July 5, 2015 – Sebastien Ogier repelled team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen’s fierce challenge to secure his second consecutive Rally Poland victory on Sunday and net his fifth FIA World Rally Championship success in seven rounds.
He won by 11.9sec after almost 300km of super-fast action in north-east Poland, leaving his Volkswagen team-mate still searching for his maiden victory. Ott Tänak equalled his career-best result in third after Jari-Matti Latvala crashed in the final speed test.
Ogier’s victory was achieved the hard way. As road opener for the first two legs, he was disadvantaged by cleaning gravel from the sandy tracks for most of the rally and had Mikkelsen breathing down his neck from the moment he took the lead on Friday afternoon.
The Polo R duo were split by 2.1sec after the opening leg, Ogier had eked his advantage out to 5.6sec by last night and completed victory with a flourish today by claiming maximum bonus points for winning the final live TV Power Stage.
Tänak, who led briefly on Friday afternoon, and Jari-Matti Latvala fought tooth and nail for the final podium place. They started the last stage separated by 1.1sec but the Estonian secured third in a Ford Fiesta RS when Latvala hit a tree with a handful of kilometres left.