Ford drivers can stop Ogier from taking over the world

Malcolm Wilson says he is confident that Sebastien Ogier won’t be able to achieve the same level of domination that his illustrious Citroen team leader Sebastien Loeb has managed because his two factory drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala are good enough to stop him in his tracks.

Ogier continued to underline has status as Loeb’s future successor by bagging his second victory at world level following a sensational display on Rally Japan last week, which cemented his second place in the drivers’ standings.

But Ford’s rally chief Wilson, who launched an unsuccessful bid to secure Ogier’s services earlier this season, is convinced that Hirvonen and Latvala are good enough to beat Ogier, adding that they could easily have done so in Japan had their cars not been struck down by separate mechanical failures.

“It’s been another incredible performance by Ogier considering he’s never been here before and especially when you look how far ahead he was of Sebastien [Loeb] and Dani [Sordo], who have both been in his team for a long time,” said Wilson. “But I have to say that looking to the longer-term I’m so pleased with the performance of my two guys in Japan.

“It was great to see Mikko back - I always knew he would come back - and how well Jari has driven. I’m very confident that without their problems either one of them could have won this rally. We know we’ve been behind a bit recently but we’ve got back to where we need to be, we proved that in Finland and we also proved it gain in Japan. Unfortunately we had some bad luck in Japan, which has cost us.”

Latvala’s third place in Sapporo means he consolidates his third place in the drivers’ table with three events remaining. Hirvonen, who fell to sixth in Japan following a hydraulic failure, is sixth in the title reckoning, 13 points behind Sordo.