The top 10 WRC drivers of 2014

Finally, Volkswagen stuck to the script. Last year was about learning (and it won as well). This was the year for winning. Good. Glad Hannover got that straight. Might have gone a bit far with the winning thing, though.

Drivers' title, won; manufacturers' title, won; 12 from 13 rallies, won.

This year definitely had a theme to it. It was the World Rally Championship's version of the 1988 Formula 1 season. On the face of it, such dominance can look predictable and monotonous. It was neither.

Sebastien Ogier remained the dominant force, but with another season of experience in the team under his belt, Jari-Matti Latvala's speed in the sister Polo R WRC was very much on the up.

At the critical point, however, just when the cross hairs were fixed firmly on the forehead of a title challenge, he fluffed it, missed the shot and put his car off the road and into the vineyards. Where it joined Ogier's - the Frenchman having crashed twice in his now-famous mid-season blip. But he recovered and took a second title with a rally to spare.

Hyundai was the only team capable of beating Volkswagen, although Citroen - via Kris Meeke - came close as well. Hyundai's effort merited much applause. Any talk of the Koreans emulating Volkswagen's rookie year of 2013 was laughed off - this was a very different season for those aboard the still-developing i20 WRC. But a podium was had by round three and the maiden win came in Germany.

A factory Citroen failed to win a round of the world championship for the first time since the inception of the Xsara WRC in 2001. But its drivers enjoyed a season of two halves: Meeke struggled with a lack of knowledge of the events in the first half but blossomed in part two, while Mads Ostberg appeared to settle into the DS3 WRC immediately, but then hit trouble as the year progressed. The pair did enough, however, the cement second for Citroen in the makes' race.

Further down the field, Ford Fiesta RRC driver Nasser Al-Attiyah picked up a second career world title after a stunning season in WRC2, while Stephane Lefebvre collected the Junior and WRC3 awards in a Citroen DS3 R3T. Sander Parn was the inaugural Drive DMACK FiestaTrophy winner.

TOP 10 DRIVERS

1 SEBASTIEN OGIER
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
Championship position: 1st, 267 points
Wins: 8

Did he ever really look like losing this year's drivers' title? No. Did he look more vulnerable than last year? From time to time, yes.

Last year the biggest threat came from Sebastien Loeb and with Citroen's superstar having turned part-timer, that threat was only occasional.

This year, his supremacy was threatened by a team-mate in the ascendancy and, surprisingly, by his own fallibility.

In Finland, Germany and early doors in Australia, Ogier wasn't himself. The torment and troubles of a driver who felt targeted by both his fellow drivers and the governing body itself was plain to see.

In stepped the inner steel of a champion. He held his nerve Down Under, overcame an electrical glitch at home in France, took the title in Spain and then delivered a beautiful bow in Wales.

Every driver has a wobble and it usually makes them stronger. If that's the case, Ogier might as well book his seat at next season's FIA Awards now.

2 JARI-MATTI LATVALA
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
Championship position: 2nd, 218 points
Wins: 4

Last year, Latvala couldn't get close to Ogier. Even when he won in Sweden at the start of this season, he won largely because Ogier had planted his Polo in a snowbank.

Argentina was a good win for Latvala, but then there was that pesky delamination for his team-mate. Again, the nagging question: in a straight fight, would he have won?

And then came Finland. My goodness, did Latvala answer that question at home. He was magnificent. In a drive worthy of any one of the great and the good to have graced Jyvaskyla's all-important top step down the years, Latvala beat Ogier not once but twice.

Ordinarily, the brake problem that slashed the Finn's advantage to three seconds ahead of Sunday would have got into his head and put him off the road. Not this time. Latvala was inch-perfect and quicker than quick.

Unfortunately, that psychological boost was halved later in August when he crashed out of Germany - just when he was about to play himself back into the title fight by winning with Ogier out.

Latvala's taken a huge step in terms of confidence in himself and the Polo R WRC from 12 months ago, but there's a similar leap to come next year if he's to threaten his fellow Polo man across the spread of the season.

3 KRIS MEEKE
Citroen DS 3 WRC
Championship position: 7th, 92 points
Wins: 0

Jingoism? Nationalistic fervour? Or was Kris Meeke really the third best driver of 2014? Yes, actually, he was.

Granted, he didn't finish third in the championship, but, by the season's second half, the Citroen star was the only man in the service park capable of carrying the fight to the Volkswagens on a regular basis.

Finland remains the WRC's best indicator of pace, potential and performance in an individual round. To go well through the air at that kind of speed, a driver has to be at one with himself and his immediate surroundings. Meeke was both. And he was brilliant, actually taking time out of Ogier on day two to get back past the Frenchman's VW.

What happened next was even more impressive. He backed off. Twelve months ago, he pressed on. And, in Ouninpohja's final few metres, he broke British hearts by roofing his DS3 almost within sight of the finish.

Meeke's not the finished product. Yet. But he's a damned sight closer than he was 12 months ago. He's quicker, more consistent and a genuine threat for rally wins under the new running-order rules next season.

4 ANDREAS MIKKELSEN
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
Championship position: 3rd, 150 points
Wins: 0

Mikkelsen was capable of winning a rally on more than one occasion and genuinely rattled the cage of his team-mates in places like Sweden and Poland, but the final piece of the jigsaw just wouldn't fall into place.

He started the season chasing a little bit more experience on rallies where he wasn't quite so comfortable, but where he knew the roads, he was told to see what he could do. That meant a leg-shaking and very emotional second overall in Sweden and it might have meant a win in Wales.

In the end, Mikkelsen pushed too hard early on in Rally GB and soon realised the pace can't be forced in our forests. His determination to fight for the win was measured latterly as third place in the drivers' championship loomed and he didn't want to be the one to bugger up his employer's perfect year.

5 THIERRY NEUVILLE
Hyundai i20 WRC
Championship position: 6th, 105 points
Wins: 1

History will show the Belgian was the only non-Volkswagen driver to win this season and, while that victory in Germany was fortuitous in that it came following the departure of the three drivers ahead of him, it was well-deserved and hard-earned by the Alzenau rookies.

Neuville was well aware of the car's and team's limitations and only occasionally let his frustrations get the better of him.

Such is his self-confidence, he was able to let his peers engage in the kind of up-front battles where he belonged in favour of putting miles on the clock of the new car.

He likened this year to 2012 for Ogier, when the Frenchman stepped back to a Skoda Fabia S2000. Maybe that comparison was a little harsh on what is clearly a very promising chassis from Hyundai, but Neuville's only really interested in what's coming next. Next season and the new-new car is what he left M-Sport for.

6 MADS OSTBERG
Citroen DS 3 WRC
Championship position: 5th, 108 points
Wins: 0

Three podiums from the first six rallies was a dream start for Mads Ostberg's new career as a Citroen driver.

He figured out quickly that the car needed to be driven in a different fashion to the Fiesta he'd just emerged from. The team tried to train the DS3 to listen to him, but in the end the quickest way was just for the Norwegian to approach an apex slightly straighter. He did that and things were looking good.

Then came a rock and a roll on the second day in Poland, which appeared to change everything - not just what had been a superb rally, but also his whole season.

He was unlucky in Finland when a compression kinked the rollcage and from then until Wales the mojo was missing.

7 ELFYN EVANS
M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC
Championship position: 8th, 81 points
Wins: 0

When the Welshman arrived back in service after the first loop of Monte Carlo stages, he remained in the car briefly and thought about what he'd just seen. So, that's what you call a baptism of fire...

Throughout the season, Evans has driven sensibly, consistently and, where he's had more than half an idea of where he was going, very, very quickly - Powerstage win in Germany anybody?

Tribute here has to be paid to Malcolm Wilson, who has given the Welshman the perfect learning environment and dismissed Evans's own concerns about the odd accident.

It's going to be fascinating to see how Evans measures up against the incoming Ott Tanak, a man who went about his own Wilson-funded learning year in quite a different fashion in 2012...

8 ROBERT KUBICA
M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC
Championship position: 16th, 14 points
Wins: 0

Kubica's approach to this season was quite clear: find the limit, feel it, then try to stay on it.

Unsurprisingly for a driver going into his first full season in the World Rally Championship, this brave, full-throttle effort ended in some bent metal.

But what else was he supposed to do? By his own admission, he doesn't have time for one of Malcolm Wilson's five-year plans. He's force-feeding himself WRC experience and, when you're going to events for the first time, accidents will happen.

What remains beyond question, apart from his unbelievable iron-will and determination to get the best out of himself, is his staggering natural talent.

Leading the Monte Carlo Rally is no mean feat, but to do it on your debut in a new car with a new team and in your rookie season in rallying's top flight shows pure class.

9 Hayden Paddon
Hyundai i20 WRC
Championship position: 14th, 19 points
(only contested six rounds)
Wins: 0

Paddon should be in a factory Hyundai for every round next season. Why isn't he? Who knows?

I'll admit I was never 100 per cent convinced of this fella's absolute ballsiness - but I think that came about because I first worked with him closely when he was on the Pirelli Star Driver programme and had Ott Tanak to compare with...

But this year, Paddon's put everything on the line in terms of gritty, brave driving and lifestyle as he moved from New Zealand to the middle of Germany to be closer to the team.

His speed to edge fellow i20 WRC driver Juho Hanninen - a Finn in Finland - was exceptional and deserved to be rewarded with far more than the power-steering problem that ultimately saved face for the likeable but apparently ill-at-ease local.

10 MIKKO HIRVONEN
M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC
Championship position: 4th, 126 points
Wins: 0

Mikko-bashing became an increasingly obvious pastime as the season progressed, but, such is his popularity, it went down about as well as clubbing a particularly cute seal. Mid-season, it was better to just pretend it wasn't happening.

There were moments of greatness, such as in Portugal early in the year and then Spain and Wales towards the end. The Finn's final two rallies were brilliant and provided a perfect and fitting finale to his career.

Hirvonen always loved a fight - and spent much of his year on the losing end of a scrap with a Citroen - which made it all the more rewarding that he put one over on Loeb's replacement in the DS3 in Wales last month.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Much of the middle of the season was taken up with an all-consuming debate over what to do with the final day of world rallies. WRC Promoter and the manufacturers - led, pied piper-like by Volkswagen's Jost Capito - laid plain the need for change.

And what came out was a way of slashing the time differences between cars and then grouping them together for a final-stage shootout (although that phrase was officially banned within the walls of WRC Promoter) between the top four crews for the win, crews running fifth to eighth for fifth place and so on all the way through the field.

The formula essentially divided the time by 10, so a one second lead was actually worth a tenth of a second. Australia was held up as the prime example: Ogier held an eight-second advantage over Latvala going into the final test and he was able to back off through a muddy section and basically drive to the splits to win. Would he have been able to do the same with a 0.8s lead? No. Not a bit of it.

Put in those terms, the argument was compelling. But, having just waded through those last couple of paragraphs, you'll probably agree there was more than an element of the over-complication to the thing.

Which is why it was killed by Jean Todt, a man who remains fixed on the virtues of what has made this sport of ours great: the fastest between a to b across the world's finest roads. Simple.