Loeb Dominates Rally GB to take Sixth Title

Citroen driver Sebastian Loeb clinched both the Rally GB and his sixth straight World Rally Championship title last weekend.

At an event where the Frenchman had never before excelled, and under enormous pressure from title rival and BP Ford Abu Dhabi driver Mikko Hirvonen, Loeb was imperious from the very first stage.

Loeb and Finnish driver Hirvonen went into the rally separated by just one point after Loeb’s Catalunya triumph during the first weekend in October.

In short, whoever came out on top in Wales would become the 2009 World Rally Champion.

Loeb took the lead on the very first stage, the densely forested ‘Hafren 1’, opening out a 1.7 second lead over Hirvonen.

On the more open and spectator-friendly ‘Sweet Lamb 1’, both drivers were clearly right on the limit; rapidly on-and-off the throttle and slinging their cars over the jumps and through the water splashes.

Loeb extended his advantage to nearly nine seconds by the end of the third stage before Hirvonen fought back strongly from Hafren 2 onwards, cutting Loeb’s lead to just 5.3 seconds by the end of the day.

Crowd favourite Petter Solberg, along with his Welsh co-driver Phil Mills, were placed third in their Citroen Junior Team C4 on Friday night, just beating Loeb’s team-mate Dani Sordo.

On day two, after the first stage, it looked as though the close battle would continue, but Hirvonen inexplicably lost around 25 seconds to Loeb on just two stages – ‘Rhondda 1’ and ‘Crychan 1’.

The Ford man blamed technical problems but his team could find no issues with the car when he returned to Service Park D.

So, Loeb began the third day 30 seconds clear of Hirvonen, and Sordo now lay in third place, 24 seconds clear of Solberg who had experienced problems with his windscreen wipers – a big issue on the largely wet and windy stages.

As the spectators trudged their way towards the stages on Sunday, the excited chatter was all about Loeb, and what was turning out to be a famous victory.

Loeb was doing little more than pacing himself on the morning stages, initially allowing the gap between him and Hirvonen to reduce to 18.2 seconds, before Hirvonen hit trouble on Port Talbot 2 when he lost the car’s bonnet.

As a result Loeb comfortably coasted to the victory by more than a minute to win the championship by just one point.

Sordo came very close to taking second place off Hirvonen, finishing only a second behind him after over three hours of driving.

Britain’s Matthew Wilson finished in sixth place in his Stobart Ford; nearly five minutes clear of Hirvonen’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala who was slowed on the first day with hydraulic problems.

Wilson had been running in seventh at the end of day two but Sebastian Olgier rolled his Citroen Junior Team C4 into the scenery on the penultimate stage.

The young Brit, who has put in 10 solid points-scoring performances during a breakthrough season, finished seventh in the overall points standings.

He said: “We still don't know fully about next year but hopefully we will be back and will keep the momentum from this year.

The Solberg brothers, Peter and Henning, finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Conrad Rautenbach completed the points in eighth place and the other British runner Steve Perez, also in a Stobart Ford, finished in a very respectable twelfth.

Rally GB 2009, 23-25 October

Overall position after SS16:

1 Sebastian Loeb
2 Mikko Hirvonen
3 Dani Sordo
4 Petter Solberg
5 Henning Solberg
6 Matthew Wilson
7 Jarri-Matti Latvala
8 Conrad Rautenbach

Highlights:

Rally GB

One of the perks of being based in Cardiff is having top-notch sporting events on your doorstep. This evening it was the turn of Rally GB.

I've just been down to the ceremonial start and I took some pictures and videos:

Rally GB Preview

Mikko Hirvonen goes into next weekend’s Rally GB just 1 point clear of season-long rival Sebastien Loeb.

Last time out in Spain, Loeb led home his Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo to send the title chase to the season’s final round.

Loeb, who has won every title since 2004, needs only to finish equal on points with Hirvonen to win the title, as he would be crowned virtue of having won six rallies to Ford driver Hirvonen’s four.

Local interest comes from British privateer Steve Perez who will drive the Stobart Ford car.

The biggest story other than the title chase is the small entry for this year's event. Just 17 World Rally Cars will be present at the ceremonial start in Cardiff Bay on Thursday 22nd September.

Perhaps more disappointing is the fact that Mark Higgins, the 3 times British Rally Champion, is one of those not on the list to complete.

So who do I think is going to win the championship?

The obvious choice would be to go for Sebastien Loeb. He has won the last five titles and was the winner of this event last year. The momentum has mainly with Mikko Hirvonen in the second half of the season, but by winning Rally Catalunya on October 4th, Loeb has broken that trend.

However, Hirvonen won the Rally GB in 2007 and stormed back up to 8th place after a first day roll last year, so he clearly has the know how when it comes to the South Wales event.

What will be key however is the the role of the team-mates. Dani Sordo has had a much more accomplished season than Hirvonen's team mate Jari-Matti Latvala and has looked odds-on to take his first win at various points over the season.

He will surely figure at some stage in the rally, perhaps taking critical stage wins or even reducing the amount of points that Hirvonen gains should he place further down. I would think it unlikely that Latvala will finish ahead of Loeb.

As such, I am going to go for a Sordo win over Loeb, who as a result will take a stunning sixth consecutive championship.

Todt vs Ari

The elections for the FIA presidency between Jean Todt and Ari Vatanen will take place next Friday.

Jean Todt is the strong favourite having been endorsed by outgoing president Max Mosley and appearing to have the greater popular support.

Todt is also arguably the more well known of the two. This is partly due to the fact that Todt's senior role in Ferrari's Formula 1 team was more visible than Vatanen's exploits as a driver in the World Rally Championship and partly because Todt is engaged to actress Michelle Yeoh.

However, Vatanen has done this:

Equally, Todt ran Ferrari in a very insular and competitive manner during his tenure, in complete contrast with current figurehead Luca di Montezemelo who has taken a very clear role in uniting the Formula 1 constructors.

It is also worth noting that the FIA representatives are not just electing a president on the 23rd of October - they are electing a host of roles.

Before the election, each candidate must present a list of those individuals who will fulfil the 22 roles including Deputy President, seven vice-presidents for Sport and the President and five members of the FIA Senate.

None of these candidates can be present on both lists so when voting for the president, an FIA representative is also assenting to the appointment of all those on the list.

Unfortunately, we are not party to the decision. But we can still listen to what they have to say about themselves:

There does not appear to be any English language videos in the public domain showing an interview with Jean Todt that relates to the FIA presidency