With Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb and Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen fighting for the WRC title in Rally GB, we look at their vital statistics for this season and preceding years.
All Hirvonen/Fiesta images © Ford in Europe
All Loeb/Citröen images © Citroën Racing Media 
For the last 10 seasons they’ve been fellow WRC drivers, but as the stats above show, it wasn’t a rivalry for a while as both were finding their feet in 2002. By 2003 Loeb was a challenger, and of course from 2004 onwards he’s been the champion every year. His 2006 was particularly spectacular, the Frenchman able to break his leg and still take the title sitting at home in France while others failed in Australia to catch him up. Hirvonen was still finding his feet, but began to get close to Loeb as the points tallies show, finishing third in 2006 and 2007, then second in 2008 and ’09, when he lost by a single agonising point. Last year the totals jumped as the new system of 25 points for a win was introduced instead of 10 points, but Hirvonen could finish only sixth. This year, however, it is different…
Mikko made the best possible start to 2011 with a win in Sweden, but then Séb managed to overtake him again, first drawing dead level on points in Portugal and gradually pulling ahead (one has to remember that Sébastien Ogier in his Citroën was very much in the mix during the season). Loeb managed to stay on top with Hirvonen still well in touch, and an uncharacteristic mistake by Sébastien in his home Rallye de France meant Mikko once again drew level on 196 points. Though Loeb then dominated in Spain, Mikko comes to Wales just eight points adrift. Had Loeb not scored bonus points in special stages this year, the margin would be even smaller.
The two pie charts here tell two different stories. While Loeb (see chart above) has got many more wins, he’s also dropped a lot of points through mechanical problems or mistakes this year. Mikko, however, has only won twice (see his chart below) – but has been on the podium in many other rallies and has not finished lower than fourth all year, a truly impressive stat that could serve him well as we head to Llandudno.
Want more?
- WRC Rally of Great Britain preview in quotes
- Official World Rally Championship website wrc.com
- Report in quotes from the last round in Spain
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