The top 10 WRC drivers of 2015

Ten podiums and eight wins from 13 starts mark Sebastien Ogier out as a clear number one in Autosport's World Rally Championship top 10. But where then?

Beyond the Frenchman's standout, hat-trick clinching season, there have been some spellbinding drives: Jari-Matti Latvala in Portugal, Hayden Paddon in Sardinia are the obvious ones, but what about Esapekka Lappi in Finland or Sebastien Loeb in the first half of Monte Carlo?

Those and more have shaped a scintillating and riveting season in the World Rally Championship. Here are ten men who made the WRC year super-special.

1 SEBASTIEN OGIER
VOLKSWAGEN
Rally wins: 8
Stage wins: 86
Championship: 1st, 263 points

Such has been the performance of Sebastien Ogier this season that winning and sheer brilliance are nothing new.

The champ being a champ is not news. So, the standout moment has to be crashing out of the lead on the final stage in Spain.

The shock and awe in the media centre wouldn't have been more profound if VW chief Jost Capito had run around the service park with his underpants on his head. If the road had been an inch or two wider on the exit of that penultimate powerstage left-hander, Ogier would have had the perfect season he so richly deserved.

There's always next year.

2 KRIS MEEKE
CITROEN
Rally wins: 1
Stage wins: 12
Championship: 5th, 112 points

The first two-thirds of Kris Meeke's season was such an emotional rollercoaster, it could have been written by Charlotte Bronte.

He arrived in Argentina needing a result, won there, backed it up with a solid fourth in Portugal... then crashed in Italy and Poland (yes, the shakedown's not the rally proper, but there was still some bent metal with his name on it...), Finland and Germany.

Since Trier, Meeke balanced ballsy with brilliant to guide his career back onto the right path. Were he in a Polo, he'd have won more than once this season.

3 JARI-MATTI LATVALA
VOLKSWAGEN
Rally wins: 3
Stage wins: 43
Championship: 2nd, 183 points

Another year and another missed opportunity.

Jari-Matti Latvala's season was undone in the first four rounds. After Argentina, the Finn was already 65 points behind Ogier. Nobody can give the flying Frenchman that kind of start and still beat him.

He took a huge confidence boost from beating Ogier fair and square in Finland again (his win in Portugal was good, but Ogier's road position slowed him much more on the first two days) and carried it into the second half of the year. A second-stage shunt in Wales undid that good work.

HAYDEN PADDON
HYUNDAI
Rally wins: 0
Stage wins: 2
Championship: 9th, 84 points

Fifth in Sweden at the start of the season confirmed he still had the ability to drive a mature and sensible race, gathering experience along the way.

But what about some speed? That came in Sardinia. Admittedly, the road he saw 10 cars down on Ogier offered more grip, but the Kiwi drove very well to lead through leg one. He then had real steel to hold it together when a gearbox problem dropped him to second. That result and fourth in Poland covered the speed question.

He and Neuville were a Hyundai see-saw this season; it's the Belgian's seat on the floor.

5 ANDREAS MIKKELSEN
VOLKSWAGEN
Rally wins: 1
Stage wins: 14
Championship: 3rd, 171 points

His best season yet. He has put the luxury of a long-term contract with the best-funded team and the fastest car to very good use.

Mikkelsen continued to show great consistency, but the speed's still only coming in flashes. He needs to find that exquisite cocktail of consistent speed if he's going to pose a serious threat to his colleagues next year.

He deserved a win in Sweden, where he was exceptional, but finally broke the duck in Spain. Holding Latvala off for second was a worthy of a win, but you could have knocked him down with a feather when it materialised.

6 ROBERT KUBICA
RK WORLD RALLY TEAM
Rally wins: 0
Stage wins: 8
Championship: 12th, 11 points

Astonishingly, there are some folk out there who question Robert Kubica's ability.

Here's an idea: when the snow comes, take your car out, turn off any electronic assistance, chuck it at a corner and try to catch it. Oh... and do it with a cup of coffee in your right hand. Obviously, don't do that. You'll make a mess.

With his limitations, that's what Kubica's doing all the time. Again this year, when it's all worked for him, he's shown why he would have been an F1 world champion and why, if there were any justice, he would be a World Rally champion.

7 MADS OSTBERG
CITROEN
Rally wins: 0
Stage wins: 8
Championship: 4th, 116 points

There's an argument for Mads being higher up the order this year; he has, after all, finished fourth in the championship. But this season just doesn't seem to have clicked for the likeable Norwegian.

And this isn't in any way all Mads' fault - Citroen hasn't delivered a car capable of challenging Volkswagen. Consistency has, at times this year, been a bit of watchword for Ostberg and while that might net him fourth in the standings, it's not going to set anybody's trousers on fire.

He's got the speed, now he needs to use it a bit more often.

8 NASSER AL-ATTIYAH
WRC2 FIESTA
Rally wins: 3 WRC2 wins
Championship: 1st in WRC2, 112 points

Nasser Al-Attiyah wins again. And again. It was a running theme through the season, starting with his second win in the Dakar - a result he made look far more straightforward than it was.

From then on, he didn't look back and dominated both the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies and the Middle East Rally Championship. It was much the same through the early part of WRC2 before he crashed in Poland and Germany, making the job harder than it might have been.

In the end, he sealed a third FIA title by a tenth of a second in Corsica.

9 ELFYN EVANS
M-SPORT
Rally wins: 0
Stage wins: 2
Championship: 7th, 89 points

Are we being overly generous with ninth? Quite possibly, especially as his M-Sport team-mate Ott Tanak doesn't even feature in the top 10.

He's Richard Burns the second, this one. And, given time, Burnsie became a world champion and the world's fastest rally driver - the two don't necessarily go hand in hand.

In future, we need to see more of the early speed in Finland, where he was fearless and rocket-propelled before sliding wide and hitting a rock. And more of the confidence from Corsica. But Australia can never happen again. He can do it.

10 THIERRY NEUVILLE
HYUNDAI
Rally wins: 0
Stage wins: 8
Championship: 6th, 90 points

Tenth was tricky: Thierry Neuville or Dani Sordo? Across the season, Sordo probably deserves it more - he's been a bit more consistent.

But I'm a Neuville believer. Speaking plainly, he's been rubbish in the second half of this year, a shadow of the man we saw carrying the fight to the VWs in Sweden and in the first half of Mexico. But Hyundai must shoulder some of the blame for that. He has, to my mind, been badly managed.

Somehow he needs to find his mojo again, especially with Paddon's feet further beneath the Hyundai table.

MISSING OUT...

No Dani Sordo? Wasn't I watching Ott Tanak's extraordinary drive to the podium in Poland? And Kris Meeke second? I know, I did thought about putting him top as well... Just kidding.

This part's not about the justification of the top drivers listed above. It's an opportunity to name check those who came close. And Quentin Gilbert has to be right up there. The Frenchman won five from six Junior WRC rounds and such domination can't be ignored.

But it does need to be put into the context of the competition. At the start of 2015, this was a quality JWRC field. But when some of the top runners - Osian Pryce and Henri Haapamaki most notably - knocked their programme on the head mid-year, it took some of the shine off Gilbert's brilliant season.

Esapekka Lappi and Pontus Tidemand were both on the fringes of the top 10 as well. Skoda's all-new Fabia R5 was the weapon of choice in WRC2, certainly once the teething troubles had been sorted, and Lappi's drive in Finland to win almost at a canter was classic - as was Tidemand's quick and controlled victory in Spain.

And if we're talking about those two, it's only fair to mention Ford Fiesta RRC runner Yurii Protasov, who drove well all year to keep himself in WRC2 contention and ended the season second in class.

But what about Sordo? What do we think? He was in the top six on more than half the rounds this year and that sort of consistency has to count for something. Does he set your socks on fire? He's still pacey, but he's not about the explode out of the blocks and lead from the front in a ragged-edge display of heroism between the trees. But he is usually at the finish and has scored points on all-but two of the rallies he started.

He's a lovely bloke and I don't want to seem overly harsh on him. Here's a deal: let's park this one until next year. Let's make a full and final appraisal after he's had a year what looks like being a good Hyundai next season. That's fair, let's give him a season in a smart car. Hang on...

And finally... Tanak. There's no doubting the boy's got the balls - you can't do what he did in Poland without them. But does he have the head? Ultimately, Rally GB was a massive disappointment for Tanak and his M-Sport team-mate Elfyn Evans. They were both told to put their Fiestas on the door handles on Deeside and neither came close.

Is there room for Sebastien Loeb? Go on then... his effort to eclipse Ogier by 30 seconds on the season's first stage can't go unmentioned. Still a hero.