WRC – Latvala wins Rally GB ahead of Loeb

Victory was up for grabs for Jari-Matti Latvala in the final stage of Wales Rally GB. The Finn had widened the gap on his rivals in the first two stages by having a lead of more than 24 seconds over his closest pursuers. The Ford driver perfectly mastered his position as leader and crossed the finish line as winner, which had not happened to him since the Rally from Sweden. The winner earns an additional point with third place in the Power Stage.

Second place will have monopolized the attention on this last day, Petter Solberg only having 6”4 ahead of Sébastien Loeb. After winning the first two special stages of the morning, the Alsatian took second place with less than three seconds ahead at mid-stage. Nevertheless, the driver of the Fiesta RS WRC defended tooth and nail and regained the advantage in the second passage of Port Talbot for a three-tenths lead. The Frenchman regained second place in the following special stage (SS18 Rheola) and only a tenth separated the two rivals before the Power Stage (Walters Arena). The eight-time world champion finally finished nine tenths ahead of the 2003 world champion and took two bonus points in the closing special.

Mads Ostberg finished just off the podium, 42 seconds behind third place. The Adapta WRT driver feared retirement following mechanical problems at the start of the final stage but the Norwegian fought to maintain his position until his Fiesta RS WRC could be repaired at the service. mid-stage. Mikko Hirvonen completes the top five, 19 seconds behind the winner of the Rally de Portugal after severely lacking in performance during the first two days. The Finn alleviated his disappointment by taking all three points in the Power Stage.

Ott Tänak was comfortably in sixth position but the Estonian retired on SS17 at Port Talbot after tearing a wheel off his Fiesta RS WRC. Evgeny Novikov thus takes sixth place with 35 seconds ahead of Thierry Neuville, who remained on the road during these three days despite his position as opener in the first stage. Matthew Wilson takes eighth place ahead of Martin Prokop, while the top ten is completed by Nasser Al-Attiyah who is five seconds ahead of the Mini JCW WRC of Chris Atkinson, the latter having crossed the finish line with a wheel almost torn off. Sébastien Ogier took 12th place, finishing seven seconds behind Chris Atkinson in his Skoda Fabia S2000.

Craig Breen (Ford Fiesta S2000) wins the S-WRC category by finishing almost five minutes behind the Volkswagen driver and dedicates a moving victory to his former co-driver Gareth Roberts. The fight for victory was intense with Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Fiesta S2000) before the Saudi received a five-minute penalty for excessive speed on liaison and fell back to third place behind local driver Tom Cave riding a Proton Satria Neo S2000.

Discover the analysis of Wales Rally GB carried out by our special correspondent in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.