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Three-time world rally champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia are one step nearer to claiming a fourth consecutive drivers’ title in the World Rally Championship (WRC) after claiming a debut victory at Rally France, held on the island of Corsica from 29 September to 2 October.

Fortieth Polo R WRC win
The French duo awarded the 318bhp all-wheel drive Polo R WRC its 40th victory on the asphalt roads through the mountains and the 390.92kms of stages on the event known as the ‘Rally of 10,000 Corners’ (there are in fact just 659 ‘real turns’). They themselves scored the 36th win of their career and dominated the Corsican stages from the word go.

The reigning champions won half of the ten special stages, and set all the best times of the first day – a first since Volkswagen Motorsport entered the WRC in 2013. Ogier and Ingrassia were back on home turf and back on an asphalt surface, and they took full advantage. The smooth surface needed no ‘sweeping’ unlike the gravel tracks of the mid-season events where the pair have posted slower stage times, due to their first place starting positions.

Early dominance
Ogier and Ingrassia’s early dominance showed world champion skills and through a blend of a powerful performance, the right tyre choices for the mixed dry and damp stage conditions, and a cool determination, the Frenchmen set the pace and kept it there, right until the end of the event. Team-mates Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jæger were chasing hard, along with Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul in their i20 WRC.

Coincidentally, the French pair’s leading chasers were also the crews which could deny them a fourth consecutive WRC title. Ogier and Ingrassia’s win meant that their lead in the Drivers’ Championship is now 68 points: a third place and a point on the Power Stage at Rally Spain would see them crowned champions for the fourth time.

That’s regardless of other results, with only Mikkelsen/Jæger and Neuville/Gilsoul able to stop the current champions taking another trophy: the other Volkswagen Motorsport crew of Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila finished fourth in France and are sadly now out of title contention.

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally France: Ogier/Ingrassia

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally France: Ogier/Ingrassia

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally France: Ogier/Ingrassia

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally France: Ogier/Ingrassia

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally France: Ogier/Ingrassia

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Following two consecutive podium finishes (including the win at World RX of France), Volkswagen RX Sweden was hoping for much the same at the ninth round of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship, the World RX of Spain, held at the 1.13km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on 17-18 September. Sadly for the Swedish outfit, it wasn’t to be.

Demoted to sixth place
Currently third in the 2016 drivers’ standings, Johan Kristoffersson initially finished third in Barcelona, but was then demoted to sixth place for pushing. The Swedish driver and his 600bhp Polo RX headed both the third and fourth qualifying heats and battled their way through to the final. Overall winner of the World RX of Spain was Mattias Ekström of EKS.

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Spain: Kristoffersson

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Spain: Kristoffersson

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Spain: Kristoffersson

Ahead of the Spanish races, Kristoffersson was confident: ‘The team has been working so hard this year and it was great to win in France. We improved the car a lot from day one to day two there and I was able to really push on the Sunday. Last year we had a bit of turnaround in France, then in Barcelona the car was great.

‘That was also the time I started working with my engineer, Laurent. I hope for more of the same this year. It’s great to go to Barcelona with a victory in the bag, and I can’t wait to drive in front of the great fans there. I really liked the track last year, the facilities are really good too and we had a good result. I’m really looking forward to it,’ he continued.

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Spain: Kristoffersson

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Spain: Kristoffersson

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Spain: Marklund

Confident of a strong result
Anton Marklund meanwhile headed to Spain targeting his first podium finish of the season. The young Swedish Polo pilot suffered ill health before the event and was confident of scoring a strong result. ‘I have already forgotten about the challenging weekend in France two weeks ago.

‘We are now heading to Barcelona very well prepared, and with Johan’s win fresh in our memories. We know we have a good package and I’m going there with great confidence in what the car can do,’ said Marklund before the event. Low placings in the qualifying heats suggested that his health hadn’t quite recovered enough.

The next round of the championship is the World RX of Latvia, held in Riga on 1-2 October.

2016 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Mattias Ekström, Audi S1: 204
2 Petter Solberg, Citroën DS3: 194
3 Johan Kristoffersson, Volkswagen Polo: 178
4 Andreas Bakkerud, Ford Focus RS: 170
5 Sébastien Loeb, Peugeot 208: 154

2016 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 EKS: 318
2 Team Peugeot Hansen: 297
3 Volkswagen RX Sweden: 240
4 Hoonigan Racing Division: 224
5 World RX Team Austria: 159

[Images: FIAWorldRallycross.com / Volkswagen RX Sweden]

There will be another Polo RX on the grid at the start of the Euro RX of Barcelona this weekend (16-18 September), the seventh round of the 2016 FIA European Rallycross Championship. Former Swedish rallycross champion Peter Hedström will jump into an ex-Marklund Motorsport Polo RX Supercar at the Spanish event. The near-600bhp Supercar will appear again in the Latvian round of the programme (30 September to 2 October).

‘Go for a win in Barcelona’
Previously a Ford Fiesta Supercar driver, Hedström swapped to the Polo for the first time at a recent round of the RallyX Nordic Championship, and promptly won. ‘I will go for a win in Barcelona,’ said Hedström. ‘The Polo is very good – I like it very much. There’s nothing wrong with the Fiesta but the Polo suits my driving style better. I loved the Skoda Fabia I raced before and the Polo is not a big difference to that,’ he continued.

Divulging that the Polo is better-suited to his all-out style, Hedström commented: ‘The engine is better in the Polo than the Fabia, but the driving style is very similar. The Ford is good, too but I am an action driver, I like to go flat out and the Polo works for me. Last year Barcelona was only my second race with the Fiesta and it was a big difference from the Skoda. It took some time to go as fast as I could, but I was in the final.’

Expanded World RX programme
Hedström is looking at an expanded programme of World RX events for the 2017 season. ‘The plan is that we will have two cars exactly the same next year. I want to drive in seven World Championship races, or maybe the European Championship and in two or three World Championship events. But the plan is to drive more World Championship races in 2017.’

Johan Kristofferson and Anton Marklund currently run Polo RXs in the World Rallycross Championship, while Tord Linnerud drives one of the small VWs in the same European series as Hedström. Ernestas Staponkus meanwhile, has a car in the Super 1600 championship.

After months without success, Johan Kristoffersson and Volkswagen RX Sweden have scored their first win in the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship, emerging victorious at the 2-4 September World RX of France. Round eight of the series took place at the 1.08km-long track at Lohéac in Brittany, and the young Swede scored a lights-to-flag win behind the wheel of his 600bhp Polo RX Supercar.

Kristoffersson dominated the second day of competition at the signature French RX event, and set the fastest time in both the Q3 and Q4 qualifying sessions in difficult weather conditions. His Polo RX revelled in the changing climate and Kristoffersson lead both the semi-final and final from start to finish to score an empathic first victory of the season.

‘It feels fantastic’
Kristoffersson is the fifth different driver to win a World RX event this year, and the 27 year-old was pleased that his time had finally come. ‘It feels fantastic,’ grinned the four-wheel drive Polo driver who also won the Monster Energy Super Charge Award after beating the other finalists to the first corner of the final.

It wasn’t all plain sailing, though: ‘We couldn’t get it right yesterday – I was P10 after Q2 and the car didn’t feel right. My team worked really hard on the car overnight and in the rain this morning, the car felt amazing,’ Kristoffersson commented.

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of France: Kristoffersson

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of France: Kristoffersson

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of France: Kristoffersson

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of France: Kristoffersson

2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of France: Kristoffersson

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After the one-two-three result of 2015, the pressure was on for Volkswagen Motorsport to win again at its home event of 2016, the Rally Germany of 18-21 August. Set around and in the lush vineyards of Trier and the Mosel region, the first all-asphalt event of the season included the legendary Baumholder military track stages, as well as fast Eifel mountain roads and smooth Saarland stages.

Current and three-time world champion Sébastien Ogier was desperate to be back on the top step of the podium, the French driver having had to spend most of the 2016 season ‘sweeping’ the hitherto gravel roads for the competitors behind him, thanks to his first place in the running order. The ninth round of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) had a lot to play for and released its secrets over three tarmac action-packed days.

Masterly form
Conditions were not easy, even for the reigning world champion – wet concrete and dry asphalt made tyre selection a risky business. But, the Frenchman and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia once again displayed their masterly form. The French duo fought for the lead with team-mates Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jæger over the first two days, with Ogier and Ingrassia coming out on top on the fearsome 25-mile ‘Panzerplatte’ stage.

And once they had first place, they didn’t let it slip from their grasp. The first time the pair have won a 2016 event since February’s Rally Sweden, Ogier and Ingrassia were initially unhappy with their soft tyre choice for a resulting dry stage, but still managed to record a time 13.5 seconds faster than Mikkelsen and Jæger, after a place-swapping duel separated by just tenths of a second. The French crew eventually won the event by a massive 20.3 seconds over Hyundai Motorsport’s Dani Sordo and Marc Martí.

‘Fantastic feeling’
A jubilant Ogier was in celebratory mood: ‘A fantastic feeling to be back at the top of the podium after this long dry spell. I am over the moon to have repeated last year’s success at Rally Germany. The home win is extremely important to our team, Julien and I made great progress in the direction of the title in the championship standings.

‘The weekend wasn’t easy for me since I really wanted to win here and then it is easy to be a little bit too motivated going into the race. Then there was the weather, which changed constantly and was extremely difficult to predict. In the end, I waited patiently for my opportunity, and with the times on the Panzerplatte in particular, built up the crucial lead over my rivals,’ he enthused.

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally Germany: Ogier/Ingrassia

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally Germany: Ogier/Ingrassia

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally Germany: Ogier/Ingrassia

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally Germany: Ogier/Ingrassia

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally Germany: Ogier/Ingrassia

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