2015 World Rally Championship
[2] Both Ogier and Volkswagen Motorsport claimed their third consecutive drivers' and manufacturers' championships with 3 rounds to spare by winning in Rally Australia.
Returning nine-time World Champion Sébastien Loeb was the early leader of the rally,[41] losing first position to Ogier on the seventh stage after a spin while negotiating a hairpin bend.
Despite being unable to monitor his rivals' split times during the stages under new rules, Ogier blended a controlled pace with safe tyre choices through the final two days to seal the victory.
[43] Latvala finished second, also taking one power stage point, with Andreas Mikkelsen completing a one-two-three for Volkswagen Motorsport.
The top ten was completed by Martin Prokop and Kris Meeke, who won the power stage to take three additional points.
The rally started with Pontus Tidemand, competing in a WRC2 Ford Fiesta RRC, winning the Thursday night super special stage in Karlstad.
Volkswagen's third driver, Andreas Mikkelsen gained the lead on the ninth stage, after Ogier and Latvala both hit snow banks, dropping to 4th and 23rd respectively.
Completing the championship points was Mads Østberg, who was in position for a podium spot, until he hit a snow bank on the eleventh stage.
After the last stage, Volkswagen Motorsport decided to retire Latvala's car – he had managed to recover up the order to 12th place – due to a rules loophole in relation to the following event, Rally México.
[49] Sébastien Ogier began the event by winning the shakedown, before the rally proper opened with a night-time special stage in the tunnels of Guanajuato city, a World Heritage Site as denoted by UNESCO.
[50] The second day of the event began with the first gravel section of the 2015 season, where Ogier took the opportunity to jump into the lead despite having the difficult task of sweeping the roads; he had been doing so as the championship leader.
On the third stage, Ott Tänak lost control of his Ford Fiesta RS WRC and left the road, with his car falling into a reservoir.
On the final day, Latvala started in pursuit of Ogier, but he would ultimately finish 15th overall after broken suspension caused damage to a rear wheel.
Elfyn Evans matched his best WRC result in fourth, in front of Hyundai's Dani Sordo, returning from injury.
On the second day of the race, the competition played in the Minho Province, with the section of Caminha proving to be quite hard, causing several dropouts and mechanical breakdowns.
Ogier on WRC leader condition had the difficult task of opening the road, had a flat tyre right at the SS 2 and finished the day in 2nd overall.
At the end of the SS 5 (2nd passage through Ponte de Lima was canceled due to a forest fire) Latvala was the leader with 11.1 seconds ahead of Kris Meeke, and 16 s on Mikelsen.
The title decision was reserved for Sunday, with the dispute of the mythical passages of Fafe (2 passes, with the second being the power-stage) and Cabreira (the longest of the rally with 32 km, now called the "Vieira do Minho" ).
The rally began with a surprising Martin Prokop winning the Super Special Stage of Cagliari, followed by Dani Sordo (penalized for false start) and Mikkelsen.
On the second day, new surprise with Hayden Paddon winning the first Friday 3 sections, and at the end of SS 4 led the rally with 25.3 s lead over Latvala and Ogier on 27.5.
Latvala lost fourth place already on the link for assistance park to Hayden Paddon, who was the best Hyundai, a race in which four cars of the South Korean brand ended.
