Sébastien Ogier’s triumph over his World Championship successor, Kalle Rovanperä, at the Rally Spain does not give him any particular satisfaction.
At the Rally Spain, the penultimate round of the 2022 World Rally Championship (WRC), Sébastien Ogier once again showed his class in a Toyota. In a commanding manner, the eight-time world champion drove to his first victory in the hybrid era of the WRC, beating his successor on the WRC throne, Kalle Rovanperä, among others.
However, this triumph does not give Ogier any particular satisfaction. “I didn’t have to prove anything here,” said the Frenchman when asked at the press conference after the rally. “In my opinion, Kalle deserves to be world champion, there’s nothing more to say about that.”
Of course, Ogier is very happy about his first WRC victory since the Monza Rally in November 2021. “Of course it’s always nice [zu gewinnen]and of course it’s been a while, but I’ve only driven four rallies this year.”
Ogier is now the second most successful driver in rally history
“I was missing a bit of luck,” says Ogier, also with a view to the 2022 Monte-Carlo Rally, where he lost victory to his long-time rival Sebastien Loeb only due to a puncture, “but finally we had a weekend where everything went for us worked.”
“The feeling in the Yaris was just fantastic and I was able to do whatever I wanted with the car this weekend. It was a perfect weekend, the car was great, I enjoyed the stages and it’s nice to have the manufacturers’ title befitting Toyota The team has done a great job all year and it’s more than deserved,” Ogier continued.
With his 55th victory, Ogier consolidated second place in the list of the most successful drivers in WRC history. In addition, he now belongs to the exclusive club of drivers who have won at least one World Championship round in ten consecutive seasons. Before Ogier, only Loeb, Jari-Matti Latvala and Colin McRae managed this.
“It’s good [zu wissen]”, says Ogier when he was made aware of the statistics. “Statistics are always nice to read, but of course I don’t drive because of that. For me it’s more important that I still enjoy what I’m doing and that I have the opportunity to be competitive in some rallies with a great team around me. That means a lot to me.”