HOW THE TOP 10 IS FORMED
Autosport’s top 10 was determined by a panel including Toyota WRC team principal Jari-Matti Latvala, M-Sport Ford managing director Malcolm Wilson and Hyundai Motorsport’s WRC programme manager Christian Loriaux. Autosport also produced its own list.
Each member of the panel selected an individual top 10 list, with the drivers each scoring points from 10 awarded to first down to one for 10th spot. The combined points from each list determined the final top 10.
10 ARI VATANEN
Finland’s first World Rally champion was perhaps one of the most determined and resilient drivers to grace the stages.
Vatanen made his WRC debut in 1974 but it wasn’t until 1980 that he achieved his first victory, at the Acropolis Rally. There was no doubting his natural talent behind the wheel, with his crowning glory arriving in 1981, when he and David Richards won the world title, driving a privately run Ford Escort RS1800.
The popular Vatanen was comfortable and fast in all conditions, evidenced by wins in Monte Carlo (asphalt), Sweden (snow), Safari (rough gravel) and Finland (fast gravel).
He was fortunate that his career wasn’t ended abruptly following a nasty crash driving a factory Group B Peugeot 205 T16 in Argentina in 1985, a season he was tipped to challenge for the title. Vatanen spent more than a year on the sidelines recovering from fractured lumbar vertebrae, a badly broken tibia, fractured ribs, and internal injuries that caused breathing difficulties.
