Australia is poised to witness the crowning of a new World Rally Championship king, even though a Frenchman called Sebastien is set to win the title for a 10th straight year.

With the legendary Sebastien Loeb, who won nine successive titles from 2004-12, only contesting a few of this year’s 13 rounds, his compatriot Sebastien Ogier can clinch his first world crown at Rally Australia.

With four rounds remaining, 29-year-old Volkswagen Motorsport driver Ogier leads the standings by a whopping 75 points from Belgium’s Thierry Neuville going into the Australian event in and near Coffs Harbour, NSW, from Thursday to Sunday.

If Ogier wins the race and the power stage and Neuville finishes worse than second in both, the Frenchman will clinch his maiden WRC title.

“Of course I think about it, because its been my target for a long time now,” Ogier told AAP in Sydney on Sunday.

“This weekend I’ve got a good chance to secure it and I definitely come here to try to do that, and it means I’m here to try to get the victory.”

Qatar World Rally team driver Neuville 25, has all but conceded he can’t catch Ogier.

“This year I think not,” Neuville told AAP.

“But it’s not really my aim because if I could finish this championship now in second position, in only my second (full) year, I think this would be already a great effort and a great result for us.

“So we are focused now to try to stay in second in the world championship.”

Just 21 points separate Neuville from the next three drivers and Neuville will be contesting Rally Australia for the first time.

He said that would be a small disadvantage going up against drivers with previous experience of conditions around Coffs Harbour and he might have to settle for fourth or fifth.

In Ogier’s two previous cracks at Rally Australia, he finished fifth in 2009 and 11th in 2011.

He is coming off his lowest scoring round of the season in Germany, but is confident about his prospects in Australia as he believes his car is suited to local conditions.

“In Germany, we made a mistake, it was the first for this season, so unfortunately that just reminded us that we are all human,” Ogier said.

“Now the important thing is for us is to restart in a positive way.

“We know the car’s performance on gravel and the last gravel event was Finland and we won it and I think the profile is a bit similar to here.”