Volkswagen entered the 2003 Dakar Rally with the Tarek 2WD buggy, where Stéphane Henrard finished 6th overall. The Race Touareg 1 was introduced in 2004, with Bruno Saby finishing 6th. In 2005, Jutta Kleinschmidt achieved 3rd place overall. Using the Race Touareg 2, Giniel de Villiers finished 2nd overall in 2006. Mark Miller finished 4th overall in 2007. Volkswagen secured victories at the 2009, 2010, and 2011 Dakar Rally, with drivers De Villiers, Carlos Sainz, and Nasser Al-Attiyah respectively, utilising the Race Touareg 3 in the latter event.
In 2011, Volkswagen participated in seven rallies – Finland, Germany, Catalunya, and Wales Rally GB – with seven different drivers. Christian Riedemann was the only driver to compete in two of these rallies. In November 2011, the team announced a multi-year contract with Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia. For the 2012 season, Volkswagen Motorsport continued developing the Polo R World Rally Car, also completing a full WRC campaign (excluding New Zealand) with Škoda Fabias. Sébastien Ogier competed in every round, while Andreas Mikkelsen and Kevin Abbring shared the second car. Sepp Wiegand drove a third car at the German rally.
The 2012 season saw Sébastien Ogier achieve an unexpected stage win in Sardinia, and a 5th place overall finish, the best result for an S2000 car in the World Rally Championship at the time. Andreas Mikkelsen became the first S2000 driver to score Power Stage points, finishing 3rd on the penultimate stage of the 2012 Rallye Deutschland. In October, Volkswagen Motorsport announced the signing of Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila to join Ogier and Ingrassia, driving the Volkswagen Polo R WRC for the 2013 season.
Volkswagen Motorsport entered the 2013 season as a fully-fledged manufacturer team. Sébastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala began the season, with Andreas Mikkelsen joining at the fourth round in Portugal, registered under a second manufacturer team, “Volkswagen Motorsport II”, to maximise testing time with the Polo R WRC. At Rallye Monte-Carlo, Ogier won the first stage of the season and the first for the Volkswagen Polo R WRC, ultimately finishing 2nd overall, nearly two minutes behind Sébastien Loeb. Latvala’s rally ended after hitting a wall in slippery conditions. The team secured its first WRC victory at Rally Sweden, with Ogier winning half of the stages. Latvala finished 4th and also achieved his first stage win with the team.
Ogier continued his success at Rally Mexico, winning 16 of 23 stages and leading from the second stage to the finish. Latvala hit a rock in SS2 and finished outside of the points, leaving Volkswagen 6 points behind Citroën in the Manufacturers' standings.
In 2016, Volkswagen Motorsport collected their fourth consecutive manufacturers’ championship, and Sébastien Ogier claimed his fourth consecutive drivers’ championship. Days after the 2016 Wales Rally GB, Volkswagen announced their withdrawal from the WRC at the end of the season, a decision that surprised many. The team had already been developing the 2017 Polo, based on the new generation WRC cars. The withdrawal was widely speculated to be a result of Volkswagen’s emissions scandal.
Volkswagen Motorsport returned to the World Rally Championship in 2018 with an R5 version of the Volkswagen Polo GTI, debuting at the 2018 Rally Catalunya with entries for Petter Solberg and Eric Camilli. In November 2019, Volkswagen announced the end of all internal combustion engine-based motorsport activities, consistent with a shift in focus to electric vehicle manufacturing.
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