[Rally Poland Day 3] Victory Hands Mikko Title Lead

Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen has taken the lead in the FIA World Rally Championship after winning Rally Poland. It was Ford’s third straight victory following wins in Italy and Greece and Hirvonen now heads the drivers’ standings by one point with four Rounds remaining.

“This has been the best rally of the season so far,” said 28-year-old Hirvonen. “The roads here are fast and narrow and the crowds provided a superb atmosphere. It’s the first time I have won two consecutive rallies and it has put me into the lead of the championship ahead of my home rally in Finland. The weekend was perfect from start to finish.”

“After Loeb’s mistake on Friday, I thought I might have an easy drive but it wasn’t to be. I had to drive flat out yesterday to stay ahead and it’s a fantastic feeling to win after such a great fight.”

This was Poland’s first appearance in the WRC since the inaugural championship in 1973. More than 200,000 fans welcomed its return by swamping the picturesque Mazurian Lake District, 250km from Warsaw in the north-east of the country, to watch the action.

Narrow, sandy and blisteringly fast gravel roads challenged the drivers, who tackled 18 special stages covering 352.00km. Such was the pace that Hirvonen won Friday’s penultimate speed test at an average speed of 129.44kph.

Hirvonen took the lead on the third stage on Friday morning and Latvala claimed second just one test later after Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb, Hirvonen’s title rival, hit a tree stump and broke his car’s suspension.

The Ford duo withstood a determined challenge Saturday morning from third-placed Citroen driver Dani Sordo and measured their pace through Sunday’s final leg until the last-stage drama.

Hirvonen’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala was on course for second place in another Focus RS WRC, amazingly only to retire with the finish in sight after hitting a barrel and breaking the car’s steering on the final speed test in the rally’s host town of Mikolajki.

“It was my mistake,” admitted a distraught Latvala. “I wasn’t driving too quickly but I turned into the bend too early and clipped an oil barrel which was full of sand. The impact broke the steering and I couldn’t turn into the next bend and hit the barrier on the opposite side of the road.”

“I’ve let down the team and damaged Ford’s dream of winning the manufacturers’ title this year,” Latvala said.

Sordo, who inherited second, was pleased with his pace over the weekend and reflected on the disappointment for Latvala. “It did show how vital it is to stay focused all the way to the flag if we want to finish on the podium,” he said.
Junior Citroen driver Sebastien Ogier had looked on course for a strong fourth place, prior to the retirement of Latvala, after a weekend long duel with both Petter and Henning Solberg. But the young Frenchman was forced into retirement on the penultimate stage when his Citroen C4’s engine expired.

Petter Solberg, who knew his 2006-spec Citroen Xsara WRC would be unable to match the leading pace setters this weekend, was frustrated to drop behind his older brother Henning after an engine fitting broke loose spraying his windscreen with oil.

With Latvala and Ogier both on the sidelines it would be Henning who would eventually benefit, securing third outright for the Stobart VK Ford team.

In fact it was a bumper weekend for the Stobart squad with Matthew Wilson claiming fifth ahead of Polish local charger Krzysztof Holowczyc in sixth.

A late play of team orders ensured that Sebastien Loeb took some points away from the weekend with Citroen Junior squad team members Conrad Rautenbach and Evgeny Novikov slowed in the final stages to let Loeb claim seventh.

The Championship moves into its final third in Finland next month for one of the sport’s great classics. Rally Finland, the home event for Hirvonen and Latvala, is based in Jyvaskyla on 30 July – 2 August.

Final Placings
1. Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus WRC08) 3h07m27.5s
2. Dani Sordo (Citroen C4 WRC) +1m10.3s
3. Henning Solberg (Ford Focus WRC08) +2m05.7s
4. Petter Solberg (Citroen Xsara WRC) +2m24.3s
5. Matthew Wilson (Ford Focus WRC08) +4m17.5s
6. Krzysztof Holowczyc (Ford Focus WRC08) +4m33.9s
7. Sebastien Loeb (Citroen C4 WRC) +19m15.1s
8. Conrad Rautenbach (Citroen C4 WRC) +19m20.6s
9. Evgeny Novikov (Citroen C4 WRC) +19m26.2s
10. Michal Bebenek (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo) +23m08.7s