The 1st half of the season ended with the rally of the Gods!
After the first six stages of the rally Norwegian Privateer Petter Solberg was leading after an amazing drive on the opening day, winning four of the six stages, and setting the second fastest time on the other two.
He entered the 2nd day with a lead of 51.2 seconds.
But unfortunately on day 2, sweeping the road for the other drivers, cost him the lead.
Sonething that caused alot of controversy at Rally Acropolis was the use of tactics which ultimately helped Sebastien Ogier win the rally over his team mate Sebastien Loeb.
After an average 1st day, with a better road position for day 2 Sebastien Ogier set blistering fast times and made his way up to 2nd overall on SS7, later stealing the lead on SS10 while Solberg struggled while sweeping the stages.The rally acropolis drama occured on the night stage which ended day 2.
Petter Solberg suffered running first on the stage and it didnt really help when Chris lost where they were in his pace notes.
Sebastien Loeb took the lead into day 2 after Sebastien Ogier reported losing time in the dust, eventually to admit he slowed down on the stage to get a better road position for the final day.
Sebastien Loeb was least of all happy, feeling that the team had played the tactical game against him to favour the younger frenchman. He later agreed with his team boss that if the roles were reversed the team would of done the same for Loeb, but he still felt that he should of won the rally because he had swept the stages for two days and was still as fast as his younger team-mate.
Mikko Hirvonen, in the lead factory Ford Fiesta RS WRC, closed to within 2.6s of Loeb starting the Power Stage but had to settle for third. The result means Loeb now heads the Finnish driver, who was fastest on stage 16. Hirvonen put in a brilliant performance on Sunday but just didnt have the pace from the start of the rally.
Jari-Matti Latvala was quickest on four of Sunday’s five stages in the second works Ford, but time lost earlier in the event due to mechanical failures restricted the Finn to ninth in the final classification.
So the first half of the season is complete and it seems like it was just yesterday that we were watching rally Sweden.
The Championship looks like this going into the 2nd half of the season...
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHP
| DRIVER | SWE | MEX | PRT | JOR | ITA | ARG | GRC | FIN | DEU | AUS | FRA | ESP | GBR | PTS | |
1 | Sébastien Loeb (FRA) | 10 6+2 | 27 1+2 | 21 2+1 | 16 3+3 | 26 1+3 | 26 1+3 | 20 2+2 | 146 | ||||||
2 | Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) | 25 1 | 21 2+1 | 12 4 | 14 4+2 | 21 2+1 | 20 2+2 | 16 3+3 | 129 | ||||||
3 | Sébastien Ogier (FRA) | 15 4+1 | R a | 26 1+3 | 28 1+1 | 12 4 | 15 3 | 28 1+1 | 124 | ||||||
4 | Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN) | 16 3+3 | 15 3 | 17 3+2 | 18 2 | 2 18+2 | 6 7 | 2 9 | 76 | ||||||
5 | Petter Solberg (NOR) | 10 5 | 13 4+3 | 8 6 | R a | 15 3 | 15 4+1 | 12 4 | 73 | ||||||
6 | Mads Østberg (NOR) | 18 2 | 10 5 | 0 31 | 0 13 | 10 5 | 10 5 | 0 12 | 48 | ||||||
7 | Matthew Wilson (GBR) | 2 9 | R m | 10 5 | 10 5 | 2 9 | 4 8 | 8 6 | 36 | ||||||
8 | Kimi Räikkönen (FIN) | 4 8 | 6 7 | 8 6 | 6 7 | 24 | |||||||||
9 | Henning Solberg (NOR) | R m | 8 6 | 2 9 | 0 14 | R m | 10 5 | 20 | |||||||
10 | Federico Villagra (ARG) | 2 9 | 4 8 | 6 7 | 0 17 | 8 6 | 20 |
MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
| POS | MANUFACTURER | SWE | MEX | PRT | JOR | ITA | ARG | GRC | FIN | DEU | AUS | FRA | ESP | GBR | PTS |
1 | Citroën Total World Rally Team | 22 4 5 | 25 1 a | 43 1 2 | 40 1 3 | 37 1 4 | 40 1 3 | 43 1 2 | 250 | ||||||
2 | Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team | 40 1 3 | 33 2 3 | 27 3 4 | 30 2 4 | 20 2 9 | 24 2 7 | 21 3 7 | 195 | ||||||
3 | M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team | 18 2 m | 18 5 6 | 4 8 12 | 3 9 10 | 18 5 6 | 14 5 8 | 12 5 9 | 87 | ||||||
4 | Petter Solberg World Rally Team | 12 4 | 10 5 | - a | 15 3 | 12 4 | 12 4 | 61 | |||||||
5 | ICE1 Racing | 8 6 | 8 6 | 10 5 | 8 6 | 34 | |||||||||
6 | Munchi's Ford World Rally Team | 6 7 | 6 7 | 8 6 | 4 8 | 8 6 | 32 | ||||||||
7 | Team Abu Dhabi | 6 7 | 1 10 | 6 7 | 6 7 | 19 | |||||||||
8 | FERM Power Tools World Rally Team | 4 8 | 0 a | 2 9 | 4 8 | - m | 4 8 | 14 | |||||||
9 | Monster World Rally Team | 2 9 | 4 8 | - w | 2 9 | 8 | |||||||||
10 | Brazil World Rally Team | 0 11 | 1 10 | - m | - m | 1 | |||||||||
11 | Van Merksteijn Motorsport | 0 11 | - m | - m | - m | - m | 0 |
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