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| 2009 Rally Acropolis : WRC Round 7 of 12 : 12th - 14th June In this issue: 1. Final Unofficial Leaderboard 2. Final News 4. Final Team by Team News 5. Championship Points 6. Next Event 1. Final Unofficial Leaderboard 1. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen (FIN) Ford Focus RS 4h09m42.5s 2. S Ogier/J Ingrassia (FRA) Citroën C4 +1m12.9s 3. J-M Latvala/M Anttila (FIN) Ford Focus RS +1m45.0s 4. F Villagra/J Diaz (ARG) Ford Focus RS +3m48.3s 5. C Rautenbach/D Barritt (ZIM) Citroën C4 +3m59.8s 6. K Al Qassimi/M Orr (UAE) Ford Focus RS +7m04.3s 7. M O! stberg/J Andersson (NOR) Subaru Impreza +12m24.9s 8. L Athanassoulas/N Zakheos (GRE) Skoda Fabia +12m47.6s 2. Final News BP Ford Abu Dhabi driver Mikko Hirvonen closed the gap on championship leader Sebastien Loeb taking his first victory of the year. It was a double-celebration for Ford as Jari-Matti Latvala took third place to put the team firmly back in the running for the manufacturers' title. Loeb's challenge came to a halt on Saturday morning as he crashed out of SS7 and the team's challenge was further damaged as Dani Sordo was also hit by problems on day two. Munchi's Ford driver Federico Villagra equalled his best ever WRC result with fourth place. The Citroen Junior team's young drivers posted some excellent times over the weekend with Sebastien Ogier taking his first ever WRC podium as he took second place with team mate Conrad Rautenbach a little further back in fifth. 4. Team by Team News BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen won the Acropolis Rally of Greece today to secure Ford's 70th world rally victory. The Finns won this seventh round of the FIA World Rally Championship, the toughest encounter in the 12-event series, by 1min 12.9sec in their Ford Focus RS World Rally Car.! BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team colleagues Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila were third in another Focus RS WRC to secure maximum points in the manufacturers' series for the Blue Oval. #3 : Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen: "I knew that if we finished the rally without problems then we would be high in the order and that was the case. The key to success was to stay on the road and be cautious rather than drive flat out all the way. The car was amazing all weekend, especially the last stage which was so rough. I was fortunate to have such a large lead that I was able to drive steadily." #4 : Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila: "I thought I had lost everything on Friday evening. A place on the podium was never in my dreams but others made mistakes and their cars broke and that's exactly what I achieved. My strategy yesterday was to save the tyres, save the car and drive round the rocks and it paid off. This rally ! required respect and the result is so important for me and the team from the championship perspective," Citroen Total World Rally Team http://citroen.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=1 After restarting under the SupeRally ruling for the third and final day of the 2009 Acropolis Rally of Greece, Dani Sordo and Marc Marti achieved their aims by scoring four points for Citroën in the Manufacturers' world championship. #1 : Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena:Retired (accident) #2 : Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti: "It's never easy to run at a controlled pace but I'm taking no risks. I'm staying in the middle of the road - at times, it feels like we're doing a recce!" Stobart VK M-Sport Ford World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 Stobart VK M-Sport Ford drivers Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson lit up the final day of the Acropolis Rally of Greece setting some scorching times on the closing stages of the event as they chased manufacturer points. Each of the drivers took a stage victory on day three and they bagged the team's first ever one-two stage finish to complete the tough rally on a high note claiming five valuable points for the team. #5: Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin: "It's been a very positive rally for us and we've consistently posted top-five times. There were still a few places where we could improve, even on the stage where we went fastest; to be honest it didn't feel anything special. But, from a performance point of view it's been great for us and it's just a bit frustrating that we had that problem on the first day. If we had got a cl! ean run here then there's no reason why we couldn't have been on the podium. The rally, as normal, has been very tough and tricky and it has caught out a lot of the other drivers. I've also gained more experience, especially how to drive in these conditions and how to be less aggressive in order to preserve the tyres." #6 : Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud: "This has not been one of my best rallies for sure. We have struggled all weekend with the feeling and set-up of the car and it was hard to be able to push, especially when these stages are so difficult. I was really frustrated on Saturday when we hit that rock as we were driving well and taking no major risks. Obviously we had good road position for today and that helped us get the fastest stage time, but we need to work on improving the feeling with the car for the next rally. I'm still the top non-factory driver in the championship and we still got points here for the Stobart team so it&r! squo;s not all bad." Citroen Junior Team http://citroen.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=1 The Citroën Junior Team has reached the podium for the first time in its short history in the FIA World Rally Championship. France's reigning Junior WRC champion Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia drove a controlled final day to claim second place overall on the Acropolis Rally of Greece. Fifth place fell to their Zimbabwean teammate Conrad Rautenbach and British co-driver Daniel Barritt, while Russian teenager Evgeny Novikov and his Australian co-driver Dale Moscatt claimed points for Citroën at the end of one of the performances of the year. #7 : Evgeny Novikov/Dale Moscatt: " I had come with the objective to go for strong, competitive times, and it's extremely satisfying to have been fastest on four stages, ". #8: Conrad Rautenbach/Daniel Barritt: " We fought until the end to try to claim fourth place overall, and I am a little disappointed not to have won my duel against Frederico Villagra, but our result and that of the team are very good all the same! " #11: Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia: " It was just a perfect weekend for us, and this second place comes at a good time. Our strategy was the key to this result, we learned a lot from completing it with very few problems and it's a great reward for the team who have put in so much effort since the start of the season. With Julien, we are happy to see the C4 WRC on the podium and both want to thank Citroën for the confidence shown in us." 5. Championship Points Full championship points at: http://www.rallye-info.com/points.asp? 6. Next Event Rally Poland (25 - 28 June) returns to the championship for the first time since 1973 as round eight of the series. The fast gravel event is based in Mikolajki. |