Toyota and Ogier suffered a major setback at the start of September during the Acropolis Rally in Greece, a blow to both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championship battles. Ogier rolled his car on the final stage, causing the Frenchman and his team to miss out on valuable points.
Toyota’s team principal, Jari-Matti Latvala, openly admitted after the Acropolis Rally that the fight for both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles is practically over for this season.
“Yes, it’s over. We have to be realistic. Hyundai won’t make the kind of mistakes necessary under this points system. Both championships are gone. In my opinion, they’re now done and dusted,” Latvala admitted bluntly to RallyJournal.com
Latvala could very well be right. In the drivers’ championship, Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville has a 38-point lead over Sebastien Ogier, who has dropped to third, and in the manufacturers’ standings, Hyundai is 35 points ahead of Toyota. Without feeling too guilty, one could say that Toyota’s chances at the titles would require a minor miracle – and some significant blunders and bad luck from Hyundai.
However, Ogier sees the situation more optimistically than team boss Latvala, though the Frenchman does acknowledge the difficulty of the situation.
“I’m realistic and recognise that the situation isn’t looking good. However, I’m not as negative as Jari-Matti,” Ogier conceded in an interview with AutoHebdo.
“It’s still rallying, and no one is immune to the kind of misfortune we experienced in Finland and Greece,” Ogier reminded.
Ogier has decided to compete in all the remaining events of the season. The multi-champion isn’t doing it for fun, despite his chances for a ninth career title taking a serious hit in Greece.
“My goal will be to keep up maximum pressure until the end. We have to try to bring the gap in the drivers’ championship down to under 30 points, which corresponds to a perfect race. There are still three rounds left… and plenty of points to be distributed. I’m not giving up entirely, and we’ll give it everything. We did that in Greece, and it didn’t work out. Hopefully, things will be more positive in Chile,” Ogier planned.
The next round of the World Rally Championship season will take place next week in Chile.
