At number 16 in our countdown of the biggest motorsport stories of the year comes Volkswagen's shock pull-out from the World Rally Championship - and Sebastien Ogier's subsequent switch to M-Sport. After four seasons of Volkswagen hegemony, it’s almost hard to remember a time Sebastien Ogier and the Polo R WRC weren’t rallying's dominant force. The stats speak for themselves: from 2013 to 2016, in the 52 events it entered, the Hannover marque secured no fewer than 43 wins – all but 12 of which were scored by Ogier – and failed to get car on the podium just three times. Of 980 special stages, a VW driver won 622 times. That the 2016 campaign was statistically the least impressive of...
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