Citroën lost the WRC Rally Australia. Yes, that strong statement is bound to upset a few and strike a chord with many though. For the Blue Oval to win here in a straight fight, would have been a longshot going on the French team’s pace on gravel this season. Ford’s factory drivers, to not take anything away from their respectable and all-important 1-2 result this weekend at the WRC Rally Australia, kept their team boss and sponsors pleased with their consistent approach to the tricky rally.
It was a win that rightly belonged to Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team), after they charged through the final day of the rally to win the event by 14.7sec over teammates Jari-Matti Latvala/Miika Anttila. Some 30-odd seconds behind was the Citroën privateer team of Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson (Petter Solberg World Rally Team) to claim a valuable podium result.
Latvala finished Day Two 22.7sec ahead of Hirvonen, but on the final gravel stage of the rally the younger Finn slowed his pace to enable Hirvonen to score the extra points needed to close the gap to WRC Drivers’ Championship leader Sebastien Loeb (Citroën Total World Rally Team).
“This is a fantastic feeling and a very important result for the team and for my championship chances,” said Hirvonen. “I have to say a big thank you to my team and also to Jari-Matti for slowing down. I’m back in the game but we have to work really hard now to improve our pace on Tarmac.”
Latvala, who won nine of 26 stages during the weekend, said: “Of course it would have been great to have won the rally but it was a great result for the team.”
Ford’s second victory of the 2011 season (after Hirvonen won WRC Rally Sweden), coincided with the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States which the American firm marked by carrying memorial stickers on its factory machines.
With the final day of the rally contested over dry roads and under sunny skies, Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin (M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team) claimed their equal best career result in the WRC. Interestingly, Wilson has now scored on eight rallies this season and this weekend’s performance moves him one step closer to a podium result.
The fourth Ford Fiesta RS WRC home was that of Team Abu Dhabi’s Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr, finishing fifth overall in their best-ever performance. This pairing was also the last of the WRC runners to not have restarted the WRC Rally Australia at some point under SupeRally regulations. Al Qassimi finished some 12min 30sec behind the winner Hirvonen and 05min ahead of sixth-placed Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (New Zealand World Rally Team, PWRC), who claimed the Production World Rally Championship title with this incredible win.
In a lowly tenth overall was Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena, reigning World Rally Champions. They finished 30min adrift of the rally winners after they were forced to restart Day Two under SupeRally after crashing out on SS4. Loeb scored one point for his Championship aspirations, but it was teammate Sebastien Ogier who slowed his speed to allow Loeb to move one place higher on the final overall leader board.
Loeb explained the team tactics after the rally: “On this rally the team made this choice because there is big pressure from Mikko who closed the gap a lot in the championship because of our mistake.”
Peter van Merksteijn Jr (Van Merksteijn Motorsport) finished 13th overall with Henning Solberg (M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team) one place behind. Both were SupeRally runners on Day Three.
Ken Block (Monster World Rally Team) brought his Ford Fiesta RS WRC home in 19th overall after crashing out on the first stage on Friday morning and restarted on Day Two under SupeRally regulations. He was more fortunate than Brazil WRT’s Daniel Oliviera (MINI John Cooper Works WRC) retired for a second time this weekend on Sunday morning after an ‘off.’
Evgeniy Novikov (M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team), who was also beset with ill fortune all weekend, crashed out on Sunday morning in what he described as his biggest crash in his motorsport career. Fortunately, Novikov and co-driver Denis Giraudet were unharmed in the accident.
For full results, please visit www.wrc.com.
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