Rally Argentina: French tango!
The 5th round of the WRC was a triumph for Citroen, since 3 cars of the French team finished in the first 5 spots, while the two factory crews, Sebastien Loeb-Daniel Elena and Mikko Hirvonen-Jarmo Lehtinen claimed the second 1-2 finish of the season.
The difficulties for the Citroen crews in Argentina were initially the tricky weather and the speed of Petter Solberg-Chris Patterson. The Ford crew was leading the event until SS4, when a broken steering arm forced them to retire for the day. After the retirement of Solberg-Patterson, the two Citroen DS3 crews took the lead and kept it easily until the end. Loeb-Elena had 3 spins during the first leg of the first day, as the setup of their car led to oversteering, but that was something they fixed after the service. After that, they became faster and took a very small lead over their teammates Hirvonen-Lehtinen. During the second day the crews of Citroen battled, but this ended after team orders for the drivers to maintain their positions without taking risks.
Mads Ostberg-Jonas Andersson claimed their third podium finish in four rallies. The 25 year old Norwegian kept a steady and also fast pace throughout the rally behind the wheel of an Adapta Ford Fiesta RS WRC and managed to finish in good position, once more. Before he made that happen, the second factory crew of Ford had to retire. That was Dani Sordo-Carlos Del Barrio, who drove for the Blue Oval for one rally, after being given permission by their team, Prodrive, in order to replace Jari Matti Latvala-Miika Anttila, since the driver was injured after a skiing fall. The Spaniards were lying in a comfortable 3rd place until the last –Power- stage of the rally, when the alternator belt of their Fiesta broke and left them between the spectators of the rally.
Behind the podium positions, the Czechs Martin Prokop-Zdenek Hruza finished in 4th place, in their best WRC result, behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta RS WRC, in D-Mack tyres. The Belgians Thierry Neuville-Nicolas Gilsoul finished 5th in the DS3 WRC of the Citroen Junior Team, in an event they were really fast. It is worth noting, that the young Belgian claimed his first WRC fastest stage time and they could have finished higher in the overall classification, if they hadn't used the Rally 2 regulations, after going off just before the end of Day 1. The top-6 was completed by Petter Solberg-Chris Patterson, who were the fastest crew of the rally, gained 3 points after setting the fastest time in the Power Stage and finally, the 6th position they claimed, became a record for the Ford team, as it achieved 150 consecutive finishes in points. The Ford crew, overtook just before the end that of Sebastien Ogier-Julien Ingrassia in the Skoda Fabia S2000 of VW Motorsport. The Frenchmen had fierce battle throughout the event with their teammates Andreas Mikkelsen-Ola Floene, who retired just before the end with broken suspension in their Fabia.
The Rally of Argentina was characterized by many retirements and problems of top crews. It is worth noting, that among the crews that finished in the top-10, the half of them used the Rally 2 rules, our well known SupeRally. Among the most important retirements, except from those mentioned above, were those of the two M-Sport Ford crews, as Ott Tanak-Kuldar Sikk retired after having a minor off, while Evgeny Novikov-Denis Giraudet lost a wheel in their Fiesta. Also, Nasser Al Attiyah-Giovanni Bernacchini retired from the second day with broken suspension in their Citroen DS3 WRC, while Armindo Araujo-Miguel Ramalho retired for the same reason, in a Mini JCW WRC. Finally, Daniel Oliveira-Carlos Magalhaes didn't manage to finish the event, after facing a leak in their Ford Fiesta's WRC engine.
In PWRC, which counts also for the Acropolis Rally, the Mexican Benito Guerra claimed his second win in a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX, alongside the Spaniard Borja Rosada. The winners benefited from the bad luck of Nicolas Fuchs-Fernando Mussano, who were leading in a Subaru Impreza, before facing various mechanical problems during the biggest stage of the rally, that led them to finishing in second place of the PWRC classification.
FINAL RESULTS
| 1 |
S.Loeb-D.Elena |
Citroen DS3 WRC |
A/1 |
5:34:38.8 |
| 2 |
M.Hirvonen-J.Lehtinen |
Citroen DS3 WRC |
A/1 |
5:34:54.0 |
| 3 |
M.Ostberg-J.Andersson |
Ford Fiesta RS WRC |
A/1 |
5:37:49.2 |
| 4 |
M.Prokop-Z.Hruza |
Ford Fiesta RS WRC |
A/1 |
5:44:24.1 |
| 5 |
T.Neuville-N.Gilsoul |
Citroen DS3 WRC |
A/1 |
5:45:56.4 |
| 6 |
P.Solberg-C.Patterson |
Ford Fiesta RS WRC |
A/1 |
5:46:41.0 |
| 7 |
S.Ogier-J.Ingrassia |
Skoda Fabia S2000 |
A/2 |
5:47:04.1 |
| 8 |
E.Novikov-D.Giraudet |
Ford Fiesta RS WRC |
A/1 |
5:55:49.0 |
| 9 |
N.Al Attiyah-G.Bernacchini |
Citroen DS3 WRC |
A/1 |
6:01:03.4 |
| 10 |
O.Tanak-K.Sikk |
Ford Fiesta RS WRC |
A/1 |
6:11:58.3 |