2009 WRC Round 4 : Sebastien Loeb wins Rally Portugal!

Sebastien Loeb with Daniel Elena - Citroen C4 WRC - Citroen Total World Rally Team

Estadio Algarve, Portugal : April 05, 2009 - Citroen Total team driver Sebastien Loeb has won the Vodafone Rally Portugal and extended his unbroken run of victories to all four of the WRC rounds run so far this year.

Frenchman Sebastien Loeb continued his winning streak in the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship this weekend, claiming a convincing victory in the Vodafone Rally de Portugal. He led the event from the beginning of the second day and has now notched up 51 WRC wins, equalling the achievement of countryman Alain Prost in Formula One.

Mikko Hirvonen - Ford Focus WRC - BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

The final day of the event would be a relatively static affair at the very top of the leaderboard. Loeb had built a 26-second lead over Mikko Hirvonen by the end of the second day and team-mate Dani Sordo was a further 30 seconds back. With the drivers so evenly matched, it would take a mistake by one of the leading three to change the order.

The first stages of the day would prove tricky. The early morning dust was hanging in the air with the passing of every car and Loeb, first on the road, made the most of the clear conditions, taking the win on the first pair. Hirvonen was second and Sordo third on both tests, as the crews headed back to the Algarve Stadium for the day’s main service.

Behind them, Peter Solberg was chasing Dani Sordo but realistically, was too far adrift to mount a challenge for third place. In fourth place was Matthew Wilson ahead of Henning Solberg, both in Ford Focus World Rally Cars and both close enough to worry each other.

After service, Loeb had clearly backed off but a timing anomaly on the penultimate stage of the event showed that he had dropped 16 seconds to Hirvonen on the split times. Loeb knew there was no problem but the information was relayed to Hirvonen’s car and he sensed an opportunity to challenge for the win. He upped his pace but when he saw the same advantage at the next split, realised that there was a glitch in the system and again, relaxed his pace, guarding a valuable second place.

However, there was a sting in the tail for Wilson and Conrad Rautenbach. On the penultimate stage, Matthew Wilson’s Focus suffered brake problems early in the stage but these cleared. Then, 1Km from the end, he braked for a corner at the end of a long straight and the pedal went straight to the floor. He pulled the handbrake to get the car sideways to scrub off speed but left the road and rolled. In his attempts to get back on the road, he burned out the clutch on his Focus and retired.

Soon after, Conrad Rautenbach had exactly the same accident but with a different outcome. In the process of getting his Citroen C4 back on to the road, the car caught fire and was completely gutted. The stage was stopped while the fire services extinguished the fire and the cars running behind on the road were given a notional time.

By the end of the event, it was the Solberg brothers who finished fourth and fifth, Petter taking the advantage over Henning. Mads Ostberg was sixth, happy with the result but clearly sad for both Matthew Wilson, who he was chasing throughout the event and Conrad Rautenbach. Federico Villagra was seventh, with Khalid Al Qassimi rounding out the points positions in eighth.

In the Production car World Rally Championship, the win went to local hero Armindo Araujo, much to the delight of the fans in the Algarve Stadium. He had climbed to lead the class by the end of the second leg and while those behind were pushing on the last day to try to overhaul the Portuguese, he was picking his way through the final five stages to guarantee his first P-WRC win and with it, the overall lead in the series.

He was followed home by Eyvind Brynildsen, his Mitsubishi still making what seemed like terminal transmission noises but it got the Norwegian to the finish of the event. He was followed home by Martin Prokop, the Czech pushing all the way to the end of the final stage in an attempt to overhaul Brynildsen and missing out on third by just 1.5 seconds after three days of action.

In the FIA Junior World Rally Championship, Michal Kosciuszko drove a dominant event, leading from the first stage on Friday morning throughout the entire event. He began the final day with a lead of almost five minutes and despite admitting to easing off the pace a little too much to maintain full concentration, managed to increase his advantage on the way to his first J-WRC win of the season and his career second.

Kevin Abbring who drove around a series of problems but enjoyed a relatively trouble-free final day was second, while Hans Weijs claimed third in the category.

Commenting on the success of the event, Clerk of the Course Pedro Almeida said; “We are very happy with the way the event has run this year. The drivers were very complimentary about the organisation and the quality of the roads and we saw some excellent action on the stages. We have also been complimented on the organisation by the members of the media, who found that the areas assigned for them to work were perfect and that access to these areas was without any problems at all.

“I have to express my personal thanks and those of the rally to all the marshals and members of the GNR who have worked extremely hard this weekend to ensure that the various people who required access to stages were able to do so efficiently while the spectators were able to enjoy exceptional rallying in safety.”

2009 WRC Round 4 : Vodafone Rally de Portugal

Pos	No	Driver	Time	Diff Next	Diff 1st
1.	1	Sébastien LOEB	3:53:13.1	0.0	0.0
2.	3	Mikko HIRVONEN	3:53:37.4	+24.3	+24.3
3.	2	Dani SORDO	3:54:58.5	+1:21.1	+1:45.4
4.	11	Petter SOLBERG	3:55:57.7	+59.2	+2:44.6
5.	6	Henning SOLBERG	3:58:59.4	+3:01.7	+5:46.3
6.	16	Mads OSTBERG	3:59:33.9	+34.5	+6:20.8
7.	9	Federico VILLAGRA	4:06:12.6	+6:38.7	+12:59.5
8.	14	Khalid AL QASSIMI	4:11:34.8	+5:22.2	+18:21.7
9.	147	Armindo ARAÚJO	4:15:31.6	+3:56.8	+22:18.5
10.	131	Martin PROKOP	4:16:38.7	+1:07.1	+23:25.6
11.	149	Eyvind BRYNILDSEN	4:16:44.7	+6.0	+23:31.6
12.	75	Hermann GASSNER JUNIOR	4:21:37.4	+4:52.7	+28:24.3
13.	32	Michal KOSCIUSZKO	4:22:38.6	+1:01.2	+29:25.5
14.	70	Vitor PASCOAL	4:23:58.1	+1:19.5	+30:45.0
15.	74	Ricardo TEODÓSIO	4:24:03.3	+5.2	+30:50.2
16.	150	Nasser AL ATTIYAH	4:26:09.2	+2:05.9	+32:56.1
17.	12	Sébastien OGIER	4:26:59.3	+50.1	+33:46.2
18.	79	Pedro RODRIGUES	4:28:15.7	+1:16.4	+35:02.6
19.	37	Kevin ABBRING	4:28:45.1	+29.4	+35:32.0
20.	73	Ott TANAK	4:29:05.4	+20.3	+35:52.3

Drivers' championship standings

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Point
1	1	Sebastien LOEB (F)	Citroen Total World Rally Team	40
2	3	Mikko HIRVONEN (FIN)	BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	30
3	2	Dani SORDO (E)	Citroen Total World Rally Team	23
4	6	Henning SOLBERG (N)	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	14
5	11	Petter SOLBERG (N)	Petter Solberg Rally Team M-Sport	14
6	7	Matthew WILSON (GB)	Citroen Junior Team	8
7	4	Jari-Matti LATVALA (FIN)	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	6
8	12	Chris Atkinson (AUS)	Citroen Junior Team	4
9	9	Federico VILLAGRA (ARG)	BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	4
10	12	Sebastien OGIER (F)	Citroen Junior Team	3
11	8	Conrad RAUTENBACH (ZW)	Citroen Junior Team	3
12	14	Khalid AL QASSIMI (UAE)	BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	3
13	5	Urmo AAVA (EE)	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	1

Manufacturers' championship standings

Pos	Team	Point
1	Citroen Total World Rally Team	64
2	BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	40
3	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	27
4	Citroen Junior Team	11
5	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team	7