Latvalla Leads After SS8

Getty Images

Jari-Matti Latvala ended the second leg of Rally de Espana with a slender 1.6sec lead, but clever tactics from second-placed Dani Sordo set up an absorbing final leg tomorrow as the event switches from asphalt to gravel.

Sordo trailed Latvala by 0.1sec heading into the penultimate stage, after which tomorrow’s start order was calculated. The Spaniard measured his pace to stay behind Latvala, ensuring the Finn starts first tomorrow.

He must sweep the loose gravel roads in his Volkswagen Polo R, leaving a cleaner and faster line for Sordo to capitalise on behind. But, intriguingly, an early start means dust could hang in the still air behind Latvala, negating Sordo’s advantage and handing the initiative back. 

In an effort to reduce the dust threat, organisers have increased the gap between the top cars from two to three minutes – but will that be enough?

Sordo’s Citroen DS3 was fastest in the opening two stages to climb from third to second, reducing Sebastien Ogier’s lead to 6.5sec.

When Ogier broke his Polo R’s front left wheel in the final morning test after hitting a stone not marked in his pace notes, he lost 50sec to leave Sordo and Latvala tied at the top. Latvala then edged ahead on the opening afternoon test before Sordo’s tactics came into play.

As the drivers arrived back at Salou for an extended 75 minute service to allow teams to transfer their cars from asphalt to gravel specification, Latvala pondered tomorrow’s situation. 

“Going from asphalt to gravel after two days won’t be easy,” he said. “It’s a new challenge but I have a good feeling. I hope the weather will give me some support. A little bit of moisture to dampen the loose gravel would be nice....” he smiled.

“I lost a bit of time at the end of the stage so I could be in a better position tomorrow,” said Sordo, who manoeuvred himself behind Latvala last night to monitor tactics from the Finn and respond accordingly. “All I can do is try my best. The tactics started yesterday and have gone OK. Can I win? I hope so, it’s a big challenge.”

Thierry Neuville is third, 29.3sec behind Latvala after a frustrating morning when he was unhappy with the balance of his Ford Fiesta RS. Changes in service revitalised the Belgian.

“It was all about settings,” he said. “When we found that, then I had the usual rhythm and was on the pace. Maybe we can catch Dani tomorrow, but Sebastien is close behind as well.”

Ogier recovered to fourth, 46.5sec off the lead and cannot be ruled out. “I don’t know what’s possible. There’s 140km to go and I’m starting fourth on the road. We’ll push and see what we can do,” promised the Frenchman.

Mikko Hirvonen lies fifth in a DS3, only 0.1sec ahead of Evgeny Novikov’s Fiesta RS. There is a 90sec gap to Mads Ostberg in seventh, the Norwegian increasing in confidence as changes to the suspension of his Fiesta RS improved its handling.

Similar changes improved Hayden Paddon’s feeling on his World Rally Car debut. Despite a final stage spin, the New Zealander is ninth, 1.9sec behind Martin Prokop’s similar car. WRC 2 leader Robert Kubica completed the leaderboard in 10th.

Andreas Mikkelsen retired after hitting a stone in the opening stage and breaking his Polo R’s rear suspension, while Nasser Al Attiyah crashed his Fiesta RS in the penultimate test.

Competitors restart tomorrow at 06.00 to tackle two identical loops of three stages covering 138.54km before the afternoon finish in Salou.

Related articles

• Latvala gunning for P2 in Drivers'
• Paddon sharpens up for rally debut
• Strong start for Paddon on WRC debut in Spain
• Volkswagen Motorsport feature: behind the dust of Rally Australia
• Paddon feels prepared for world rally car debut in Spain
• Rally GB gets dirty!

Loeb Signs Off in Winning Style

Sebastien Loeb marked his final outing as a full-time driver in the FIA World Rally Championship with the 76th victory of his career on RallyRACC-Rally de Espana, which finished in Salou on Sunday afternoon following three days of thrilling competition.

After struggling for pace through Friday’s rain-hit, mainly gravel tests, Loeb moved in front on the asphalt of day two and remained at the head of the field thereafter in his Citroen Total World Rally Team DS3 WRC.

The win, shared with co-driver Daniel Elena, was their eighth in Spain and the 250th in the WRC for tyre partner Michelin.

Jari-Matti Latvala signed-off as a factory Ford driver in second place with Mikko Hirvonen third in the second works Citroen. Latvala’s finishing position and victory on the Power Stage this afternoon earned sufficient points to land third in the final drivers’ table ahead of Mads Ostberg, who led after day one but slipped back on day two with set-up issues and a costly spin.

“For sure I really wanted to win this rally,” said Loeb, who is targeting a partial programme of WRC events in 2013 as he revs up for a planned assault on the FIA World Touring Car Championship with Citroen two years from now. “We were really struggling in the start because it was really tricky on the first day. On the Tarmac I was able to take the lead but today was not easy because we had some strange tyre choice and Jari-Matti was pushing very hard and getting closer.”

Loeb opted for a combination of soft and hard compound Michelin covers for Sunday’s closing trio of stages in the belief it would be raining in the middle test - the 26.51-kilometre Santa Marina Power Stage.

However, while it was damp in sections due to light drizzle, the anticipated heavy deluge didn’t materialise and Loeb’s tyre choice proved far from ideal for the conditions. Latvala, meanwhile, opted for hard compound tyres and set two fastest stage times to narrow Loeb’s winning margin to seven seconds.

“I would like to have done one more stage because it has been good to fight with Loeb,” said Latvala, who will join Volkswagen Motorsport from 2013 as his former team M-Sport prepares for a new era following Ford’s decision to end its WRC sponsorship. “I have had some fantastic years with Ford and thanks to Malcolm Wilson for being so supportive even though I’ve had many crashes.”

Ford privateer Mads Ostberg finished fourth, 9.6s behind Hirvonen, with Jarkko Nikara moving up to a fine fifth after Ott Tanak and Hans Weijs both crashed out. Craig Breen secured the Super 2000 World Rally Championship crown in a career-best sixth overall with Chris Atkinson seventh for WRC Team MINI Portugal.

P-G Andersson finished eighth for PROTON with Dani Sordo battling back to ninth following early delays. But it was a case of what might have been for the Spaniard, who won a total of six stages, including four on Sunday, in his Prodrive-run MINI. Evgeny Novikov beat Petter Solberg to the final drivers’ championship point in tenth despite a 10-minute penalty when the tread depth of his soft-compound DMACK tyres was found to be under the 1.6-milimetre minimum requirement due to excessive wear on Saturday afternoon’s dry stages.

Next year’s WRC season fires into life on Rallye Monte-Carlo on 15 January 2013, 65 days from now.

Related articles

• Loeb Takes 9th WRC Title
• Formula Ford Race and Fiesta Rally Cars
• Loeb ends full-time WRC career on a stylish note
• Loeb secures title on home soil
• WRC - Sébastien Loeb One Step Closer To Heaven
• Sébastien Loeb and Citroën

Toyota Linked to WRC Return

Automotive giant Toyota has built a Global Race Engine and is being linked to a possible return to the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia.

The 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, which fits perfectly with the FIA’s World Rally Championship technical regulations, has been testing at Toyota Motorsport GmbH in Cologne and is expected to be installed in a chassis - most likely a Yaris - at some point later this year.

A spokesman from TMG said: “We’re leaning towards an S2000-style of car which would be available for customers first. This is a development project, but it’s very early days - the engine only fired up for the first time a few weeks ago - at the very earliest, a car won’t be available until next year. Obviously, this being a Global Race Engine, it could go in any car, but the Yaris seems to make sense.”

Toyota is currently working on an FIA World Endurance Championship entry, but the spokesman admitted rallying was likely to feature in the firm’s medium-term future.

“Medium to longer-term there is a degree of logic in the WRC,” he said. “We have been there [the WRC] and this is a step back into rallying.”

Toyota already has a rally car coming out of TMG, in the shape of an R1 challenge Yaris.

Toyota was one of the powerhouses of rallying, winning seven FIA world titles in the sport and a move back to the WRC would mean joining Ford, Citroen, MINI and Volkswagen.

McRae Moves on from Sweden

Despite a tough return to the 2012 FIA World Rally Championship on last week's Rally Sweden, Alister McRae is hoping for further PROTON outings at the sport's highest level this year.

McRae, a former factory Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Subaru, in the series finished seventh in the Super 2000 World Rally Championship standings in Karlstad, having visited two snowbanks along the way. McRae’s PROTON team-mate, local hero P-G Andersson, won the second round of the SWRC.

After an absence from the WRC since Rally New Zealand, 2007, McRae said: “It was great to be back. I’ve been competing in the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship recently, which is very, very good, but this is the world championship - this is where everything is at.”

No decisions have been taken on when McRae will return to the SWRC, but he is hoping to remain in the Satria-Neo S2000 for the Malaysian firm’s next outning in the World Rally Championship powered by Nokia.

“We’ve got two APRC rounds to contest now,” said McRae, “so the focus switches to them, but after that I’d love to be back in the SWRC. The PROTON has shown here just how competitive it is becoming and I’m really keen to be part of that.”

McRae is the defending APRC champion this year.

Loeb Wins Rallye Monte Carlo

Sebastien Loeb has won Rallye Monte-Carlo for a sixth time following a dominant performance behind the wheel of the Citroen DS3 WRC he shares with Monegasque co-driver Daniel Elena.

By claiming 25 points for victory plus three bonus points for winning the event-closing Power Stage, Loeb leaves the Principality with a maximum score in his bid to win the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia for a ninth time.

Loeb, from the Alsace region of France, began the final day of the WRC qualifier, which consisted of one test, the 5.16-kilometre Power Stage, with a lead of 2m41.6s. After completing the challenging run unscathed, victory was all but assured.

“For sure it’s always a great moment to start the season like this especially in front of so many fans,” Loeb told World Rally Radio. “Full points in the first race is incredible and for sure it’s the perfect start [to my title defence]. But Monte-Carlo is my rally and for the others we will have to see.”

Dani Sordo finished second in his MINI John Cooper Works WRC, the marque’s first podium on the legendary event since Rauno Aaltonen took the overall victory in 1967 in a Cooper S. Petter Solberg, in a Fiesta RS WRC, bagged the final podium spot on his return to the factory Ford team after an absence of more than a decade. It was the Norwegian’s first Monte-Carlo podium.

Mikko Hirvonen marked his debut for the works Citroen squad in fourth with Evgeny Novikov impressing throughout to take fifth in his M-Sport Fiesta, which equals his best finish in the WRC to date. The Russian completed his Monte-Carlo debut by claiming the final Power Stage point.

French legend Francois Delecour took sixth on his return to the WRC for the first time since 2002. The former Monte-Carlo winner handed driving duties to co-driver Dominique Savignoni for the Power Stage to celebrate the navigator’s retirement from competition.

Pierre Campana scored a career-best seventh in his factory MINI with Ott Tanak eighth after a conservative run in his M-Sport Fiesta. Martin Prokop edged MINI privateer Armindo Araujo in a close battle for ninth place with Matthew Wilson taking 11th overall for the new Go Fast Energy World Rally Team.

Volkswagen Motorsport’s Kevin Abbring was the highest Super 2000 finisher in 12th, one place ahead of Go Fast’s Henning Solberg, whose challenge for a top 10 finish was scuppered by a double driveshaft failure on day one.

Craig Breen won the Super 2000 World Rally Championship division in his Fiesta in 14th with Michal Kosciuszko nursing his Mitsubishi Lancer home to the Production Car World Rally Championship spoils in 30th overall.

The World Rally Championship resumes on Rally Sweden from 9-12 February.

Sebastien Ogier Wins Acropolis Rally

Ogier in Greece action

French driver Sebastien Ogier led home a Citroen 1-2 as he won the seventh leg of the rally world championship, the Acropolis Rally, ahead of compatriot and seven-time world champion Sebastien Loeb.

Ogier had started the final day behind Loeb, after the latter had stolen the lead in a dramatic final special stage on Saturday.

However, Ogier overturned that deficit to beat Loeb by 10.5 seconds to take the win in only his second participation in the race, having finished runner-up last year, and record his third victory of the season.

'I am really happy, this is perfect,' said 27-year-old Ogier, who has won five rallies thus far in his career.

'It was a difficult rally for me, I had trouble at the beginning, then I succeeded in finding my rhythm,' added Ogier after he also took the race ending power stage which gave him three additional points in the world championship standings.

Ogier said that he owed a lot to the conditions set down in his new contract drawn up at the end of 2010 to the fact that he could compete with Loeb on equal terms.

'I had another offer when I extended my contract with Citroen at the end of 2010,' said Ogier.

'Being treated the same as Loeb was one of my conditions, because competing against him is already difficult enough, but if he is given extra favours by the team then it is mission impossible.'

Ogier's equal status with Loeb was clear to see on the Friday and Saturday final special stages when the younger driver slowed up to let Loeb take the lead but also have to start the following day as the lead car - traditionally the most difficult start position.

Loeb reportedly was furious at the team allowing Ogier to have a free hand.

In the end Loeb had to console himself with his 100th career podium placing, including 65 victories, and that he had thwarted his Ford rivals plans to make up any ground on him in a race the team had won seven times since 2000.

Their best placing was Mirko Hirvonen, as last year's race winner who came into the race 13 points behind Loeb finished third while Norway's 2003 world champion Petter Solberg took fourth in a Citroen.

Loeb holds a 17 point lead now over Hirvonen with six rallies to go, three of them on his preferred asphalt surface (Germany, Alsace and Catalonia), so still holds the whip hand for what would be an eighth successive world crown.