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It was hardly a surprise to anyone that most wins of the season were scored by Ogier, once again. Neither was it a surprise that his team-mate Latvala was second most winningest driver. Surprise lay in the next two drivers, Meeke and Mikkelsen, who both succeeded not only winning but by doing so, scoring their first WRC wins.
It logically follows from the previous that it was Volkswagen and their drivers that dominated the podium as a whole. Two out of three podium places went to their three drivers, leaving only crumbs to others. Interestingly, Latvala was on podium less often than Mikkelsen, who scored almost as many podium finishes as Ogier.
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Ogier came within hair's breadth of achieving 100% scoring record but last stage retirement in Catalunya prevented that - but also handed Mikkelsen his maiden WRC win. Curiously enough, it was Mads Ostberg who did achieve 100% scoring. He achieved this by having a recce accident in Australia which meant that he did not take start and thus scored points in all events he started in. Admittedly, he would likely had scored there anyway.
In retirements, 2015 season seems to be an anomaly. Since juwra.com only tracks retirements for full works drivers, Mikkelsen's two DNF's do not tarnish VW's record, nor does Neuville's literal outing in season ending Rally GB as he was driving for satellite team Hyundai. Anomaly shows up in reverse way too as 2015 was season when Meeke failed to retire. In fact, coupled with Ostberg's 100% points scoring rate, Citroen as a team reached finish line every single time.
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Rally winner usually must win stages too. And that's what Ogier did, he scored most stage wins for 2015, as he had in previous years too. And like last year, Latvala again was his closest rival but this year his stage win score fell dramatically. One would expect Mikkelsen to be reason for this but no, Andreas actually scored less stage wins compared to 2014. Perhaps the largest gain was made by Hyundai whose drivers racked up twice as many stage wins as they had in previous year but apart from that, there is no clear single reason for VW's falter.
In rally leader category, the top four match the winning record. Ogier being the clear number one, Latvala second but with much worse score compared both to Ogier and to last year, then maiden winners Meeke and Mikkelsen. Fifth name on the list is the revelation of the season, Hayden Paddon. His incredible score comes from stellar performance in Sardinia.
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As tradition demands, Finland had fastest route with Poland relatively close second while Argentina was slowest by clear margin. No rally exceeded 400 kilometers of stages this year.
After six lean years the number of entries soared with all events except Deutschland boasting longer entry lists. Corsica, which made return to series, reached as many as 123 entries but this was due to allowing crews with non-homologated cars to compete.
Longest stage of the season was held in Mexico, slightly over 55 kilometers while Finland reclaimed the title of having held fastest stages although Poland edged into list with three stages.
Ford as a make and France as a nationality held their number one slots as most numerous amongst the entries, both for many years running.
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Ogier started the season with a win and ended it with a win. Between those two wins he scored six other wins and pocketful of other top slots in various statistical categories.
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