As already pointed out earlier, Citroen had successfully managed to put their four cars within the top 6 placing. And Ford knew that Loeb and his C4 was unbeatable on tarmac. Furthermore Citroen Junior Team had also made a success
ful first debut within this ranking placement making a lot fiercer competition for Ford. Had it not been for a series of punctures and broken shaft, Jarri Matti Latvala would have scored in the top three.
Ford's strategy would normally deploy Latvalla to secure Mikko chasing off Loeb, Latvalla had lead the first stage prior to his technical glitches. Ironically to make the matter worst, Mikko also suffered series of problems including his power steering loss. The superb rally driving from the top duo Citroen had yielded more than 1 minute lead over Mikko during the first day.
On the last day Mikko put out an all out effort to decrease lead time, by SS-15 he made a gamble by opting for dry tyre instead of wet that the majority drivers had chosen. Later in the day the Stobart-Ford driver Henning Solberg also followed the same strategy to beat Atkinson for a 4th place on a good solid neck to neck race. SS-15 saw Mikko as the stage leader, but not good enough to change the overall rank. Whilst Solberg was outpaced by Atkinson by a mere 0.5 second, yet he regained the 4th position when Atkinson missed to judge a corner causing him to a whole one minute loss!
It was this fierce battle of the 4th position that made the event colourful, then on another battle for the 6th rank between the reigning junior champ S Ogier with Mathew Wilson. However the 6th rank battle was quite a brief one and not as interesting once Ogier made a consistent driving style. No wonder that the five WRC winners Loeb had admitted for watching this guy, Ogier would certainly be a tough competitor from within their own Citroen Team in the near future.
Meanwhile it was Atkinson who stole the spot light. Day 2 on SS-12 he escaped a horrendous accident when his car was aquaplaned and hit a pole spinning the car 360 degrees. His co-driver suffer a minor bruise, but the car was heavily damaged. Yet, he could continue the race and even took the 4th position on SS-14, beating that 0.5 second lead over Henning.
There was another interesting spot occurring along the 10 km
s long of SS-16 Arigna. It was on a particular corner that knocked Gronholm out of 2007 Championship. The strange accident that also secured Loeb's 2007 WRC Championship. Due to his injury from a mountain bike activity, Loeb was absent for a three consecutive event series. Many fans expected it would be a snatch for Gronholm making a Championship on his last debut prior to his retirement, alas the corner had cost him dearly.
In fact every one was carefully slowing down at the Gronholm corner! A peculiar driving norm for all those talented rally drivers. Despite of their skillful talent on capable yet expensive rare vehicle (beyond one Million dollars worth), drivers could exercise cautious rallying rather than merely trusting upon intuition.
The WRC '09 round 1 of Ireland Rally earned Loeb a ten, Sordo an 8 and Mikko 6 point scores. Two Citroen and a Ford on top three. Followed by Stobart-Ford and two Citroen Junior drivers on the 4th down to the 6th positions; Henning, Atkinson and S. Ogier. On the 7th and 8th placements were another two Stobart-Ford drivers; Mathew and Al Qassimi. Great opening round, see you on round 2 at icy Norway!
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