Round 6 of the championship saw the teams head back to argentina after time away.
The event popular for its jumps, water splashes and the lunar landscape of the high altitude El Condor stage.Stages in Argentina are renowned for being slightly slower but more technically demanding than some of the other tests drivers experience in the WRC.
The surface of this rally also increases the chances of punctures.
Sebastien Loeb won the rally for this 6th time in his career. It was quiet a spectacular win for the World Champion after recovering from a one minute penalty handed out on day one for an early check-in, he started day three in third overall, 47.7s behind event leader and team-mate Sebastien Ogier who made a terrible mistake on the final day of the rally when he rolled on the opening stage of the day. The damage ultimately dropped him to third at the finish following damage to his DS3 WRC’s powersteering. He was extremely lucky that his rally was not over.
Fords Mikko Hirvonen took the final podium spot after a good drive on one of the roughest and toughest rallies on the calendar.
His team mate Latvala, who was leading the rally at one point suffered a front-left suspension link failure. Despite attempts to repair the damage, the Finn retired four kilometres into SS14 of the rally. He restarted the rally for the final day under Superally regulations.
It was dissapointing for Latvala who had set some of the fastest times on the opening day. In the first run throughover El Condor - Cuesta Blanca, Latvala drove at a top speed of 208kph and an average of 196kph.
Unlucky Petter Solberg who could well of challenged for the win, suffered a mechanical glitch on the final stage of day 2. A distraught Norwegian reached the stage finish punching the steering wheel of his car after a power steering failure resulted in him falling 1m16.1s adrift of leader Sebastien Ogier.
He made up enough time on day 3 to finish the event in 4th position taking extra points for winning the powerstage.
When reviewing Rally Argentina I must include the quote made by Ken Block.Argentina ran one fifth of its rally on Tarmac with gravel tyres. On asking the drivers to describe the feeling you get from this sensation Ken Block summed it up best: “It feels like you are driving on gummy bears”. tooooo funny !
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| A spectacular pic of Ken Block and Alex Gelsmino flying through the Argentine air! |
This is why we love rallying !
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