Ogier the Citroen Junior star in Australia

Ogier, the reigning Junior World Champion, led Rally Australia after the opening two stages and went on to take eight stage wins on the way to fourth overall.

Like his fellow C4 WRC driver Sebastien Loeb, Ogier later dropped a place in the standings because his car was fitted with a non homologated anti-roll bar link, however Quesnel said that after a rocky start to the season, his performance on the Australian stages had underlined his potential and maturity.

Australia was a late addition to Ogier’s debut 2009 WRC programme, having been ruled out earlier in the season on cost grounds, but slotted in again after his results improved.

Ogier began the rally on Thursday night taking two of his six wins on the Murwillumbah Super Special Stage. He was helped on each occasion by Citroen’s shrewd decision to use well worn tyres on the asphalt circuit. "We tried the strategy with his car on Thursday night, just to check it worked before we did it on Seb [Loeb] and Dani’s cars - it turned out to be okay," Quesnel told wrc.com.

Two stage wins later, Ogier was leading, and spent most of Friday locked in a thrilling battle for the lead with Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala. "On Friday morning I said to him, look, it was really expensive to come here so please try to stay on the road more than one day. He said, yeah, I will drive carefully. Then when I saw him go as fast as Mikko, Seb, Dani and Jari-Matti I said are you sure? And again he said yeah, so I told him alright, go, enjoy it but try and stay on the road. When we saw what happened we were so surprised - it seems so simple for him."

An off-road excursion later cost Ogier his fight for a maiden victory, but Quesnel remained impressed. "Yes, he did two small mistakes but it’s nothing for a guy with no experience," he said. "Honestly I don’t know what will happen with him in the future, I’m not sure what he’s capable of in the next gravel rally in Wales, for instance, he just keeps getting better."