Five times second, will Thierry Neuville finally win the world title?

2018: the Australian rout

Even more than in 2017, the 2018 season focuses on a duel between Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Ogier, with once again the same outcome, the world title for the Frenchman. But from the sixth to the eleventh round, it is the Hyundai driver who is ahead of the Ford M-Sport driver. And he has a 23-point lead with three rallies remaining. But the two rivals enter the final round, in Australia, with a three-point difference, in favor of Ogier, with Ott Tänak as referee. And the psychological war, and on the road, turned in favor of the Frenchman, who finished 5th while Neuville made a mistake and hit a tree in the 22nd special, on tracks that had become muddy due to the rain. His only retirement of the year deprived him of the title.