With a single championship point between the leaders in the WRC drivers’ championship as the season-closing Rally GB begins on Friday, Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen aims to break Citroën driver Sébastien Loeb’s five-year stranglehold on the title.
At one point this season, it looked as if Loeb was cruising to another championship, with wins from the first five rallies, but then a penalty for undoing a safety belt while moving as they stopped to fix a puncture in Sardinia, crashes in Greece and Poland, then a stewards’ decision to penalise the whole Citroën team over unhomologated rollbars in Australia, brought the Finn, who took four consecutive wins in the meantime, including the one he inherited from Loeb in Australia, right back into contention.
'One of us will be happy and the other one will be very disappointed' – Sébastien Loeb
A Citroën one-two in the last rally in Spain gave the standings a finely-poised look – not for some time has Wales witnessed such a nailbiting end to a campaign.
The two frontrunners acknowledge what a tough proposition Rally GB can be, with autumn rain and possible fog on the Brecon-based stages making for unpredictable conditions on the gravel roads.
“It’s a tricky rally,” says Loeb, something with which his Ford counterpart concurs. “It’s difficult to love this rally,” admits Hirvonen. “It’s kind of a big challenge… that’s what I like about it.” And the Focus driver adds: “It’s fantastic if you can come out of it and win it – you know you’re doing something different.”
Citroën Sport Photos
Loeb, despite confidence in the ability of his C4 WRC to cope with what the Welsh tracks throw at him, is under no illusions about the straight fight for glory in tough conditions, and with the FIA confirming that Loeb will not receive a superlicence that might have allowed him to race in F1 at Abu Dhabi for Scuderia Toro Rosso, Rally GB would seem to offer the 35-year-old this season's last chance of success.
“Hirvonen is very fast in this kind of rally, so it will be interesting,” says the Frenchman. “One of us will be very happy and the other one will be very disappointed at the end of the weekend.”
WRC Drivers’ Championship standings
Mikko Hirvonen (Finland), Ford – 84pts
Sébastien Loeb (France), Citroën – 83pts
Daniel Sordo (Spain), Citroën – 58pts
Comments
Add a comment