Another thrilling season full of ups
and downs has finally come to a close. We witnessed Sebastian Loeb
claim another record-smashing World Title, and Craig Breen overcome a
tragedy we all dread to claim the S-WRC title after a spirited
comeback from the most unlikely of positions. The P-WRC was strong
with Benito Guerra becoming Champion and Elfyn Evans dominating the
WRC Academy.
It all began with a typical display of
domination from Loeb on the tarmac of Monte Carlo, back after a
transfer to the IRC. Jari-Matti Latvala lead for SS2 and SS3, but
crashed out on ice with no Rally 2 available. Loeb rocketed into the
distance leaving the scrap for second between Dani Sordo and Ford's
returnee Petter Solberg. After a massive fight over snow, ice and
tarmac, tarmac ace Sordo won out over Solberg, who finished third.
Former Monte winner Francois Delecour
made a return to the top class in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC. He proved he
lost little of his style and flair, throwing his Fiesta about like he
was in a game. He posted some rapid stage times on his way to sixth
place overall. Sportingly, he let co-driver Dominique Savignoni drive
the final Power Stage as a thank you because Savignoni was due to
retire after the event. Delecour even attempted to read the pacenotes
himself to give his new driver the best chance of a good time!
Next up was the freezing but rapid snow
of Sweden. Latvala got his season back on track with a close win over
Citroen's new signing Mikko Hirvonen. The bulk of the rally was
between these two, Hirvonen leading for 3 stages but Latvala leading
for the most. Super-consistent Mads Ostberg was Mad Mads no more, he
did exactly what he needed for points and driving to third place.
Loeb got back to business in Mexico, a
rally traditionally good to him. He won by 42 secs over team-mate
Mikko Hirvonen, with Petter Solberg in third. Mexico this year
featured a 41km monster stage, one of the longest in the WRC. A new
concept to most WRC drivers today, who are used to modern stages
which are normally sub-30km. This distance is small change for Nasser
Al-Attiyah, the Dakar Rally hero who is more used to covering
500-700km stages on each day of the South American epic
adventure!
The Rallye de Portugal was the shock of
the season. Held in the worst conditions to sweep the rally in quite
a while, most of the competitors either crashed out or suffered
mechanical problems. 3 stages at the end of Day 2 were cancelled due
to massive amounts of rain turning the stages treacherous. Mikko
Hirvonen won on the road but was later disqualified for technical
issues relating to his turbocharger being ever so slightly too large,
and his flywheel being non-homologated.
This means that Mads Ostberg scored his
first win of his career having kept his cool and managed to get to
the end. Evgney Novikov was another driver to put his tag of being a
substantial crasher firmly in the bin, taking second place. Petter
Solberg had to resort to Rally 2 after he crashed out of the lead in
the rain. He fought back to take third place, scoring 6 stage wins
along the way. Sebastian Loeb suffered a spectacular crash in the
dark of Day 1, bending his Citroen DS3 WRC quite impressively.
As is not pretty much typical of Loeb,
he bounced back from the crash to win Rally Argentina for seventh
time, leading home a Citroen 1-2 finish at the end with Mikko
Hirvonen again in second place. He too bounced back from the
disappointment of disqualification in the rain of Portugal. Mads
Ostberg continued his impressive run of form and consistency to
finish 3rd again.
The classic car smasher of the
Acropolis Rally provided Loeb's second straight win of the season,
and not catapult him into a horrifying series of barrel rolls as it
did in 2009. Mikko Hirvonen was again second, with Jari-Matti Latvala
putting some disappointing results behind him third place.
Guess who won in New Zealand too? Yep,
you guessed correctly. Seb Loeb continued his run of domination to
claim yet another win in New Zealand. The classic, flowing and fast
stages set the scene for yet another Citroen 1-2, but with Hirvonen
11 secs closer this time. Petter Solberg took third, having won the
rally 8 years previously during his Subaru heyday.
Part 2 of our WRC round-up to follow
soon.
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