WRC Rally Driving: Round #7 Final Standings

There are no parts replacement allowed for each team except those already brought in on every rally car and limited mechanic supports for certain stage series, so in between the teams have been carrying a few extra spares inside their rally cars. CITROEN C4 was observed bringing among others spares of; ECU, hydraulic flexible pipes and steering arms. On the other hand Ford Focus had; two spare wheels, masking tape, fluid and super glue. And yes surely they brought along tools and some spanners. Inevitably all of these add up to the overall weight, what they did however was to manage the optimal weight distribution through out each rally car.

Jarri Matti Latvala had been brilliantly leading the score up to SS 6 by capitalizing the facts of unfortunate Sebastian Loeb’s stage sweeping responsibility. That is until JM overshot a corner and got stuck into the outer righthander embankment, he lost his lead and sunk to 11^th rank. Malcolm Wilson was not pleased at all! Fortunately Mikko was there to pick up the lead, he then implemented Sebastian Loeb’s tactic by keeping his lead within just 1 minute and certain dozens of second corridor on overall score to the second ranked driver. On the contrary Sordo deliberately check in late enabling him gets behind Mikko’s position on SS 4; CITROEN and Ford had exchanged their own tactics.

SS 9; However CITROEN C4 number two Sordo had to give up his chase as he hit rock on a righthander breaking his steering arm controller, so did Henning on the same spot who got really mad for apparent little warning given by the steward. Earlier a yellow flag was there waving at Petter, but none to Henning. Sebastian Loeb also did hit a rock on SS 7 and rolled out. His left front CITROEN C4 launched upward catapulting the car to its forward right resulted in several rolls on immediate field. However Sebastian Loeb and Elena were unhurt but the CITROEN C4 was totalled. The 3 drivers retired…..

Meanwhile Petter Solberg strangely did not start the Acropolis rally in his usual confident manner due to a concern over his CITROEN Xsara cooling system. He was in fact the fastest at SS10, but unfortunately he also did hit a rock on his left front tire ending the whole front strut assembly to overshoot breaking off its housing on the following stage.

Acropolis was a disaster for both CITROEN C4s, yet they are still ahead over 7 points on driver and 15 points on team standings; for now WRC CITROEN Lead on 2009 championship temporarily…

It was Mikko Hirvonen’s first retirement out of his immaculate 20 finishes at Argentine, and now it is Sebastian Loeb turn. He broke off his superb rally driving of 52 successive wins, ironically just after his recently awarded French Knighthood. Now, this is some rally driving competition indeed!

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