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We'll be back on Autosport Live for our Brazilian Grand Prix coverage in about three hours' time, and in non-F1 mode for the World Endurance Championship and NASCAR title deciders, plus the Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix next weekend. See you then.
Final overall result:
1 Ogier
2 Meeke +26.0s
3 Mikkelsen +36.2s
4 Sordo +2m51.3s
5 Paddon +3m00.5s
6 Evans +3m09.1s
7 Ostberg +4m28.4s
8 Lefebvre +5m38.4s
9 Kubica +6m22.7s
10 Bertelli +8m05.0s
1 Ogier
2 Meeke +26.0s
3 Mikkelsen +36.2s
4 Sordo +2m51.3s
5 Paddon +3m00.5s
6 Evans +3m09.1s
7 Ostberg +4m28.4s
8 Lefebvre +5m38.4s
9 Kubica +6m22.7s
10 Bertelli +8m05.0s
Information
Last-gasp heartbreak in WRC2: that turbo problem slows Camilli enough for Suninen to pinch the win on the last stage!
Powerstage results:
1 Latvala 6m50.3s
2 Mikkelsen +2.4s
3 Kubica +3.5s
4 Meeke +8.4s
5 Paddon +8.7s
6 Evans +9.6s
1 Latvala 6m50.3s
2 Mikkelsen +2.4s
3 Kubica +3.5s
4 Meeke +8.4s
5 Paddon +8.7s
6 Evans +9.6s
The top three crews head to the temporary podium on a very wet hillside and pose with the French flag. Subdued, respectful and appropriate.
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He's done it!! @SebOgier has won @WalesRallyGB ! Congrats, Seb! #GOgier #WRGB #volkswagenscandal
"It's the best way to finish the season sportingly, but there's no point to celebrate anything today. We have faraway things in mind. It's been a difficult weekend but we have to carry on," he says.
Ogier and co-driver Ingrassia simply get out of the car and unfurl a French flag across their VW's windscreen.
Checkered flag
Ogier is in, only ninth fastest on the stage, but he's the Rally GB winner for a third straight year.
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"That's both boxes ticked," says Meeke - second in the rally, second for the team in the points. He says he's really enjoyed the weekend, but he sounds pretty muted. And when quizzed about 2016 plans, he talks about the attention his garden needs...
Meeke completes the stage pretty cautiously and is a Rally GB podium finisher! Second place at home is his by 10.2s!
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"I was like 'I'll give it a small go'..." admits Mikkelsen.
(Unless he gets another surprise like Catalunya)
Mikkelsen makes it through safely, 2.4s slower than Latvala on the stage and set for third overall.
Body language of Mikkelsen's car can be summarised as 'not hanging about'. He really is keeping Meeke on his toes.
A quiet seventh place on the powerstage secures fourth in the rally for Sordo. Unless something painful happens for Meeke in the next few minutes, Citroen is going to beat Hyundai to second in the manufacturers' championship.
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"It's been a difficult weekend, but we got the result we wanted. OK, we didn't do it on outright speed, but we've made steady improvements. Really looking forward to next year now with the new car and hopefully a new and improved me as well," says Paddon.
Kubica is still second fastest on this stage, by the way. That's very decent.
Paddon ends his year with fifth place on Rally GB, adding another nine tenths to his cushion over Evans on this final stage so he beats the Welshman by eight seconds overall.
Evans did have that extraordinary second place on merit in Corsica (a very different place to Wales), of course.
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"It was a a tricky stage to end on, a lot of water since the first pass this morning," says Evans as he puts a woolly hat on, wisely.
"We've put a massive effort in this year. We haven't had luck on our side at some stages and the feeling hasn't been there at others. There's definitely been progress."
"We've put a massive effort in this year. We haven't had luck on our side at some stages and the feeling hasn't been there at others. There's definitely been progress."
Second fastest for Evans on the stage so far. He was 7s behind Paddon though and that's a lot to regain on a stage of this length, even if you did grow up here.
Next up: a bit of a battle - Evans versus Paddon for fifth overall.
Paddon has job security: he's been excellent for Hyundai next year and will be with the team again next season. For Evans, the future is less certain.
Another man in a Citroen comes through - its young rising star Stephane Lefebvre is a touch slower than Ostberg and clinches eighth place overall. Does he need to change his name to Sebastien Lefebvre to be confident of future success? The statistics suggest so.
Mads Ostberg is third fastest on the stage behind Latvala and Kubica, and will be seventh overall on the rally. What next for him? Overshadowed by Meeke in pace terms this year and yet to secure his future. The fourth place he held before going off yesterday would've been a much healthier way to finish his year than this delayed seventh.
Another point for Italian privateer Lorenzo Bertelli and his profane twitter handle and team name. He's slowest on the stage so far but clinches 10th overall.
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Robert Kubica is through, 5s slower than Latvala, and set to clinch ninth place - only his third points finish of the year.
Will he be back in 2016?
"It seems like everybody wants to see me [in the WRC], but those people aren't deciding. I would like to do a bit more because I feel like I really improved this year. In the second half of the season I didn't manage any good results, but most of the time that was because of technical problems."
But he adds that trying to compete against the works cars is "impossible"...
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"It was more difficult in the afternoon than the morning because even though the water has washed away the mud, there was a lot more standing water in the road," says Latvala.
Stopwatch
Latvala blasts in 17.7s faster than Prokop. After his Friday morning crash and Saturday morning transmission failure, Latvala is somewhere around 50th overall (out of 60-ish) but he's been quickest on every stage today so far. Powerstage win coming up too?
Stopwatch
A 7m08.0s from Prokop gets us going.
Is that another man saying goodbye to the WRC? He's doing the Dakar Rally next year and isn't sure what will come after that.
Is that another man saying goodbye to the WRC? He's doing the Dakar Rally next year and isn't sure what will come after that.
There's a huge amount of standing water on this stage. It looks like a lengthy watersplash but it's just epic puddles.
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Slight change to the running order for the TV audience, with Moffett brothers Sam and Josh's moment in the spotlight ending as they have to wait till the WRC regulars have all been through. And having been first on the road all morning (not a bad thing when it's this wet and muddy), Latvala is second in behind Prokop this time.
This is Elfyn Evans' verdict on our concluding stage:
SS19 Brenig (6.61 miles)
Brenig is very different in character to the rest of the rally. The roads are more artificial than you find in a true forest stage, and there’s a section on Tarmac in the middle as well. But the gravel surface and character are still good. It’s very open in parts – particularly alongside the reservoir – making it a little more difficult to read the road without the trees. This is the powerstage again this year and, if the weather’s with us, I can’t imagine a better view from the final stopline of the season!
SS19 Brenig (6.61 miles)
Brenig is very different in character to the rest of the rally. The roads are more artificial than you find in a true forest stage, and there’s a section on Tarmac in the middle as well. But the gravel surface and character are still good. It’s very open in parts – particularly alongside the reservoir – making it a little more difficult to read the road without the trees. This is the powerstage again this year and, if the weather’s with us, I can’t imagine a better view from the final stopline of the season!
That was Colin McRae becoming Britain's first WRC champion in Chester in 1995. Six years later, Richard Burns would become the next.
Since the third place that sealed that result for Burns, there hasn't been a Briton on the Rally GB podium. But within the next hour, Kris Meeke should change that. He currently runs second.
Since the third place that sealed that result for Burns, there hasn't been a Briton on the Rally GB podium. But within the next hour, Kris Meeke should change that. He currently runs second.
And that means it's 20 years since the final WRC stage of 1995, so...
Welcome back, it's the final stage of 2015.
By: Matt Beer
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