Rally Russia 2008 Day 3 Final Results and Hanninen wins the IRC event

Juha Hanninen scored his greatest win to date to claim victory on a tricky Rally Russia 2008. Hanninen, who only previously drove the Kronos Peugeot 207 at a 70km test session and shakedown, was a deserved victor and managed to survive the rocks and punctures which many others didn't.

Hanninen unstoppable in Russia

Those who fell foul of these hazards on the final day included Evgeny Novikov who had been an excellent second o/a. Novikov (Subaru) broke a suspension arm on SS11 and was forced to tackle the final stage on three wheels. He didn't make it through SS12 and had to retire after such a galant run. This promoted Alen (Punto) to second after a not very straight forward run suffering punctures and suspension dramas during the event. Basso had a fairly uneventful rally despite the odd puncture to finish 3rd. Kopecky got fourth on an event he didn't expect to start. His rally was blighted by punctures though despite some fastest times.

Basso finished third

Loix (207) came home a solid fourth and set some fastest times on an event he wasn't expected to excel on. He and Hanninen survived a late scare in service when their oil pressure was reportedly low, there were some worried faces in the Kronos camp but everything turned out fine. Vouilloz (207) was fifth to leave the IRC points very close between himself, Rossetti who wasn't in Russia and Loix.

Simon Jean-Joseph (C2R2) was the 2WD winner after Wilks (Civic R3) retired again today under Superally and Meeke didn't restart as had low oil pressure in the Clio.

Road conditions not like Finland.

Image courtesy Alex Nakhapetov rallyrus.spb.ru

One of the big talking points was the road conditions. It was thought they were smilar to Finland but the sandy surface of many of the stages became very rutted which exposed huge rocks dragged out by the opening cars. These rocks destroyed a few hopes such as Didier Auriol and Kris Meeke's chances but what was even more concerning was that spectators apparently placed fake rocks, made of foam, on the road in the last stage. Police are reportedly investigating.

Video highlights

 

Top Ten Final Results

1		11	Juho HANNINEN Mikko MARKKULA	N4	1	02:14:27,0	**:**:**,* (**:**:**,*)
2	1	8	Anton ALEN Timo ALANNE	N4	2	02:16:38,2	00:02:11,2 (00:02:11,2)
3	1	3	Giandomenico BASSO Mitia DOTTA	N4	3	02:17:11,2	00:02:44,2 (00:00:33,0)
4	1	5	Freddy LOIX Robin BUYSMANS	N4	4	02:17:56,4	00:03:29,4 (00:00:45,2)
5	1	2	Nicolas VOUILLOZ Nicolas KLINGER	N4	5	02:19:57,8	00:05:30,8 (00:02:01,4)
6	1	4	Jan KOPECKY Petr STARY	N4	6	02:21:21,4	00:06:54,4 (00:01:23,6)
7	1	14	Brice TIRABASSI Fabrice GORDON	N4	7	02:23:30,2	00:09:03,2 (00:02:08,8)
8	1	1	Simon JEAN-JOSEPH Jack BOYERE	A6	1	02:25:09,3	00:10:42,3 (00:01:39,1)
9	1	27	Oleg ANTROPOV Evgeniy SHARIPOV	N4	8	02:31:33,8	00:17:06,8 (00:06:24,5)
10	1	29	Alexey SOKURENKO Sergey GERASIMENKO	P12	1	02:31:52,6	00:17:25,6 (00:00:18,8)

 

IRC points after Rally Russia

1 Rossetti 26                           1 Peugeot 69
2 Vouilloz 26                            2 Abarth 33
3 Loix 16                                 3 Mitsubishi 2
4 Kopecky 15                           4 Volkswagen 5
5 Hanninen & Alen & Basso 14
8 Casier 5
9 Travaglia & Snijers 4
11 Magalhaes & Sola 3

 

EDIT: See comment below re: Rally Russia WRC candidate event not in Vyborg area, and also the fake rock incident which seems to have been a misunderstanding by the Police.

Thanks to the member from the website rallyRUS for informing RallyBuzz of these developments.

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• Rally Russia 2008 Day One Results and Hanninen leads in the Peugeot 207 super 2000
• IRC Rally Russia 2008 Day Two Results, Hanninen still leads but Novikov is up to second
• Rally Russia 2008 held in the town of Vyborg is round 4 of the IRC and has an interesting entry list