Logistical nightmares in the lead-up to the World Rally Championship’s visit to Jordan last week created dramatic headlines the world over. However, with the might of the Jordan government, the Jordan Rally organisers, and the WRC teams and officials, resources were pooled to find a creative working solution to the myriad of issues. After much discussion, Day One of Jordan Rally was cancelled. This meant that the remainder of the rally was to be an all-out high-speed sprint for the podium.
Cutting the rally route by a third didn’t reduce the rally action. In fact, this was one of the most riveting rallies of the 2011 season thus far.
The two French Sebastiens, Ogier and Loeb (both in the Citroen Total World Rally Team), lead the way for their rivals at the end of Day Two (which was effectively Day One). The Citroen DS3 WRC has proved its pace on the gravel and Ogier once again showcased this with a 30sec lead over his teammate who in turn had enjoyed a 33.1sec advantage over the Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team’s Fiesta RS WRC piloted by Jari-Matti Latvala.
The first competitive day’s action was dominated by a battle of wits and courage from Ogier and Latvala, with each recording a pair of stage wins. As usual, Loeb wa supremely smooth over the rough gravel tests and was reflected in his stages times with the seven-times World Rally Champion consistently in the top three at the end of each stage. In his privateer Citroen DS3 WRC, Petter Solberg (Petter Solberg World Rally Team) shadowed the leading trio and kept within striking distance of the final podium position. Solberg’s talent in the privateer machine was not to be discounted. The Norwegian played the waiting game to perfection, finishing 02sec off the podium position held by Latvala. This, however, was soon to change.
The second factory Ford Fiesta RS WRC of Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team) was sandwiched between the Citroen DS3 WRCs of Solberg and Kimi Raikkonen (ICE1 Racing), but Hirvonen was slowly dropping time to Raikkonen and a hard-charging Matthew Wilson (M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team) throughout the opening day of competition. Before the day’s action reached Parc Ferme, Wilson had leapfrogged his Ford compatriot to take sixth place overall.
Day Two’s shorter leg took in more of the trying and tricky gravel tests, with confidence in the cars running high. Stage times were once again nail-bitingly close. Sweeping the roads, Ogier lost some time to his rivals but his determination from the front was impressive. Latvala and Loeb slowly began to reel in the leader, and the final stage of the event, the Power Stage, was to set the scene for a dramatic finale as Latvala had moved into the rally lead by 0.5sec over Ogier.
Petter Solberg ran into difficulties and was forced to retire from the rally while poised to take advantage of his road position to sneak onto the podium once more this season. Solberg is on the cusp of claiming his first WRC win since creating his own rally team.
Loeb, Latvala, Hirvoenn and Ogier were separated by a handful of seconds at the start of the Power Stage. Running in reverse order, with Latvala the last car through this stage in a bid to score the three bonus points up for grabs, Hirvonen set a stage time that was just 0.04sec off the stage winner’s time. He was on course for the fastest time, but running wide into a turn was all it took for him to post the second fastest time through the stage. Hirvonen finished the event fourth overall.
Loeb did sealed third place overall in the event, and his podium also meant he gained the lead of the Drivers’ Championship with two points over Mikko Hirvonen’s 72 in the Standings.
Through the Power Stage, Ogier pulled a magic time out of his bag of tricks to set a time of 05min 21.7s. Latvala chased through the stage, but stumbled on the final sector to set a time of 05min 22.4s, only 0.7sec slower than Ogier. This, which equates to the size of the Citroen DS3 WRC’s front bumper, was all that was required for Ogier to be declared the winner of the WRC Jordan Rally 2011.
“Despite the fact that we were pushing like crazy, Jari-Matti gave us a hard time today,” said Ogier. “He banged in incredible times and we almost felt that there was nothing we could do about it. Thanks to the reversed order in the final stage, sweeping had no influence and we were able to do battle on an equal footing. It was tough, but we never stopped thinking we could win, and Lady Luck smiled on us! It’s hardly believable to win the rally by such a tiny margin, but we’ve bagged the maximum amount of points with the Power Stage bonus. That’s put us back in the title hunt and it augurs well the rest of the season.”
“It was a fantastic way for the rally to finish but I’m so disappointed to lose out,” said Latvala. “It hurts when you fight so hard and lose by such a small margin. I made a few small mistakes on the final stage but I had no option to attack as hard as I could. I took big risks all day, and it nearly paid off. My heart was pounding on several occasions because I almost hit big rocks. This was my fourth consecutive podium and they are valuable points. The car’s performance was great all weekend and it’s given me plenty of confidence for the next few gravel events.”
Fifth went to Wilson and sixth went to privateer driver Raikkonen who ad his best finish in a year by taking sixth. The top eight were rounded out with Munchi’s Federico Villagra in seventh and Khalid Al Qassimi in a strong eighth.
OVERALL CLASSIFICATION
01) S. Ogier/J. Ingrassi
Citroen DS3 WRC – 02hr 48min 28.2s
02) J-M. Latvala/M. Anttila
Ford Fiesta RS WRC + 0.2s
03) S. Loeb/D. Elena
Citroen DS3 WRC+ 27.7s
04) M. Hirvonen/J. Lehtinen
Ford Fiesta RS WRC + 02min 44.7s
05) M. Wilson/S. Martin
Ford Fiesta RS WRC + 05min 44.9s
06) K. Raikknen/K. Lindstrom
Citroen DS3 WRC + 06min 14.9s
07) F. Villagra/J. Perez Companc
Ford Fiesta RS WRC + 09min 18.7s
08) K. Al Qassimi/M. Orr
Ford Fiesta RS WRC + 09min 43.7s
09) D. Kuipers/B. Degandt
Ford Fiesta RS WRC + 14min 27.5s
10) B. Sousa/A. Costa
Ford Fiesta S2000 + 15min 05.5s
