“It’s a great feeling because it’s
been very stressful and frustrating since my last win [Neste Oil
Rally Finland 2010]. It’s a great way to finish the season 2011. We
now need to push for the world title with Ford next year.”
Latvala went into the final day with a
6.1 sec lead over Sebastian Loeb, and immediately set about taking
more time. Winning the first stage of the Day, he extended his lead
over Loeb to 7.5 secs. Then something no-one could have predicted
happened.
After taking second on SS18, Halfway,
Loeb & co-driver Daniel Elena were driving the road section on
their way to SS19, when a car driven by a Spanish rally supporter
collided with him on a narrow section of road. No-one was injured in
the accident, but Loeb's DS3 WRC suffered a damaged radiator, forcing
him out of the rally.
“We were on a road section and hit a
car front on. I moved to the side [of the road] but we are in [Wales]
and he is not [Welsh] so he went on the wrong side and we crashed. It
was not a big impact but the radiator is holed, so we cannot go on.
That’s it. But okay, we are world champion so no problems.” said
the now eight-time World Champion.
Mads Ostberg took second place after
Loeb's incident, rounding off the year with the same position he
started it with. An ever present engine problem did cause some
concern, but it didn't cause problems.
Henning Solberg, also in a Stobart
M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC, took third in what was his first podium
appearance in over 2 years. Kris Meeke, fourth, put in an excellent
drive today to reduce the gap to Solberg from 45 secs down to a scant
1.8 secs going into the Power Stage. In the end a spin denied Meeke a
historic podium place, but it did net him his best finish at World
Rally level.
The other Stobart car of Matthew Wilson
took fifth in what was a largely consistent rally from the Briton.
Ott Tanak managed to fight back to sixth place on his début in a
World Rally Car. Launch Control problems on SS20 couldn't deny Evegny
Novikov seventh place, the best finish of the year for Team Abu
Dhabi.
Dennis Kuipers rounded out a largely
successful year with eighth. Nearly six minutes back was Ken Block in
ninth, the American with a consistent rally. Rounding out the points
scorers was Armindo Araujo in tenth, taking his second points haul of
the year, after Germany.
Victory on the Power Stage was a small
amount of consolidation to Sebastian Ogier, who crashed out on SS1.
11th place was a good fight-back from 73rd
place, better known as second-last. Dani Sordo slid into a ditch on
Friday and had to SupeRally. 20th place was as high a he
got. Second on the Power Stage was a welcome boost for the MINI Team
after team-mate Meeke's mistake though.
Just behind Ogier was the Volkswagen
Motorsport entrant of Kevin Abbring, driving a good rally to 12th
in the Fabia S2000.
Patrik Flodin took the P-WRC class of
Wales Rally GB, well over five mins ahead of second placed Martin
Semerad. Indeed, it should have been Benito Guerra in second, but the
Mexican rolled out of the rally on the final stage. Third was Michal
Kosciuszko, a good result after retiring last night & needing to
SupeRally.
“It’s very nice to win the last
round and finish the season with some good results,” said Flodin.
“I’m very, very happy and must thank Timo who did a very good
job. The stages were fantastic today, and it was actually quite an
easy day keeping our concentration with such a big lead.” said
Flodin.
On Thursday, Ilka Minor was chosen as
the latest recipient of the Michael Park 'Beef' Trophy, an award
presented in memory of Park, who was tragically killed on this rally
six years ago, to the co-driver who best embodies Michael's traits,
being overall performance, attitude and commitment.
Prior to the rally, Jari-Matti Latvala
was awarded the Abu Dhabi Spirit of the Rally award.
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