Latvala wins, Loeb penalized

At the end of an event that he dominated from start to finish, Jari-Matti Latvala won the rally of Italy on Sunday, the second victory of his career after Sweden in 2008. Mikko Hirvonen's second place allows Ford to achieve the double and score the maximum number of points with a view to the world championship. Hirvonen is also the new dolphin of Loeb with 38 points while the Alsatian marks time with 5 small units (55 points). ? It’s such a deliverance! ?, exclaimed the winner of the day. ? I want to thank the team and director Malcolm Wilson for letting me do this. It?s something big for me to win this rally but also for the team which achieves the double. It?s incredible but I was also lucky. I made mistakes at the start of the year, this victory comes at a very important time.?

Third at the end of the rally, Sébastien Loeb was given a two-minute penalty and finally finished fourth just behind Petter Solberg. Alerted by the FIA ​​safety delegate, the stewards decided to sanction the world champion for his mistake during the wheel change on Saturday.

During SS11, the Citroën driver had a puncture and decided to change his wheel so as not to further damage his C4 WRC. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena then made the change in record time. Maybe a little too quickly?

This is what the commissioners wanted to know by investigating a specific point in the regulations. After viewing the on-board camera footage, it turned out that Loeb?s Swiss co-driver had not respected the rule that says seat belts must remain fastened the entire time the driver is driving. For evading this rule, the world champion received a two-minute penalty and fell to fourth place.

Behind, the young 18-year-old Russian Evgeny Novikov put in a great performance and entered the Top 5. He achieved the best result of his career. ?It was a very good rally for me and we had a lot of fun?, Novikov said. ?The next step is to drive for a factory team and win the world championship.?