Sebastien Loeb wins his first Rally Finland to record 42nd WRC victory
Seb utterly dominated Rally Finland 2008 to put him as firm favourite to win his fifth WRC title, as the championship heads to his statistically favoured tarmac rounds. Loeb was never seriously threatened by second placed man Hirvonen, despite a spin on the penultimate stage which brought the gap down to around 14s. Loeb's eventual winning margin was 9s.
Loeb ecstatic:
It's fantastic, an incredible feeling, winning here in Finland means so much to me," said Loeb. "I desperately wanted to win this rally. Getting a win here was more important to me than just getting points. It's been a very hard battle with Mikko [Hirvonen] all weekend with no chance to relax. He did a great job – I've had to fight for every second."
Loeb is only the fourth non Scandinavian to win the event after Sainz 1990, Auriol 92 and Martin 2003.
Chris Atkinson scored a tremoundous 3rd. Atko had been 7th after day one, but Galli rolled out, and he overhauled Sordo 4th and Henning 5th. Petter was a less than impressive 6th although he did record fastest time on the last stage. Matti Rantanen was a very solid 7th on his WRCar debut. Garde was 8th for Suzuki who are showing a bit more promise.
Hanninen won the PWRC after Salo crashed out while Prokop managed to win a JWRC round after early leader Kociuszko slipped to third. Shaun Gallagher was 5th Junior while Wilks totally dominated class A6 to finish a highly creditable 19th o/a.
Rally Finland 2008 action
Molder made a mess of his car yesterday
PG fells a tree
Galli crash SS16, was in 3rd at the time
Mikkelsen house wrecking, was seriously lucky though
Villagra on fire
A small controversy affected Loeb at the end of the first day when he went off on a road section, got stuck in a drain and spectators had to push him back on:
Hirv could only settle for second
JML could only SupeRally
Gigi just before disaster
Ostberg's remains from day one
A local trying too hard
Latvala's sorry mess from day one, Malc wasn't best pleased with his drivers by the end of the rally:
Aava displaying his trait of blistering pace followed by an accident
Aigner going for a swim
Rally crash video Finland 2008
Top Ten Rally Finland 2008 Results
| 1. | 1 |
Sébastien LOEB |
2:54:05.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| 2. | 3 |
Mikko HIRVONEN |
2:54:14.5 | +9.0 | +9.0 |
| 3. | 6 |
Chris ATKINSON |
2:57:22.5 | +3:08.0 | +3:17.0 |
| 4. | 2 |
Dani SORDO |
2:57:36.4 | +13.9 | +3:30.9 |
| 5. | 8 |
Henning SOLBERG |
2:58:03.2 | +26.8 | +3:57.7 |
| 6. | 5 |
Petter SOLBERG |
2:58:09.6 | +6.4 | +4:04.1 |
| 7. | 20 |
Matti RANTANEN |
3:00:16.6 | +2:07.0 | +6:11.1 |
| 8. | 11 |
Toni GARDEMEISTER |
3:02:24.2 | +2:07.6 | +8:18.7 |
| 9. | 16 |
Matthew WILSON |
3:02:42.8 | +18.6 | +8:37.3 |
| 10. | 14 |
Conrad RAUTENBACH |
3:04:36.4 | +1:53.6 | +10:30.9 |
WRC Points
Drivers:
1. Mr. HIRVONEN 67
2. S. LOEB 66
3. C. ATKINSON 37
4. D. SORDO 35
5. J. LATVALA 34
6. P. SOLBERG 23
7. H. SOLBERG 20
8. G. GALLI 17
9. Mr. WILSON 12
Teams:
1. BP FORD ABU DHABI WORLD RALLY TEAM 108
2. TOTAL CITROEN WRT 105
3. SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM 62
4. STOBART VK M-SPORT FORD RALLY TEAM 45
5. MUNCHI' S FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM 19
6. SUZUKI WORLD RALLY TEAM 12
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