.2 seconds shy of second position.

Behind the leading trio, Kris Meeke struggled to find a good rhythm all weekend but was ultimately pleased to finish fourth for Citroën. Hayden Paddon managed to climb from seventh to fifth, the New Zealander continuing his tarmac learning curve. Mads Østberg struggled to get into the groove today and the Norwegian claimed sixth, just a handful of seconds further adrift. Dani Sordo managed to climb from 11th to seventh, a fastest time in the second stage aiding his charge. Bryan Bouffier, Stephane Sarrazin and Ott Tanak, all driving Fiesta RS WRCs, rounded off the top 10. After his problems during the event, Sébastien Ogier managed to climb to 15th and salvage three points for the Power Stage win.

In the FIA WRC 2 Championship, Julien Maurin and Nicolas Klinger took victory after a hard fight, and Quentin Gilbert and Renaud Jamoul not only won the FIA Junior WRC Championship category but have provisionally won the title with two rounds remaining.*

The FIA World Rally Championship contenders now head to the penultimate round of the series, the mixed surface RallyRACC Catalunya-Costa Daurada / Rally de España based in the tourist resort of Salou (22-25 October).

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

Tour de Corse – Rallye de France – Final Unofficial Results (subject to scrutineering)

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 11 of 13 rounds)

FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 11 of 13 rounds)