Volkswagen Motorsport secured a dream result on its home rally with its crews racking up an impressive one-two-three on ADAC Rallye Deutschland, the first German manufacturer to win its home round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia headed the trio, finishing 23 seconds ahead of team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila, while Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Floene equalled last year’s result on the event by finishing third.

In the Championship, it is now guaranteed that the 2015 FIA World Rally Champion will be a Polo R WRC driver. Ogier remains at the top of the standings with a 93 point advantage over Latvala and Mikkelsen has moved back up to third; they, and their co-drivers, are now the only ones capable of winning this year’s title. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, Volkswagen Motorsport - which secured its 30th victory from 35 WRC starts - leads by 139 points.

Today’s route was the shortest and covered two stages both run twice, the final 14.08 kilometre Dhrontal stage counting as the all-important Power Stage where additional points are awarded to the fastest three crews through this single stage. After disastrous outings in the last two editions of Rallye Deutschland, all three Volkswagen crews were under pressure to reach the finish of their home event and caution was the name of the day. Even so, both Ogier and Latvala won three of the four stages, Latvala claiming the maximum points in the Power Stage despite skidding on loose gravel and nearly hitting a wall. Mikkelsen had an uneventful run to the finish, guaranteeing the third podium lock-out for the team this season.

Hyundai Motorsport was the best of the rest and fourth and fifth positions by Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville moved the team up the leaderboard into second position in the Manufacturers’ Championship. The battling team-mates were split by 24.5 seconds after 374.43 competitive kilometres. Elfyn Evans got off to a great start this morning, the Welshman winning the opening stage; he ultimately finished sixth ahead of the lead DS 3 WRC of Mads Østberg. Ott Tanak was eighth with Hayden Paddon ninth, the Kiwi driver admitting he had struggled to get back into Tarmac driving. Reigning FIA Junior WRC Champion Stephane Lefebvre rewarded Citroën’s faith in him by bringing his DS 3 WRC home in 10th overall in his first outing in the car. The only retirement of the day was Martin Prokop, who was forced out in the opening stage with a double puncture and only one spare wheel.

In the FIA WRC 2 Championship, Jan Kopecky was in a league of his own and cruised to victory by over four minutes in his Skoda Fabia R5. Andrea Crugnola achieved his goal of finishing the event, the Italian with no competition in the FIA WRC 3 Championship category.

The FIA World Rally Championship contenders now head down under to Coates Hire Rally Australia (10-13 September).

ADAC Rallye Deutschland – Final Unofficial Results (subject to scrutineering)

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 9 of 13 rounds)

FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 9 of 13 rounds)