the first seasons, the citroen was not overly dominant, and that's when the competition was the hardest in terms of manu and drivers, and yet he won on the championship on his 2nd full season? (correct me if i'm wrong) and only missed out to be champion the season before by 1 point.
So overall maybe the seasons after he had an "easy" ride but i would say his career start was the most impressive in terms of speed and raw talent... and the only one to match that in the modern era is Ogier in my opinion