WRC: Series is becoming 'a joke' - Ogier

Volkswagen's Sebastien Ogier labelled the World Rally Championship's running order rules a "joke" after being forced to sweep a cleaner line for his Rally Argentina rivals last week.

The three-time world champion has long been a critic of regulations stipulating the championship leader starts the first two days of an event first on the road, inevitably losing time on dry gravel rallies. In Argentina last Saturday, he lost 24 seconds to Hayden Paddon on the Los Gigantes stage alone, and his frustration boiled over that evening, getting into a public argument with the rally leader and eventual victor.

"I am so bored of talking about this," Ogier told Autosport. "I just wanted to finish this rally and go home to think about something else. Rallying is quite boring for me at the moment. We get good points [for second], but where is the sport? Yes, we can be champion again, but I know we deserve more than this. It's completely unfair and not how the championship should be for me to run first on the road 80 percent of the time.

"The problem is that it only comes from me and it's the same story, but my point of view is always the same. For me, year after year, this championship is getting more and more a joke."

WRC manager Jarmo Mahonen said there would be no change to the regulation this season, but the FIA will review the rules at the end of the year.

"I want to see the whole season, have we been successful? Then we will look," Mahonen said. "I understand how he feels, I understand his frustration, but we have to see the bigger picture: we have to look after the whole championship.

"He doesn't have to see the big picture and I understand that he has to be selfish – this is part of what makes him so successful. But nobody can say this has been bad for the sport. Look at the final day here in Argentina, we had a very exciting Sunday – we need this."

Originally on Autosport.com