Volkswagen duo Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia have won their third Rally Australia in a row and with it their third straight WRC title with three rounds of the 2015 season still to run.

Overcoming the considerable disadvantage of having to sweep the road for the first two days of competition, the champion pairing took victory over Volkswagen team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikka Anttila by just 12.3 seconds.

WRC Rally Australia Main

Citroen’s Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle secured third, 32.6sec behind the winning pair; they led the rally for much of the first two days, though were unable to keep pace with the superior Volkswagens.

However, it was one of Meeke’s most impressive performances following a recent run of errors and should go a long way to securing a seat with the French team for 2016.

WRC Rally Australian Sebastien Ogier

The leading Hyundai team was Kiwis Hayden Paddon and John Kennard, who showed exceptional pace to secure fifth place; it’s expected that Paddon will be announced as a Hyundai factory driver for 2016 in the coming week.

WRC Rally Australia Haydon Paddon

The next round of the WRC takes place on tarmac in Corsica from October 1-4, while Rally Australia is tipped to move to November in 2016 and host the season finale.