Nov 01 2009
Sebastien Loeb becomes the world champion six times WRC
When you look at the history of the last six world rallies, you see a champion Sebastien Loeb. Looks like yours is already a children’s game, and even this year it was made easier by the absence of competitors (Petter Solberg without a good car …). Few gave something for Mikko Hirvonen, because despite being an excellent pilot, it seemed that I still had much to mature.
But Ford has shown he can put the screws to anyone, and its good performance, the reliability of Ford (who wanted to own Citroen) and some failures Loeb, the world has been fought to the last mile. And is that despite the end Loeb has taken a comfortable margin of more than a minute to Mikko (Sebastien is still the fastest in almost all areas) it is certain that if it had been off the track or the engine had broken Hirvonen would be talking about world champion.
The rest of the rally has little story to tell. The most intense fighting we have lived by the third step of the podium until the wiper has stopped working to Petter Solberg, which lost him time to achieve certification Dani Sordo who is now the third best driver available but still too far from the two spearheads.
The next season the thing does not tighten too much, and probably will in a sense an extension of what seen so far, waiting for the new statutory regulation comes into force in 2011, and replace the powerful S2000 WRC. Until then, congratulations to the French champion, who already looks like the Schumacher of rallying.
Rating:
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h16m25.4s
2. Mikko Hirvonen Ford 1m06.1s
3. Dani Sordo Citroen 1m07.1s
4. Petter Solberg 1m28.1s Citroen
5. Henning Solberg Ford 6m28.0s
6. Matthew Wilson Ford 7m46.0s
7. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford 12m11.9s
8. Conrad Rautenbach Citroen 14m27.8s
9. Eyvind Brynildsen Skoda 22m22.7s
10. Armindo Araujo Mitsubishi 24m18.8s