{"id":65125,"date":"2025-11-29T19:31:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/?p=65125"},"modified":"2026-02-24T19:35:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:35:25","slug":"ogier-crowned-nine-time-wrc-champion-as-neuville-wins-saudi-arabia-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/ogier-crowned-nine-time-wrc-champion-as-neuville-wins-saudi-arabia-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"Ogier crowned nine-time WRC champion as Neuville wins Saudi Arabia finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e9bastien Ogier clinched a ninth World Rally Championship title on Saturday afternoon* as Thierry Neuville won a bruising Rally Saudi Arabia to close a dramatic 2025 season.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ogier started the three-stage final day just one position ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Elfyn Evans and holding a provisional two-point advantage, but a decisive charge on the penultimate Asfan stage – where he climbed from sixth to third overall – put the title firmly in his grasp. A measured run through the Wolf Power Stage then sealed the championship, drawing the 41-year-old level with compatriot S\u00e9bastien Loeb\u2019s all-time record.<\/p>\n

The triumph also delivered a maiden world title for co-driver Vincent Landais, who joined Ogier in late 2022.<\/p>\n

Ogier\u2019s surge on Asfan came as overnight leader M\u0101rti\u0146\u0161 Sesks and Kalle Rovanper\u00e4 both stopped to change wheels, while Takamoto Katsuta rolled his GR Yaris Rally1. Evans also climbed the order, but the gap between their final positions meant the Welshman was forced to settle for being championship runner-up for a fifth time, falling short by four points in one of the closest finishes in recent memory.<\/p>\n

Competing on a part-time basis, Ogier and Landais\u2019 2025 campaign has been remarkable. Despite missing three rallies, they claimed wins on more than half their starts and finished the year with more stage victories than any other pairing.<\/p>\n

“What a season, that’s for sure,\u201d Ogier said. \u201cWhat a fight with Elfyn and Scott, honestly. There is only a great champion when you have a great opponent, and they’ve been super strong, pushing us to the limit up to the very last stage of the year. Well done to those guys, anyway, and to the whole Toyota Gazoo Racing team. It’s been such a successful season. Proud and very happy to be part of this family.”<\/p>\n

Neuville wrapped up the rally victory – his first of the season – by 54.7sec after moving past Sesks on Saturday\u2019s opener. Persistent damper trouble made the closing kilometres tense, but the Belgian kept his i20 N Rally1 clear of the chaos behind him. Adrien Fourmaux completed a Hyundai 1-2, though the Frenchman was left to rue what could have been a maiden WRC win after a one-minute time penalty for an early check-in dropped him out of the lead on Friday evening.<\/p>\n

“It has been a super tough season, but to finish with an unexpected victory is obviously a great feeling,\u201d Neuville said. \u201cNext season arrives fast. There’s a lot of work left, so we have a lot of work in front of us over the next weeks to be better prepared for next year. It’s a tough challenge, but we will try to keep fighting. Hopefully we get all the support we need for a better year next year.”<\/p>\n

Sami Pajari recovered strongly from his Friday wheel change to finish fourth, 8.2sec ahead of Katsuta\u2019s battered Toyota, as Evans and Rovanper\u00e4 placed sixth and seventh in their similar GR Yaris Rally1 cars.<\/p>\n

M-Sport Ford sensation Sesks remained one of the standout stories of the rally. He and co-driver Renars Francis won five stages and led heading into the final day before their double puncture on Asfan cost almost eight minutes. They retired before the final stage, promoting Puma Rally1 team-mates Gr\u00e9goire Munster and Josh McErlean to eighth and ninth while Oliver Solberg completed the top 10.<\/p>\n

The FIA World Rally Championship is set to deliver even more excitement in 2026, beginning at Rallye Monte-Carlo from 22 – 25 January.<\/p>\n

*Subject to confirmation of the results by the FIA<\/em><\/p>\n

Rally Saudi Arabia classification:<\/strong>
\n1. T Neuville \/ M Wydaeghe BEL Hyundai i20 N Rally1 3h 21m 17.3s
\n2. A Fourmaux \/ A Coria FRA Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +54.7s
\n3. S Ogier \/ V Landais FRA Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1m03.3s
\n4. S Pajari \/ M Salminen FIN Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1m51.7s
\n5. T Katsuta \/ A Johnston JPN Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1m59.9s
\n6. E Evans \/ S Martin GBR Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +3m43.9s<\/p>\n

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers:<\/strong>
\n1. S Ogier 293pts
\n2. E Evans 289pts
\n3. K Rovanper\u00e4 256pts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S\u00e9bastien Ogier clinched a ninth World Rally Championship title on Saturday afternoon* as Thierry Neuville won a bruising Rally Saudi Arabia to close a dramatic 2025 season. Ogier started the three-stage final day just one position ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Elfyn Evans and holding a provisional two-point advantage, but a decisive charge on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[525,524,287,523],"class_list":{"0":"post-65125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wrc","8":"tag-rally-saudi-arabia","9":"tag-sebastien-ogier","10":"tag-thierry-neuville","11":"tag-world-rally-championship"},"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65128,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65125\/revisions\/65128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}