Analysis: Why the WRC running order row has cooled already

Twelve months ago, the Frenchman was genuinely thinking about chucking the towel in. The world and world motorsport's governing body were, apparently, against him.

Winning from the front, he predicted, would be impossible this year.

If it snowed in Sweden on Thursday night, forget him winning. As for Mexico... are you having a laugh?

Result? He won them both.

His Mexican save was one of the most impressive drives in the recent history of the World Rally Championship.

Ogier should have been completely mullered first into the stages, but cooler than expected conditions offered a window of opportunity.

He smashed it by risking the handling nightmare that is a diagonal cross of hard and soft tyres on his Volkswagen. The reward for that risk was a lead he never surrendered.

The rather unsettling thing about Ogier's approach in Mexico was the opposite of the risk-all effort he'd put in for Sweden.

On round two, the defending champion threw caution to the wind, knowing that if he won in the snow, he would open an early points gap at front.

If he binned it, he would drop down the championship order and into a more favourable place on the road in Guanajuato. In Mexico, he was far more calculated, but no less successful.

ARGENTINA SHOULD BE FINE, TOO

This week, Rally Argentina will be different again. The ambient temperature - particularly on the morning loop - will be lower in the late Southern Hemisphere autumn.

But the question is: will anybody risk a soft tyre on the 32-mile Ascochinga stage on Friday morning? If anybody can make it last, it's Ogier. His record in rubber preservation is astonishing.

As for his place at the head of the field, first on the road, it's less likely to be an issue on stages which are more sandy than stony.

And, as we have seen from the first three rounds, there's little chance that Ogier will be first in on Saturday.

Superally crews returning from day-one retirement are forced to run at the front on day two and have taken the sting out of the rule change which almost forced the champion's walkout mid-way through 2014.

The biggest issue Ogier will face in Argentina this week is the rerun stages. He's never at his most comfortable when the road gets rutted, second time through.

Volkswagen will work on the set-up, but what's required is a fundamental change in his driving style.

Instead of his usual inch-perfect, apex-kissing accuracy, he'll be required to fire the Polo at the corner, sometimes a gear higher, and rely on the fact that the ruts will knock the speed off in the middle of the bend.

It's brute force over finesse this week. But if he wants to succeed on the only WRC round he hasn't won yet, forcing the issue will be the only way forward.