Ogier eyes top 10 for Volkswagen

Volkswagen Motorsport will celebrate the one-year anniversary of its return to the FIA World Rally Championship when Sebastien Ogier and Andreas Mikkelsen drive its brace of Skoda Fabia Super 2000s on Neste Oil Rally Finland this week.

The German squad began its acclimatisation programme for its Polo R-based World Rally Car bid in 2013 on the Jyvaskyla-based round 12 months ago with a pair of Fabias for Mikkelsen and Finnish driver Joonas Lindroos. It hadn’t competed in the series since 1991.

Since then, Volkswagen has signed Sebastien Ogier as its number one driver and progressed the development of its Polo R WRC challenger to the extent it has been linked to a full public airing on Italy’s round of the world championship in October.

Ogier is using the Finnish event primarily to build his experience of the high-speed gravel stages and to gain vital data for the Polo project. However, he believes a point-scoring finish is a strong possibility despite his S2000-specification Fabia putting out less power than the top-of-the-range World Rally Cars from Citroen, Ford and MINI.

“In Finland, you’ve got to have 100 per cent trust in the car,” said Frenchman Ogier. “If you do, then there’s no nicer rally on the calendar. I love driving there. I think with our Skoda a place among the top 10 is realistic. We’ll also benefit from the experiences we gathered there in the test with the Polo R WRC.”

Volkswagen Motorsport chief Jost Capito added: “The gravel tracks with numerous big jumps put both the drivers and the cars to a tough test. But the mood of the fans in Finland is always very special too. There’s hardly another country in which enthusiasm for rally racing is equally strong.”