Ogier wins the Race of Champions

4th December 2011

Sebastien Ogier saw off a horde of star names from Formula 1, sportscars and touring cars as he claimed victory in the Race of Champions at the first attempt.

On the weekend that marked his official debut as a Volkswagen driver - the ex-Citroen man giving the VW Polo WRC its first public airing with some demonstration runs before the RoC proper got underway - Ogier defeated eight-time Le Mans winner in the final in Dusseldorf to give the rally world its first RoC win since Sebastien Loeb's 2008 triumph.

Ogier beat DTM men Mattias Ekstrom and Martin Tomczyk in the heats, dismissed multiple touring car champion Andy Priaulx in their quarter final in VW Sciroccos and then came up against Tomczyk again in Audi R8 sportscars in the semis and won again.

The final did not need to go to a decider, as Ogier beat Kristensen in both the RoC buggy and then the Audi R8 to claim the top honours.

The only defeat for Ogier came in his heat against Jan Kopecky. Driving the Skoda Fabia S2000 that Kopecky has used in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge for the last three years and which Ogier will become very familiar with in the World Rally Championship next year, an ultra-close head to head was narrowly won by Kopecky.

That proved to be the Czech's only win of the afternoon, and he was eliminated in the group stages along with Skoda team-mate Juho Hanninen, whose sole win came against Brian Deegan. Deegan and fellow American rally ace Travis Pastrana again gave it everything in typically flamboyant style, but did not make the quarter finals.