WORLD RALLY
2008 Rally Argentina
With the ceremonial start done and dusted the crews have left Cordoba and the service area in Calos Paz. The sky was dark and the rain was steady making it slippery on the 150kms of day one.
Day One
Conditions on the first two stages of the rally were tough going, the wet weather had soaked into the soft gravel and the roads were rutting with every passing car.
Mikko Hirvonen due to championship positions started at number one on the road took the early advantage - 48 seconds ahead of his Ford team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala who was second. Defending world champion Sebastien Loeb lost time on SS1 when the Frenchman spun his Citroen C4 WRC but he completed the stage third fastest.
PG Andersson became the first major retirement as he parked the SX4 WRC four km before the start of SS1.
SS2 was just as wet and low visibility was becoming a problem thanks to the low cloud and fog. Young charger Jari-Matti Latvala clipped a rock on the test and rolled but fortunatley got out of the stage but lost nine minutes and dropped to 29th overall. Team-mate Hirvonen was fastest and increased his lead to 52 seconds over Loeb, while Chris Atkinson was a further 11 seconds behind in third.
After four stages of Rally Argentina, Ford’s team leader Mikko Hirvonen leads the event by a margin of 50.8 seconds from Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb who lies second. Chris Atkinson of the Subaru World Rally Team is third, 43sec behind Loeb.
SS3 Jari Matti Latvala went quickest on the third test of the day with Loeb second on the stage three seconds behind the young Finn. Mikko Hirvonen was fourth quickest through the third test 7.5 seconds off team-mate Latvala.
SS4 Rally leader Hirvonen was again top of the time sheets as he passed through the timing boards on SS4. The Finn was 0.6 of a second quicker than Citroen driver Dani Sordo.
SS5 was to prove a bleak one for the Ford team. Mikko Hirvonen crashed out of the rally, the Finn slid off the road 8km before the finish of the test. Ford has confirmed that the car is stranded and has got suspensio damage. Reports were coming through that Henning Solberg was also stuck in the test with suspension trouble.
This meant that Loeb went into the lead of the rally and he also had the quickest time on the stage with Gigi Galli 10 seconds off his pace. Overall Subaru driver Chris Atkinson moved into second and team-mate Petter Solberg was up to third overall after Hirvonen's demise.
Latvala went quickest on SS6 and was now up to ninth overall but still nine and a half minutes off the lead of the rally.
Gigi Galli finished the test in second 0.9 off Latvala, while Atkinson was a further five seconds adrift. Rally leader Loeb was 7.1 off the quickest stage time.
The news from SS7 was that Petter Solberg was in trouble with a broken front suspension damper. Dani Sordo is on the Norwegian's tail - only 0.4 seconds behind. Gigi Galli took the stage win with Chris Atkinson 0.4 of a second behind the Italian. Atkinson continues to nibble away at Loeb's overall lead and the gap is now 51 seconds between the pair. Third quickest on the test was Jari Matti Latvala and he is now up to 11th overall.
SS8 Latvala goes quickest again and beats Loeb by 2.7 seconds. In the battle for the rally lead Aussie Atkinson lost 41 seconds to Loeb, the Frenchman has now a commanding lead of 1m32.2 seconds over the Subaru driver.
SS9 The final stage of the day - the superspecial saw Atkinson go quickest with Loeb only fourth 1.6 seconds adrift. The drive of the day came from Latvala as the young Finn finished the final stage of day one in third 1.3 off Atkinsonb and up to eighth overall 9m27.5s off the rally lead.
Day Two
Day two of Rally Argentina is held over roads south of Carlos Paz in the Calamuchita valley.
The drivers face two identical loops of four tests, split by a return to Carlos Paz for service in the middle of the day. The second day ends with a second pass over the short test at Cordoba's soccer stadium before competitors reach the final overnight halt.
All 14 of the original WRC starters began day two, including the Superally re-starters Toni Gardemeister, Mikko Hirvonen, Henning Solberg and Per-Gunnar Andersson.
SS10 Petter Solberg went quickest on SS10 with team-mate Chris Atkinson in second on the first test of the day 14 seconds off the Norwegian's stunning time. Loeb came in third a further 1.5 seonds adrift while Hirvonen was 4.4 seconds off Loeb in his Citroen.
Loeb stayed in first overall but Solberg's stunning time saw him jump team-mate Atkinson but was still 1m23.4s off Loeb pace. Chris Atkinson slips to third while Matthew Wilson moved up to sixth overall while Latvala was now up to eighth overall.
SS11 Loeb goes quickest - 4.4 seconds faster than Petter Solberg. Movers on the leaderboard were Conrad Rautenbach who jumped Jari Matti Latvala into eighth place overall.
SS12 The Flying Frenchman took another stage win while Subaru driver Chris Atkinson was next up 5 seconds off the top time with Petter Solberg a further 1.7 back. Mikko Hirvonen was fourth quickest on the stage and went up another place to 17th overall.
SS13 Chris Atkinson was top man on this test followed by Petter Solberg while Sebastien Loeb came in third on SS13. Hirvonen went up another place to 16th overall.
SS14 Petter Solberg took another stage win for the Subaru team - he was 7.6 seconds quicker than Loeb with Hirvonen in third another second back. This meant the Ford driver jumped two places and was now 14th overall - he was really trying for a points finish.
SS15 Loeb goes quickest, next up wasPetter Solberg while Mikko Hirvonen produced another good time and came in third on the test. No change at the top, that meant Loeb led from Petter Solberg by 1m25.1s, Chris Atkinson lay in third. On the move again was Mikko Hirvonen, he went up another place to 13th overall.
SS16 Petter Solberg wins another stage - the Norwegian is having a good rally. He went 0.4 of a second quicker than Loeb and 9.6 faster than Hirvonen. This meant Hirvonen went up to tenth - only two positions off the points. What a drive!
SS17 Petter Solberg wins another stage 1.7 seconds quicker Mikko Hirvonen while Loeb was 4.6 seconds off Petter's pace. The top positions remained the same but flying Finn Mikko Hirvonen was now up to seventh overall and in the points.
SS18 Petter Solberg wins the super special ahead of Loeb while the big winner was again Mikko Hirvonen - up to sixth overall.
Day Three
SS19 is a bitter sweet stage for Subaru. Petter Solberg’s hopes of second place on Rally Argentina were dashed halfway though Sunday’s opening stage when total electrical failure brought his Subaru Impreza to a halt.This promoted Atkinson to second and Loeb’s team-mate Dani Sordo onto the final podium spot. This meant Mikko Hirvonen was now up to fifth overall - more points for the Finn's title challenge.
SS20 - Loeb sailed through the epic 15.99km El Condor stage in the fastest time to maintain his lead, which now stands at 2min 30sec.
SS21 - Sebastien Loeb comes in third on the final test of the rally but wins Rally Argentina by 2m33.2s ahead of Chris Atkinson with Dani Sordo finishing in third overall. The Frenchman said: "I like difficult conditions but I thought today’s were the hardest I’ve ever faced,” said Loeb. “The conditions were extremely bad today, but throughout the event we’ve had some extremely tricky weather too. It seems to have been raining all the time and with the fog and the mud on the road it was very difficult.” Loeb said that even with a healthy rally lead, the event was a stern challenge. “We had a good fight on the first day,” said Loeb. “But after that we were in the lead and had to get to the finish - but with the hard compound tyres that was a very tough job. In some places it was very hard to keep the car on the road at all. Yes, we see fog, rain and mud on other rallies, but up to now we’ve always been able to choose an appropriate tyre for the conditions. I hope we can do something to improve the limited options we have now."
Simon McBride