Sebastien Ogier remained at the top after Sunday's three speed trials and secured the dominant victory. After today's first stage, the Volkswagen racer was frightened by the failure of the sensor, with which he lost about 20 minutes, but in the end he finished with more than three minutes ahead of Mikko Hirvonen.
With his second victory in three rallies, Ogier increased his point advantage over his nearest rival for the title to 44 points. Sebastien Loeb is still second in the scoring, 31 points behind him, but Loeb will not compete in all of this year's rallies.
Mikko Hirvonen found himself under pressure from Thierry Neuville. The Belgian was driving at the border, trying to get a second place, but in the process he experienced a small trip off the set route, which convinced him it was time to give up a bit and leave the second place to Hirvonen. He thus finished the rally as third, and these were his first podiums in the World Rally Championship. That was a good consolation for the M-Sport team after Mads Ostberg resigned from second place in another Ford.
Hours after 23. HP:
1. Sebastien Ogier Volkswagen 4h30m27.0s 2. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 3m28.9s 3. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford + 4m23.8s 4. Dani Sordo Citroen + 6m06.7s 5. Nasser Al-Attiyah M-Sport Ford + 8m34.5 .6s 11. Chris Atkinson Abu Dhabi Citroen + 28.0m7s 11. Ken Block Hoonigan Ford + 48.3m8s 12. Benito Guerra CRT Citroen + 49.8m9s 14. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 29.0m10s 17. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 15.3mXNUMXs
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