Category: WRC

Jari-Matti Latvala has broken through for his maiden WRC victory with Volkswagen by taking out the Acropolis Rally on the weekend. Dani Sordo was second for Citroën and Thierry Neuville was third in his Ford.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and I’d like to dedicate this win to the whole Volkswagen team,” Latvala said. “The new season got off to a very difficult start for me, but the team always believed in me and supported me really well. I’m delighted to see so many happy faces now. Winning the Rally Acropolis also means a lot to me because it’s extremely tough and it’s a real classic.

“The last stage felt like the longest and hardest for a some time—I felt every single stone and jolt in the car and couldn’t wait for the finishing line to come into sight. Today is a day for celebrating!”

Latvala’s cause was aided by a mechanical issue to teammate and runaway championship leader, Sebastien Ogier, on the opening stage of the rally. Ogier’s car suffered fuel pressure problems and his subsequent repairs earnt him a 10 minute time penalty.

In the end Ogier worked his way back to P10 for the last championship point on offer and he also picked up three points for winning the power stage. It’s the first time this year that Ogier has failed to finish on the podium.

Young Volkswagen driver Andreas Mikkelsen had his best result for Volkswagen, too, finishing in fourth place.

As a result of their strong showing Volkswagen has further cemented its lead in the manufacturers’ championship. Ogier currently enjoys a 52 point lead in the drivers’ title over Latvala, who has moved into second place ahead of Sebastien Loeb.

The high levels of dust in the Acropolis Rally provided photographers with wonderful opportunities to capture the cars in action, a gallery of images from Volkswagen can be seen below.

Note: Citroën lodged a formal protest against all three Volkswagen entries after the rally. The protest concerned Volkswagen’s practices with the cars under parc fermé conditions, specifically the treatment of the batteries in each of the cars. The FIA dismissed the protest and the original results will stand.

With the limited running of Sebastien Loeb for Citroën this year the big story in WRC has been the immediate success of the other Sebastien in the new Volkswagen Polo R WRC. In the four rallies to date this season Ogier has finished no worse than second, to Loeb in Monte Carlo, before stringing together a run of three rally wins in a row (Sweden, Mexico and Portugal).

It’s already been a stunning debut year for Volkswagen, with Citroën seemingly floundering without their all-time legend at the wheel. But what of Ogier’s teammate, Jari-Matti Latvala?

To be frank, he has struggled, especially in the first three events. Finally, in Portugal Latvala began to show his promise by finishing third and achieving his best result for the year.

Moving on to Rally Argentina, which is currently underway, Volkswagen will no doubt be pleased to see Latvala set the fastest time in qualifying, making sure the ground he gained in Portugal has not been lost.

Even better for Latvala, Argentina is one of the few races in which Sebastien Loeb will be donning his Citroën race suit, so not only has Latvala out qualified his teammate, who was third, but he’s beaten the world’s best ever rally driver in quali as well.

Latvala revealed the secret to his qualifying success lay in his previous experiences with Ford. “In Portugal the confidence started to come. I started to feel and understand how much I could push into the corner and how well it will stay on the ground,” he said Latvala.

“I was a little bit suffering with the braking in Portugal and I knew that coming here I had updates on the differentials to make them a bit more similar under braking to my previous car (Ford Fiesta RS).

“It gives me more confidence so that I can go deeper into the corners under braking and the wheels don’t lock so easily. This was the change we did here and in qualifying it felt good.”

A promising start in South America for the 28-year-old Finn. Although, with SS1 already done and dusted Ogier leads the way, from Dani Sordo, Loeb and Latvala. With less than four seconds covering the top four let’s hope we’re in for an exciting rally all the way to the end.

[Source: wrc.com]

Illness and mechanical gremlins could not stop the increasingly rapid Sebastien Ogier juggernaut from claiming victory at Rally Portugal last weekend.

The Volkswagen driver made it a threepeat of rally wins, adding to his success in Sweden and Mexico. And in a sign that things could be about to get worse for Volkswagen’s rivals Jari-Matti Latvala showed signs he is finally coming to grips with the Polo R WRC as well.

Ogier won the rally by almost a minute from Citroën’s Mikko Hirvonen. Latvala was third, his first podium for Volkswagen, and only a temporary issue with a broken driveshaft prevented him from contributing to the team’s first 1–2 result in the WRC.

Further images and detail from Volkswagen can be seen below.

Sebastien Ogier’s decision to take leave from the WRC in 2012 to help develop the Volkswagen Polo R WRC appears to have been a masterstroke as he notched up his second win in succession by taking out Rally Mexico on the weekend.

Winning in Sweden was one thing, but the domination of Ogier in the altitude of Mexico’s mountains was actually a little bit scary. By rally’s end Ogier was almost 3 minutes 30 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Mikko Hirvonen, the bloke who was supposed to takeover from the great Sebastien Loeb and run away with this year’s championship in the hitherto unstoppable Citroën team. Ford driver Thierry Neuville, enjoying his first ever WRC podium, was more than 4 minutes behind.

Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia topped the times in 16 of the 23 special stages and racked up the extra points on offer in the power stage as well. Ogier has finished second–first–first in the opening three events of 2013 and has accumulated 74 points, which is 44 ahead of third placed Hirvonen. Loeb is still in second on 43 points, but will only compete in two more rallies for the year.

As you can imagine Ogier is over the moon with his flying start to the year. “What a fantastic feeling. The Polo R WRC was perfect for every single minute of the Rally Mexico. I can only thank my team for that,” Ogier said. “This victory at our debut on gravel is very special and will always have a special place in my heart. We will definitely celebrate it in style tonight.

“We take every win as it comes. This morning I took an extremely cautious approach on the first special stage and steered around every stone. However, from midway through I put my foot down again. We obviously have a big lead now in the World Championship, but there are still another ten rallies to come.”

While Ogier was sunning himself in his winning sombrero teammate Jari-Matti Latvala looks like he’s having one of those years you just want to forget. On the third corner of the rally proper Latvala clipped a rock damaging his suspension and ruining his chances of victory or even a podium. The rest of the rally became little more than a development exercise for him, although he says he is now feeling better about the the car.

“No sooner had the rally started than things took a turn for the worse for us. We had to give up after a matter of metres on Friday, due to suspension damage we received when we hit a stone. After that, we tried a few things with the car and I worked on my driving style,” Latvala said.

“By the end of the rally, I felt more comfortable than ever in the Polo. I now have a better understanding of the handling characteristics. That gives me a lot of motivation ahead of Portugal. Winning a point on the Power Stage was obviously a nice way to finish.”

Australia’s Chris Atkinson finished the rally in sixth place in a one-off drive for the Citroën Abu Dhabi Racing team. He did well to recover after also collecting a rock and damaging his suspension on the opening day. A late charge saw him take sixth place from megastar Ken Block on SS21.

The WRC resumes for Rally Portugal from 11–14 April.