WRC 2011: Act I, Rally France

It was Jari-Matti Latvala of Finland who was flying at the end of Rally France but he'll forever be remembered as a team player and Mikko Hirvonen owes him one no matter how the 2011 WRC championship drama plays out.

WRC 2011: Act I, Rally France
by Bill Wood

When all the dust, mud, snow and hard feelings settle after the 2011 World Rally Championship season you may look back on last weekend in France where the series' history started changing. Let's say Rally France was the first in a three act play that will define the 2011 World Rally Champion.

Rally France was a dramatic event in the French Alsace wine region east of Paris near the German border. It was fast. It was on tarmac. It was competed on such a high level that cars would reach the finish control on the same tenth of a second. On the 22nd of 23 competitive stages three cars came in covered by eight-tenths of a second. That was on six miles of road after three days of tests, turns, trees and testosterone some of which were only seen once.

People were amazed after the Indy Car race in Kentucky Sunday where three cars crossed the finish line in about a tenth of a second after nearly 1.75 hours. In France we were talking about maybe one hundred turns seen only once after 72 hours of racing against the clock with championships on the line and three cars crossed the finish line eight-tenths apart. Two were separated by nothing. More than 10.5 kilometers and they did it in the same 5:50.3. Staggering!

You've heard the headline. Citroen's Sebastien Ogier won the event staring down final day challenges from Dani Sordo from the Prodrive Mini WRC Team and Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala who actually won the last four stages and six of the last eight. In short, he had that Forst Fiesta WRC all but flying! Personally, I think it was an answer to the inevitable question: "Jari-Matti, can we ask you to take one for the team?" 

As Rally France got to the last day on Sunday, Latvala was fourth and teammate Mikko Hirvonen was fifth. But Hirvonen was second in the WRC season standings. He again has a chance to knock off seven time defending champion Sebastien Loeb who was born a few miles from the Strasbourg city center where Rally France was headquartered. But Friday Loeb left the event with an engine problem. We learned Monday that for the first time in ten years Citroen made a mistake when building Loeb's engine for the Rallye de France. Team principal Olivier Quesnel, who said the team had made a rare mistake "and it was Rallye de France in Sebastien Loeb's car. We are very sorry but this is rallying."

Loeb retired after the third stage of the rally when he noticed the oil pressure light come on in his DS3 WRC. After switching off the anti-lag system he then sensed the engine losing power and chose to switch it off. "We think it was the oil pump that failed, so there was nothing we could do. Obviously, this opens up the championship again." That's an understatement!

 

Dani Sordo of Spain pressed on all weekend. He really had no choice. His team principal at Prodrive Mini WRC is one of the most successful rally team managers in history. He demands that you press on all weekend.

Rally Winner Sebastien Ogier of Citroen also took flight to win his home event for Citroen but mostly for himself. He's been asked to be a team player also and he's done it. But he'd rather be the man and he's made that clear.