2009 WRC : Loeb wins Rally Norway

2009 WRC : Rally Norway Champion - Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena - Citroen Total World Rally Team

DAY3 : February 15, 2009 - Loeb wins Rally Norway

Sebastien Loeb won his 49th victory in the WRC with his victory in Rally Norway 2009. An ecstatic Loeb was extremly happy to win this difficult winter-rally.

Frenchman Sebastien Loeb held his nerve through the final stage this afternoon to take a sensational debut victory for the Citroen Total team on Rally Norway.

Loeb led from the front - as first car on the road on all three days - to finish the rally 9.8sec ahead of the man in second place, Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen.

Loeb’s victory was the 49th of his record breaking WRC career and gives him a perfect winning record on the two rallies so far this year. As he fights for an unprecedented sixth consecutive WRC drivers’ title, the C4 WRC driver leads the drivers’ standings on 20 points, six ahead of Mikko Hirvonen in second.

“It’s been a great rally but a very difficult one!” said a jubilant Loeb at the end of the final stage. “I had to push on the limit from the very first stage to the last, and mentally it’s been difficult to keep pushing, knowing we could lose everything right up until the last corner. I really wanted to win here on snow and it’s a great feeling. It’s been a wonderful rally; the stages are incredible and it’s so much more exiting when you are in a close fight!”

2nd - Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen - BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

Mikko Hirvonen, team leader of the BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team said: “Yes I’m sad we came second but I’m glad it’s finished. It was a close fight but it didn’t go well for me all the way through.

“I don’t have any regrets about deliberately dropping time on Friday, it was only one or two seconds and that wouldn’t be enough to make a difference. He was quicker yesterday and that was that. Now we have to go to the next rally and go flat-out. Hopefully we can do better there,” added the Finn.

Despite a last stage scare, Mikko’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala finished third, ensuring both Ford’s works-team entries made the podium. “After a long straight I overshot a junction,” explained the Finn. “It’s been a frustrating weekend - not what I was hoping for - but third place is very important. I hope to be in the lead fight again on the next round in Cyprus.”

Henning Solberg was the best placed Norwegian driver, bringing his VK M-Sport Ford Focus home in fourth. “This rally has been absolutely perfect - the only thing missing is a Norwegian on the podium,” he said. But that’s how it is. I have to say I’m quite happy. Next we move to Cyprus. I love it there and want to go well.”

Loeb’s Citroen Total team-mate Dani Sordo rounded off the top five places in his C4 WRC. “It’s been a difficult surface for me and I’m happy to get to the end,” said the
Spaniard. “I think I did quite well, even though I had problems with my pace notes, and I’m happy with the feeling I had at the end of the rally. I’ll try and learn more before the next time we’re on snow.”

Petter Solberg was sixth on his first event with his own rally team and was delighted to finish in the points on his home rally. “It’s a dream to just be here - we didn’t even have a team three weeks ago!” said Petter. “I was so worried about the clutch on the last few stages I used the normal gearshift system and lost four or five seconds on every start - so it was close! I want to say thank you to everybody who has helped up get here. Now we have to analyse the event and see what we can do. We want to get faster. There will be no more Mr Nice Guy in Cyprus.”

Seventh placed Matthew Wilson said he was encouraged by his rally in the second of the Stobart VK M-Sport Fords. “It’s been a hell of a fight today but I’m cursing myself for not pushing harder this morning. Still, to only lose 8sec to Petter over the whole day is not a bad effort," he said.

Eighth place, and the final drivers’ championship point, went to Estonian Urmo Aava in the third Stobart VK M-Sport car. It took me a lot of time to find the right rhythm here,” he said. “We lost time and struggled on Friday and Saturday mornings, but from then on it started to be better and today it’s been quite enjoyable.”

Mads Ostberg was ninth in the first of the Adapta Subaru Imprezas. “It’s been a very frustrating time,” he said. “We continued to have problems right through to the last stage - in the end my co-driver and I were just last laughing about it. I didn’t event bother getting angry. Now I’m glad we can sit down with a sheet of A3 paper and start to write down all our problems.”

2009 WRC : Rally Norway Overall Standing

Pos.	No.	Driver/Car	Cl	Time	Diff Ldr
1	1	Sebastien LOEB (F) Citroën C4	A8	3:28:15.9	0.0
2	3	Mikko HIRVONEN (FIN) Ford Focus RS WRC 08	A8	3:28:25.7	+9.8
3	4	Jari-Matti LATVALA (FIN) Ford Focus RS WRC 08	A8	3:29:37.7	+1:21.8
4	6	Henning SOLBERG (N) Ford Focus RS WRC 08	A8	3:31:49.4	+3:33.5
5	2	Dani SORDO (E) Citroën C4	A8	3:32:07.9	+3:52.0
6	11	Petter SOLBERG (N) Citroën Xsara	A8	3:34:41.3	+6:25.4
7	16	Matthew WILSON (GB) Ford Focus RS WRC 08	A8	3:34:51.5	+6:35.6
8	5	Urmo AAVA (EE) Ford Focus RS WRC 08	A8	3:35:05.0	+6:49.1
9	18	Mads ØSTBERG (N) Subaru Impreza WRC 2008	A8	3:38:16.4	+10:00.5
10	12	Sebastien OGIER (F) Citroën C4	A8	3:41:05.7	+12:49.8
11	8	Conrad RAUTENBACH (ZW) Citroen C4	A8	3:42:44.9	+14:29.0
12	7	Evgeny NOVIKOV (RUS) Citroen C4	A8	3:43:36.9	+15:21.0
13	46	Patrik SANDELL (S) Skoda Fabia Super 2000	N4	3:49:43.6	+21:27.7
14	49	Eyvind BRYNILDSEN (N) Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX	N4	3:50:27.7	+22:11.8
15	20	Anders GRØNDAL (N) Subaru Impreza WRC	A8	3:51:48.0	+23:32.1
16	31	Martin PROKOP (CZ) Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX	N4	3:52:40.3	+24:24.4
17	47	Armindo ARAUJO (P) Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX	N4	3:53:40.6	+25:24.7
18	40	Andis NEIKSANS (LV) Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX	N4	4:00:23.5	+32:07.6
19	22	Peter jr. VAN MERKSTEIJN (NL) Ford Focus RS WRC 06	A8	4:01:09.7	+32:53.8
20	44	Jaromir TARABUS (CZ) Arbath Grande Punto S2000	N4	4:02:33.1	+34:17.2

Drivers' championship standings

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Point
1	1	Sebastien LOEB (F)	Citroen Total World Rally Team	20
2	3	Mikko HIRVONEN (FIN)	BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	14
3	2	Dani SORDO (E)	Citroen Total World Rally Team	12
4	6	Henning SOLBERG (N)	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	10
5	6	Jari-Matti LATVALA (FIN)	BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	6
6	7	Chris ATKINSON (AUS)	Citroen Junior Team	4
7	16	Matthew WILSON (GB)	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	2
8	12	Sebastien OGIER (F)	Citroen Junior Team	3
9	11	Petter SOLBERG (N)	Petter Solberg Rally Team M-Sport	3
10	9	Khalid AL QASSIMI (UAE)	BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	1
11	5	Urmo AAVA (EE)	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	1