Ogier was angry by rain that denied him strong Sunday points, but now recognizes the positives in victory
Photography by Toyota
Words by Luke Barry & David Evans
Normally when drivers win a round of the World Rally Championship, they jump out of the car, climb onto the roof, let out a couple of ‘woops’ and conduct a post-stage interview with a smile beaming across their face.
Not Sébastien Ogier in Paraguay.
Heavy rain had battered down on the powerstage in time to ruin things for him and Adrien Fourmaux. Ogier kept his victory, but any strong Super Sunday points – and hopes of claiming bonus points from the powerstage – had been erased.
“How unlucky can you be?” he rued, staying in the cockpit of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. Anger was overriding joy, and Ogier delivered a defiant line.
“But we will keep winning [rallies], and we will win this championship.”
Ogier will stand by that sentiment now, but the passage of a couple of hours has at least allowed him to enjoy his rally win too.
“I needed a bit of time,” Ogier told DirtFish, “and now obviously, of course, I’m still happy with this weekend. It’s still a great result and a lot of [positives].
“The win is obviously the main thing. The fact that we clearly dominated in terms of pace is another good thing, you know, thinking about these remaining rallies of the season.
“And yeah, in the moment, of course, I was like… you deserve more. As a competitor, I cannot, you know, be happy in this moment. But OK, the podium streak still goes on for me with another win this year. So yeah, I’m definitely going to have a glass of wine tonight and enjoy my flight back home.”
Before the powerstage, Ogier had been leading the Super Sunday standings with Elfyn Evans down in fourth. Ogier and Evans therefore started that final stage provisionally level on championship points.
Evans' championship lead was only clipped by four points after an eventful powerstage
But eventually, Ogier was just fifth in Super Sunday while Evans claimed third, two points on the powerstage and moved from third to second place overall as Fourmaux dropped back to fourth. That means Evans leaves Paraguay with a nine-point lead.
“Unfortunately, it’s rally,” Ogier said. “Things like this happen and [there’s] nothing you can do. Luckily, nobody can control the weather still. And yeah, this rain just came five, six minutes too early for both of us.
“Only some drops would have been OK, but the way it went, then we just had no chance.”
The championship fight is very much alive though.
“That’s why we are here, that’s our mission now,” Ogier stated. “Like I said, the podium streak goes on and we definitely have the target to keep that going up to the end of the season and add some more wins.”
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Rally del Paraguay, Rally del Paraguay 2025, Sébastien Ogier, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date August 31, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/08/s7LZdTY3-Ogier10PAR25cm702-780x520.jpg August 31, 2025
Up Next
