Motor-sport from the inside - Sarah Byles Motor-sport: Wet 'n' Wild Rally Argentina

Mikko Hirvonen

Faultless Loeb

After the extremely difficult conditions of Rally Argentina, with many prisoners taken by the changing weather, a clear cut leader emerges. But, lucky enough for most, this leader still remains in reach. Five points now separates Frenchman Sebastian Loeb from Fin Mikko Hirvonen, after Loeb's winning weekend in Argentina.

But it did not always look like it was going to happen this way. The first day of Rally Argentina saw Mikko Hirvonen take an early lead, shoving it to those who have recently said that he may not have what it takes to be a number-one driver. But disaster struck in the second half of day one, in the form of a broken suspension. Hirvonen restarted day two at 25th place and fought his way back up to finish inside the points in 5th place.

Team make Jari-Matti Latvala also hit trouble on day one, forcing Team Director Malcom Wilson to cringe at the thought of a repeat performance of 1999 Rally China, where both Fords retired on the first stage. Latvala rolled his Focus on the 9th stage on day one, he lost 9 minutes getting back onto the stage and started to fight back until disaster stuck again when he hit a rock on day two. He restarted again on Sunday and fought from 21st up to finish in 15th.

In the Subaru camp it looked as though the team was going to have an awesome finish, with Petter Solberg in second, on track for his best placing since Rally Portugal 2007, followed by Chris Atkinson in third. Disaster struck for Solberg when a complete electrical failure forced him to retire, while Atkinson brought home a solid second place for the team. Atkinson and Subaru now sit on third place in their respective championships.

Dani Sordo brought home a third place podium for Citroen, much to the delight of the team.

In the Stobart Ford camp Gigi Galli flew the team flag to seventh position overall, while Henning Solberg and Mathew Wilson failed to finish the rally. The older Solberg, Henning, managed to retire each day of the rally under different circumstances. His final retirement was on the first stage on Sunday where he suffered suspension damage. Wilson ran well on the rally until the half way mark on Saturday when a track control arm broke on the final corner of SS15.

The other Ford outfit, Munchi's Ford Word Rally Team, was led by Federico Villagra who finished sixth overall, bringing home four manufacturers points and gaining his best World Rally finish to date. Team mate Luis Perez Companc retired on the last stage of day one when he slid off and caused some small suspension damage. His car and recovery crew became stranded in the huge number of spectators and blockades and he was therefore unable to restart on day two.

Suzuki World Rally Team had problems but managed to get P-G Anderson to finish the rally in 24th place. Toni Gardemeister could not complete the rally due to hydraulics issues.

Overall leaderboard:
1. Loeb
2. Atkinson +2:33.2 3.
Sordo +4:04.7 4.
Rautenbach +20:03.5 5.
Hirvonen +25:15.3 6.
Villagra +27:42.0 7.
Galli +27:51.8 8.
Aigner +28:59.3

Driver’s Championship
1. Loeb – 30 pts
2. Hirvonen – 25 pts
3. Atkinson - 22pts
4. Latvala – 16pts
5. Galli – 11pts
6. Sordo – 9pts
7. Solberg – 9 pts
8. Duval – 5 pts
=. Rautenbach – 5pts

Manufacturers’ Championship
1. BP Ford - 44 pts
2. Citroen - 41 pts
3. Subaru - 33 pts
4. Stobart - 22 pts
5. Munchi’s - 10 pts
6. Suzuki - 6 pts

The teams now prepare for Rally Jordan at the end of April.