WRC 2012 Round up (Part 2)

The second of GRN's two-part look back at the 2012 WRC season begins with the spectacular 'Gravel Grand Prix', the Neste Oil Rally Finland.

Sebastian Loeb won his third Rally Finland, second in succession, to continue his run of wins. Team-mate and home-hero Mikko Hirvonen came second, but only by 6.1 secs. Hirvonen later praised Loeb as “incredible”. Former event winner Jari-Matti Latvala took third place in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

Known for it's massive jumps, Rally Finland has injured more than it's fair share of competitors' backs, and managed to wind Daniel Elena on a past running of the rally. Denis Giraudet was in quite a lot of discomfort after he and driver Evgney Novikov landed very heavily over a jump on the first stage of Leg 2. However, aid from the Ford team's physios and the fact they didn't need to take every jump flat out because of earlier time lost helped considerably.

Loeb again took the opposition to pieces by dominating in Germany, Round 9 of the 2012 WRC. He lead from start to finish, at an average speed of over 100km/h. Jari-Matti Latvala proved his increasing pace on tarmac by taking second overall, a full 2 mins behind Loeb. Mikko Hirvonen took third, on his very first full-tarmac rally.

Indeed, it was Loeb's ninth win on German tarmac, having only relinquished a single rally in Germany, and that was to team mate Sebastian Ogier in 2011. However it may be Loeb's final win in Germany, in rallying at least, as it is unclear whether he will contest the 2013 edition of the rally.

Jari-Matti Latvala put an end to Loeb's run of five straight victories by winning Wales Rally GB by 27 secs over Loeb. The Frenchman had a sluggish start to the rally but bounced back and beat Petter Solberg to second by less than 1 second. Solberg led the opening stages but Latvala took over on SS3 and held it to the end.

It was business as usual for Loeb in France as he claimed his eighth win of the season and his ninth World Rally Championship in front of his adoring home supporters. Jari-Matti Latvala again took second place on the tarmac rally, only 15 secs behind Loeb but it could be argued that the Frenchman was cruising to avoid a mistake in front of his home crowd or a mechanical failure that cost him the win here last year (He suffered an extremely rare engine failure onboard his DS3 WRC). Mikko Hirvonen took third place to have two works Citroens on the podium yet again.

It was Mikko Hirvonen's turn to take the winners trophy in Italy, his first outright win for Citroen having joined them from Ford at the start of the year. Hirvonen was on the podium on every rally, bar two, and in second place for six of them. A win before the season was out was just revenge for his exclusion from winning in Portugal (See Part 1 of GRN's review of the 2012 WRC). Evgney Novikov took another well deserved second place, with M-Sport team-mate Ott Tanak in third place.

Sardinia was a rally of attrition for the top runners. Sebastian Loeb clipped rocks and broke his Citroen's steering, electing not to restart on Day 2 and instead going spectating on a motocross bike instead. Petter Solberg clipped a rock and broke a cross-member whilst driving at a conservative pace, the irony being if he had been “driving faster then the car would have been more sideways going into the corner” and he might just have missed the rock. Jari-Matti Latvala suffered a rather unfortunate exit. He ran wide on a left-hander and ran over a rock, causing steam to begin rising from the bonnet of his Fiesta RS WRC. He checked with co-driver Miikka Anttila to see if there were any warning lights on the dashboard. This momentary loss in concentration left him unable to safely brake for the next corner, and while he aimed for the field on he outside of the corner. However he clipped a gatepost, putting him out for the day.

Seb Loeb won his final event as a full time World Rally driver on the final round of the 2012 WRC season, the Rallye de Espana. The mix surface event was beset by poor conditions on the opening morning of the rally, leaving Mads Ostberg leading after Day 1. However once the rally left the gravel and hit the tar, Loeb flew. As did Jari-Matti Latvala, who hounded Loeb all the way to the end, finishing only 7 secs behind the World Champion in second place. Third yet again went to the second works Citroen of Mikko Hirvonen.

And that concludes our review of the 2012 WRC season. Ups and downs aplenty, and aside from Seb Loeb's constant winning, we enjoyed a memorable season. 2013 will be different, Loeb competing in a limited capacity, and Petter Solberg not competing at all (for now anyway) and Volkswagen putting their year of R&D to the test. It will be good, and GRN will be bringing you all the news and reviews from Round 1, Rallye Monte Carlo.