Sebastien Ogier overhauled Elfyn Evans to claim a record-equalling ninth World Rally Championship title after emerging from a chaotic Rally Saudi Arabia final that was won by Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais sealed the title by finishing third, 1m03.3s behind outgoing champion Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, as well as Hyundai team-mate Adrien Fourmaux, in one of the most dramatic season finales in WRC history.
Evans headed into the season finale with a slender three-point lead over Ogier with Kalle Rovanpera, contesting his final WRC round before moving to circuit racing next year, holding a slim chance of stealing the title 24 points adrift. Ogier took the title to match the record nine wins set by Sebastien Loeb by four points, despite sitting out three rallies.
"What a season that is for sure," said Ogier. "What a fight with Elfyn and Scott Martin. There are only great champions when you have great opponents. They pushed us to the limit right until the final stage of the year."
The unknown nature of conditions at the inaugural Rally Saudi Arabia would render the final round a lottery. The mixture of sandy desert stages and extremely rocky roads provided a much more exaggerated road cleaning effect that impacted the title contenders the most, and inflicted multiple punctures as the entire Rally1 field suffered at least one puncture or delamination.
Ogier fared the best of the title contenders through Thursday, to sit seventh ahead of Rovanpera, who lost time to a puncture in stage four. Evans faced the worst of the road sweeping, which strangely didn’t improve greatly on the second pass through the stages. The Welshman slipped 12.8s to Ogier after being too cautious in stage two and missed a junction in stage four, before ending the day in ninth.
Evans continued to struggle for speed on Friday, before his title bid suffered another blow when he was forced to stop to change a wheel in stage 11 – costing him more than two minutes and dropping the Welshman to 10th. Rovanpera also lost time to a puncture in the test, but was able to avoid stopping to change a wheel.
The title race took another twist in the afternoon, when Toyota’s Sami Pajari and Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, who had been firmly in the victory hunt throughout, suffered punctures in stage 13. The pair were sitting tied third, 6.3s behind leader Fourmaux and the impressive Martins Sesks on his return to M-Sport Ford. Tanak would suffer three more tyre failures and ultimately retired from the rally, only to rejoin on Saturday.
This promoted Ogier to sixth, despite being among six crews to suffer a puncture in Friday’s Wadi Almatwi [stage 14] test that turned the rally on its head. Rovanpera won that stage to move into fifth overall, while Evans ended the day in eighth.
At the other end of the leaderboard, the fight for the victory was a dramatic affair. Sesks stunned the field on his return to the WRC, winning two of the three Thursday stages and was on course for a clean sweep had he not missed the same junction that caught out Evans in stage four.
Sesks lost the lead to Pajari following a right rear puncture in stage six, while a tyre delamination for Pajari helped Fourmaux into a 6.0s lead over the Toyota racer. Sesks was 0.9s further back but ahead of Tanak [+13.7s] – contesting his final WRC round before a sabbatical – and Neuville [+14.9s] after he suffered slow puncture in stage three.
Fourmaux extended the lead to 7.8s on Friday morning before a damaged rear suspension arm resulted in the gap being cut to 2.9s by the rapid Sesks. Distracted by the dust from the recovering Pajari after his stage 13 puncture, Fourmaux misjudged a junction and conceded the lead to Sesks.
The pair then suffered punctures in stage 14 with Sesks delayed more than Fourmaux, handing the latter a 2.4s advantage. That was, however, short-lived as Fourmaux was handed a one-minute penalty for checking into the final time control a minute early. This demoted him to fourth behind Sesks, Neuville and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta.
It meant Sesks started the final three stages with a 3.4s lead over Neuville, who also was struck by a puncture in stage 14 on Friday night. The Belgian managed to overhaul a cautious Sesks in stage 15 by 2.0s, before the latter suffered a double puncture and technical issue in stage 16, handing Neuville a 54.7s lead over Fourmaux. That wasn’t the only drama as Katsuta lost more than a minute to a roll, while Rovanpera had to stop to change a wheel. The technical issue for Sesks prompted an early retirement.
Ogier launched an attack and took a first stage win of the rally as he inherited third position amid the chaos. Evans climbed to sixth but was 9.1s behind Ogier in the Super Sunday standings. The pair were separated by five points ahead of the Power Stage. Evans went on the attack, winning the Power Stage to finish sixth overall, but it wasn't enough to deny Ogier the title.
While Ogier took the title, Neuville claimed a first win of the year heading a Hyundai 1-2 by 54.7s, with Pajari recovering to fourth ahead of Katsuta. The top 10 was completed by Rovanpera, M-Sport duo Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean, and top Rally2 runner Oliver Solberg.
Five-time Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, making his Rally1 debut, finished the rally after numerous delays.
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