Loeb wins WRC Rally d’Italia, Sardegna

Sebastien Loeb

The weekend was dominated by two of the fastest Sebastiens on the planet. Vettel won the Turkish F1 grand prix and so did Loeb at the Sardegna round of WRC. The only other driver that put up a fight was Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen. Mikko was quick through the stages but a puncture dropped him back by a minute. The Ford man fought back with just one stage remaining, was just 14 sec off the pace.

“Leading from nearly the start that’s really a good job,” said Loeb. “Mikko was pushing very hard behind so we really had to take big risks all the time. We lost time in some places because of the cleaning but we took it back in some other places. It was really a hard fight but I did not believe at the start of the rally that I could make it like this.”

“It’s been a really good weekend,” said Hirvonen. “Even though we got a puncture earlier in the rally I’m very pleased and it’s great to get these three Power Stage points.”

Mikko Hirvonen

Even though he was fastest on the last stage, Mikko could not beat Loeb and the final gap between the two remained at 11.2 sec. Ford’s number two, Jari-Matti Latvala could have gone on to winning the rally if he hadn’t crashed. The Finish driver was quick throughout and won 9 out of 18 stages.

Peter Solberg’s Citroen DS3 WRC car suffered turbo issues which dropped him back. On Sunday, Solberg was fifth on the provisional standings board but the Norwegian champ drove his best to win stage 17 which elevated him to third behind Mikko in the final charts.

Peter Solberg

“I definitely could have won this event,” said Solberg. “We had some small problems but it was impossible because Loeb hasn’t had anything at all. However, a podium is very important for me and for my sponsors.”

Sebastien Ogier lead Solberg by 4.9 sec but a broken rear suspension on stage 17 ruined his chances of a podium finish. It was Mini WRC’s debut rally and at the wheel was Dani Sordo. The ex-Citroen driver clinched sixth in the new car. Kris Meeke in the other Mini Countryman WRC car had to deal with a broken throttle on the debut rally. He was going strong in fourth earlier.

Dani Sordo

” am happy to finish, the car is good and so is the team,” said Sordo. “I think the weekend was very positive and after many kilometres on the rally we have learnt more about the car, which is important. Also the team has taken a lot of data and are now working hard for the future. In the fast parts of the stages we were close to the top times. The positive is the chassis is really good and it is really nice to drive on the fast road. If you have a good chassis this is most important.”

With this win, Loeb moves on to 100 points while Mikki trails behind on 93 points in the 2011 provisional championship standings. Sebastien Ogier is in third spot ahead of Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala. Peter Solber stands in fifth at the moment. Next up, the WRC travels to South America for Rally Argentina from 26th to 29th May.