Sebastien Ogier celebrated winning the World Rally Championship drivers’ title in style as he won Rally France on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Sebastien Loeb, the man he replaced as champion, endured an ignominious exit from the sport.
Ogier, who had clinched the title on Thursday on the opening power stage, showed why he will have the No 1 on his Volkswagen car next season as he came back from third place overnight to triumph by 12.2 seconds over Abu Dhabi Citroen’s Dani Sordo.
“There has been so much emotion this weekend,” Ogier said of taking the title and his seventh win of the season.
“We pushed to the maximum, then and this morning, we soon made a gap at the front. Then we had to bring the car home, which was not easy in the rain and mud.”
Ogier was trailing in third place going into the yesterday’s final leg of six stages, but posting the fastest times during the opening two stages saw the 29-year-old Frenchman move ahead of his Finnish teammate Jari-Matti Latvala and Sordo to take the lead in the race.
The real drama came on the first stage of the day as Loeb, the most successful driver in the sport’s history, flipped his car in his final race.
The Frenchman, who had claimed the previous nine world titles, winning 78 times in the process, spun as he looked to fight for victory in his Abu Dhabi Citroen, having started the day five seconds off the lead.
Loeb told Autosport of the incident: “I started flat out. In our situation, we were fighting for the victory and it didn’t go as I planed.
“I lost the rear, we had a spin and we ended in a ditch. For sure, I would have preferred to finish on the podium on this rally.”
Sordo and Latvala completed the podium behind Ogier, with the two M-Sports of Thierry Neuville and Evgeny Novikov finishing fourth and fifth, ahead of the second Abu Dhabi Citroen car of Mikko Hirvonen.
Rashid Al Ketbi achieved his best result of the season in the World Rally Championship (WRC) as he finished third in the WRC2 category.
The Emirati, who drives for the Skydive Dubai team, finished 16th overall in his Ford Fiesta.
“I promised myself that I would take a podium finish here and I am delighted to have achieved that,” he said. “The car and the team were fantastic.”
sports@thenational.ae
Sheer grandeur
The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.
A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.
The figures behind the event
1) More than 300 in-house cleaning crew
2) 165 staff assigned to sanitise public areas throughout the show
3) 1,000 social distancing stickers
4) 809 hand sanitiser dispensers placed throughout the venue
Voices: How A Great Singer Can Change Your Life
Nick Coleman
Jonathan Cape
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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RESULTS
West Asia Premiership
Thursday
Jebel Ali Dragons 13-34 Dubai Exiles
Friday
Dubai Knights Eagles 16-27 Dubai Tigers
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
