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Ogier gets first WRC win in Portugal

Leading from start to finish in the weekend’s Vodafone Rally de Portugal, Citroen Junior Team’s Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia have made good their Rally New Zealand disappointment and secured their first victory of a FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) event.

Rally Portugal, the sixth round of 13 on the 2010 calendar, saw an all-Citroen podium, with six-time and current series leading pair Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena finishing 7.9 seconds behind Ogier and Ingrassia. Team-mates Dani Sordo and Marc Marti were third, behind by 1 minute 17.6 seconds, but helping secure the second one-two-three for Citroen in this year’s series.

“We pushed all the way to the end,” said 26-year-old Ogier. “It’s a huge satisfaction to win. I have to thank the entire team: this is a massive moment for me. We came very close to winning in New Zealand but now we are on the top step of the podium, which has allowed us to move up to second in the World Rally Championship for drivers.”

Competitors endured high temperatures in Portugal’s holiday region of Algarve and the abrasive nature of the roads crippled the tyre performance of many crews in the three-day rally.

Ogier won winning five of the first seven stages to take an early lead on the first day, and despite running first on the road for the remainder of the event with Loeb in hot pursuit, the young French star carried the advantage to the finish. After 355.32 kilometres on 18 special stages, it came down to the final two kilometres around the Algarve stadium to seal Ogier’s leading margin.

Earning 25 points for the win, Ogier leap-frogged Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala in the WRC drivers’ standings, to now be 38 points adrift of Loeb who has 126 points.

Former world champions Petter Solberg and Phil Mills were holding fourth in their privately-entered Citroën C4 when they had a last stage disaster, reminiscent of their New Zealand woes. The pair hit a barrier on the final stage, dropping them one place and elevating the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team pairing of Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen to finish behind the Citroen trio.

“What an amazing end to the rally,” Hirvonen said.  “After all the drama on the final stage during the last round in New Zealand, I can’t believe that it has happened again here. I couldn’t have driven any faster this morning.  I gave everything to try to catch the two guys ahead [Loeb and Sordo] but my rear tyres lost their grip and midway through the stage I called off the attack.  I knew I couldn’t reach them.  It was a difficult rally. I didn’t have the pace this weekend to challenge for the win and the rally was tough on tyres.”

BP Ford team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila – the driver combination which won in New Zealand earlier in May – were unable to restart under SupeRally rules on Sunday morning following a major crash on Saturday, in which they hit a tree at 110kph. The rear of their Ford Focus RS WRC was too badly damaged to repair.

Among the other stars, Kimi Raikkonen and Kaj Lindstrom finished in tenth in their Citroen following a late scare that cost the former FIA Formula 1 champion a puncture. Monster World Rally Team duo Americans Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino rolled into retirement on the first day with their Ford Focus unable to be repaired in time to continue.

Finnish pairing Jari Ketomaa and Mika Stenberg took their Ford Fiesta to its second win in a row in the FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship (SWRC) category.  Second, also in a Ford Fiesta, Spaniard Xevi Pons proved as consistent as ever.  Driving cautiously after his Fiesta got a flat tyre on the second stage, a series of strong stage times over the next two days saw him steadily climb up the leader-board.

Rally Portugal was also the second round of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) where consistency and endurance saw the Renault Clio of Dutch driver Abbring and his co-driver Erwin Mombaerts their second JWRC career victory.

The five Pirelli Star Drivers tackled the second event of their sponsored programme with New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon and John Kennard claiming the highest placing (20th overall and ninth Group N, or production category car).  Paddon suffered gearbox issues midway through day one, then had to retire with steering damage. With the car repaired, he was able to return under SuperRally rules to secure the best finish of the Pirelli competitors including pacesetter Ott Tänak from Estonia.

“On the whole this was a good rally where we showed, what I feel, was pretty good pace for our first time on these roads,” said Paddon. “The chances of getting a result were spoiled a bit when we got the time penalties on Friday afternoon. The team did a great job getting the gearbox changed; we knew it was going to take longer than the time we were allowed. In the afternoon, we hit a rock which was right on the line in the last stage. This broke the steering and left us stranded. It was pretty much impossible to miss and was just bad luck.

“Having someone like Ott in our team is great for us, as it gives us a new bench mark to aim toward,” commented Paddon. “We are currently about 0.5 second per km away from his times, but I know we can be much faster, especially as we had no experience of this very technical event, while Ott did it last year. Never-the-less, having someone of his calibre and speed is similar to chasing Richard Mason at home for the past two seasons, as it makes you pick up your game to try to match them and beat them. It's now a matter of doing some homework and getting all the little things in place to build on this experience.”

Teams now take a six week summer’s break, with the next round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes the crews to a new event on the calendar, Rally Bulgaria from 8 to 11 July. This asphalt event is based in the mountain resort of Borovets.

Final positions
1,  S Ogier/J Ingrassia, FRA, Citroen C4, 3hr 51min 16.1sec
2,  S Loeb/D Elena, FRA, Citroen C4, 3hr 51min 24.0sec
3,  D Sordo/M Marti, ESP, Citroen C4, 3hr 52min 33.7sec
4,  M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen, FIN, Ford Focus RS, 3hr 52min 48.1sec
5,  P Solberg/P Mills, NOR, Citroen C4, 3hr 52min 51.8sec
6,  M Wilson/S Martin, GBR, Ford Focus RS, 3hr 58min 26.2sec
7,  M Østberg/J Andersson, NOR, Subaru Impreza, 3hr 58min 44.4sec
8,  F Villagra/J Perez Companc, ARG, Ford Focus RS, 4hr 01min 52.2sec
9,  K Al Qassimi/M Orr, UAE, Ford Focus RS, 4hr 02min 11.9sec
10, K Räikkönen/K Lindström, FIN, Citroen C4, 4hr 02min 50.4sec

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 6 of 13 rounds)
1,  S Loeb, 126pts                 
2,  S Ogier, 88pts                
3, M Hirvonen, 76pts                
4, J-M Latvala, 72pts                
5, P Solberg, 63pts                
6, D Sordo, 49pts

FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 6 of 13 rounds)
1, Citroen Total, 189pts
2, BP Ford Abu Dhabi, 163pts
3, Citroen Junior, 106pts
4, Stobart M-Sport Ford, 84pts
5, Munchi's Ford, 40pts