Two hundred World Rally Championship starts, eight world titles, 66 wins and 113 podiums. These are the phenomenal statistics belonging to Sebastien Ogier, and after his latest victory in Chile last weekend, eight world titles could soon become a record-equalling nine.
Chile provided a perfect illustration why Ogier is regarded by many as the greatest of all time. And what is worrying for Ogier’s rivals as this year’s title race reaches its climax, is that judging by his performance in Chile, the 41-year-old seems to be getting better.
“I was not really planning on that [200 WRC starts],” said Ogier, pre-Chile. “It is nice to still be here and more importantly be competitive and that is why I’m still here. I know that that my boss Jari-Matti Latvala is proud of his record for most starts [212] and I think he might be scared that at some point I might have even more than him. I want to win every rally I start and that is the plan this weekend.”
Competitive is an understatement as a quick glance at Ogier’s numbers since he called time on his full-time WRC career, after securing an eighth title in 2021, reveals. Since he has gone part-time Ogier has contested 32 of the 50 WRC rallies, winning 12 and finishing on the podium 22 times. In this period only two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera has taken more victories (15). It underlines that Ogier has lost none of his talent.
When it comes to winning rallies, Ogier has that art down to a tee. Chile was another example of how this winning machine is showing no signs of stopping. In Paraguay, Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais produced a stunning fightback from a puncture to win. In Chile, the pair also had a fight on their hands as they recovered from a set-up misdirection before coming through an intense head-to-head with team-mate Elfyn Evans to score a maximum points haul.
Perhaps the most talked about struggle Ogier faced was being awake for the first stages of the day. On Friday and Saturday the Frenchman felt he was too cautious and not delivering his best. That was corrected for Sunday where his true colours were on full display as Ogier dug deep to blow away the opposition, adding the full 10 Super Sunday points on top of his 66th win.
Ogier now leads the 2025 WRC standings despite skipping three of 11 rounds thus far
Photo by: Toyota Racing
Sunday’s performance had been coming. Ogier was on course to complete a maximum points haul in Paraguay only for a late rain shower to leave the Toyota driver visibly angry and frustrated at being denied what he felt he deserved. If Ogier’s frustration and decision not to celebrate victory as he crossed the finish line in Paraguay laid bare his desire for a ninth world title, then last Sunday’s Power Stage display underlined that. At one point Ogier was down on the splits by 0.9s to reigning champion Thierry Neuville with a kilometre remaining. However, a quite mesmerising final split saw Ogier take risks to ultimately snatch the five bonus points by 0.4s.
This time there were celebrations at the finish as Ogier not only snatched the championship lead by two points from Elfyn Evans, despite sitting out three rallies, he also claimed Toyota’s 103rd WRC win to eclipse Citroen’s WRC win record.
“Like we wanted. It has been a more difficult weekend than Paraguay,” said Ogier. “We had to fight a bit more, we had a little issue in the mornings as I was not awake but we can be pleased with the way we ended up. The points are what we deserve after we lost some to God weather in Paraguay, I’m happy with that and I’m looking forward to switching to tarmac.”
“After 200 starts you can still get it wrong on the set-up, but it has not happened too often in my career. Often I am able to handle the car I’m driving but this morning something was missing” Sebastien Ogier
When asked how he is able to pull off these results, he added: “I think it is many things that have come together. Vincent is doing a great job on my side, always perfect. The team give me good tools to fight with, so thank you guys, it is amazing. Now we are number one – a record for Toyota more than deserved.”
This result, however, seemed somewhat of a long shot for Ogier come the end of Friday morning after dropping 9.2s in the opening stage, followed by a 4.5s loss in the second. A rare miscalculation on set up for the damp gravel stages left Ogier to admit he was “struggling with the car”. After his Paraguay dominance the lack of speed came as a shock to many.
“In the last stage I was really pushing and driving on the limit of what I have but it was not as fast as Elfyn, so luckily there is a service now. After 200 starts you can still get it wrong on the set-up, but it has not happened too often in my career. Often I am able to handle the car I’m driving but this morning something was missing,” Ogier explained after reaching service 13.9s adrift in fourth position.
His win in Chile wasn’t so straightforward
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
It is fair to say that this midday service provided a platform for what was to come.
“I was slow to get going. Actually we had to change quite a lot,” Ogier said after sealing the win. “The Friday stages are very different from the rest of the weekend. But at midday service we changed everything, the differential, the suspension and quite a few things to make me have a car that I’m used to having. It was working and it was not the only thing.
“The situation in the morning was not ideal with the grip and a little bit better for the frontrunners but we had some bad stages this week, two at least on Friday and Saturday morning, but other than that I think we have been doing quite a strong job.”
The changes helped but come the end of Friday the rally had already seen four drivers enjoy spells in the lead and Ogier was not among them. Toyota team-mate Rovanpera won the first two stages to race into 5.8s lead over Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, before a rare mistake effectively ended his victory hopes. Swiping a bank in stage three knocked a left-rear tyre off the rim, costing the Finn more than a minute and ultimately he could only recover to sixth at the finish, 21 points away from the championship lead.
Rovanpera’s demise handed the lead to Evans by 0.5s from Tanak, but that was short-lived as Tanak stormed ahead on stage four. After stage five, Hyundai held a 1-2-3 with Ogier in fifth 18.5s adrift, although that changed when Tanak’s engine cried enough. Ogier did light up the times in stage six with his first stage win of the event to rocket up to third, 2.3s behind Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, as 13.1s separated the top five.
When the rain hit on Saturday morning Hyundai slid backwards scrambling for grip and the Toyotas of Evans and Ogier came to the fore. Evans excelled in the conditions to shoot from fifth to a 5.6s lead over Ogier come the midday service.
Mixed weather conditions were a highlight of the Rally Chile weekend
Photo by: M-Sport
It was in the afternoon in drying conditions where Ogier was simply untouchable, now locked in a head-to-head with Evans. This was confirmed by the timing screens as the 41-year-old won six of the final seven stages. Ogier’s ability to be kind on his tyres on the abrasive gravel was key as the Frenchman took a clean sweep of Saturday afternoon’s stages to overhaul Evans, who faced marginally worse road conditions compared to his team-mate.
Only 6.3s separated the duo heading into Sunday. Evans did take a nibble out of the lead by ending Ogier’s stage winning streak in stage 14, but there was nothing that could stop Ogier from taking the win by 11.0s. Fourmaux delivered some joy for Hyundai in third, albeit 46.5s behind.
For Evans, he knows he is in for some fight to win a maiden WRC title. Four times he has been runner-up in the championship and two of those have been to Ogier in 2020 and 2021.
“I think it is no secret that he is probably one of the best that there ever was in this sport and that is not by fluke. He is going to take some beating over the next three rounds but we will give it our best shot” Elfyn Evans
To rub further salt into Evans’ wounds, after leading the championship for the majority of the season an opportunity to make that advantage count has been snatched away from him. Ogier is seemingly timing his run to perfection as he will now have the best road position on asphalt in Central Europe next month as championship leader.
“We paid a big price for being first on the road on Friday afternoon. Otherwise, I think we have done a pretty solid job, but Seb is very strong and tough to beat,” said Evans.
“I think it is no secret that he is probably one of the best that there ever was in this sport and that is not by fluke. He is going to take some beating over the next three rounds but we will give it our best shot.”
Evans has finished runner-up in four of the past five WRC campaigns
Photo by: Toyota Racing
At the end of Paraguay, Ogier said he will win this championship. After his showing in Chile, that is looking a very real prospect if this form continues across the final three rounds in Central Europe, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
“I could say [this year has been] close to perfect because after eight rallies we have had five wins and we have always been on the podium and average [round] points of 28,” said Ogier. “It is amazing but I’m well aware that it is close to impossible to make a perfect season. It has never been done before. There are three rallies to go and an opportunity to achieve that, but it is going to be difficult, so no time to relax just yet.”
An Ogier that has “no time to relax” is an Ogier his rivals should fear as the WRC season reaches its climax.
Ogier leads the championship by just two points
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
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