JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Sébastien Ogier secured a record-levelling ninth FIA World Rally Championship drivers’ title with third place at the season-ending Rally Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on Saturday, taking the distinction, jointly held with French countryman and 79-time race winner Sébastien Loeb. The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver converted a narrow overnight lead from teammate Elfyn Evans into history with a bold run through the punishing Asfan stage and then an assured performance on the Wolf Power Stage to claim his 2025 crown, Nov. 29, 2025.
Sébastien Ogier, the second member of rallying’s elite club alongside Sébastien Loeb
Sébastien Ogier’s ninth championship equals the standard set by Loeb, whose nine in a row with Citroën from 2004 to 2012 had appeared untouchable. His own total, accrued across spells of dominance at Volkswagen, M-Sport Ford, and now Toyota, includes a 2025 crown to go with six in a row from 2013 to 2018 and further triumphs in 2020 and 2021, raising the quiet man from Gap of France himself up from mere stalker to card-carrying half-owner of the record books.
The title itself was not won in the traditional fashion, but rather as has been Sébastien Ogier’s hallmark under pressure at a new Middle Eastern finale. Heading the three-stage final leg in a position one place ahead of Evans and two points better off, he had attacked the rough Asfan test to rise from sixth to third overall as his rivals Mārtiņš Sesks and Kalle Rovanperä experienced trouble, and Takamoto Katsuta rolled. A risk-managed final blast through the Wolf Power Stage from there ensured the Frenchman had enough on the board to claim an early Acores Rallye prize, even as Thierry Neuville shrugged off a bruising victory at the Saudi Arabia finale.
For Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais, the victory rounds off a nonchalant part-time 2025 campaign that showed no regard for caution. Competing in only 11 of the series’ 14 rounds, the duo still won more than half their starts and finished the year with more stage wins than any other crew. The tone was set by Ogier’s record-extending 10th Rallye Monte-Carlo win in January, a dominant drive that almost guaranteed further victories and put pressure on full-season rivals whenever the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 featured on the time-sheets.
A 10-year ascent to Sébastien Ogier’s ninth title
Saturday’s triumph is a watershed moment, one that completes an arc that began when Sébastien Ogier dethroned Loeb and built his own dynasty. The seven-time WRC champion secured his seventh title with victory on Rally Monza last year before winning a cut-down eighth world crown at Monza in 2021 following what had been billed as his final full-season programme. While Ogier had opted for a reduced WRC campaign, the wins and podiums kept dropping in, keeping his name in title contention and teeing up this most recent push that has now seen Loeb’s once-unmissable record shared across two Frenchmen.
Saudi Arabia debuts — and what it all means
Rally Saudi Arabia’s gravel stages around desert terrain near Jeddah made their World Rally Championship debut this year, offering a new strategic twist to a schedule that already spans from the Alps to South America. The new round brought a home world title decider for Ogier into uncharted territory as part of an expanded WRC Rally Saudi Arabia 2025 stop on the championship calendar, emphasizing how monumental his feat was in converting a slender lead in the points into a ninth world crown that matched his boyhood idol and mentor Loeb’s long-standing record. With Landais already able to call himself a co-drivers’ champion, and Ogier dropping hints he is far from finished there, the rest of the field now looks likely to be subjected to a 10th-title assault from one of rally’s most successful ever competitors.
