Here - HANDBRAKES & HAIRPINS

EVENTS
rescue the event from cancellation by
rebuilding the roads and putting the
event back on track. This huge joint
effort was recognized and celebrated
after the event when the nation received
the Abu Dhabi Spirit of the Rally award.
“For sure, the team’ strategy
made things a bit easier for me, but I’m
not sure I really needed it,” said Loeb.
”Despite a position that was not as
favourable as Jari-Matti’s, we were able
to open up the gap a bit more.”
“I’m delighted to have won such
a tough rally,” added Loeb before going
up onto the podium. “Our second victory
in three events has helped us to open up
a twenty-fi ve point gap, the equivalent
of a victory, over the second-paced
driver. We can now tackle the next rally
in a reasonably relaxed frame of mind.”
It was, however, these same
roads that resulted in team tactics ruling
the outcome of this rally. With Sebastien
Loeb at the front of the rally at the end
of Day Two, and in line to start Day
Three as road sweeper, Citroen Racing’s
Olivier Quesnel decided to employ tactics
to gift Loeb a better start position on the
road for the closing stages of the rally to
cement the Citroen victory. High-fl ying
Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassi (Citroen
Junior Team) were asked by Quesnel to
check in early to the fi nal stage of Day
Two so as to incur a time penalty with
the result that Ogier/Ingrassi would
serve as road sweepers for Loeb/Elena
on Day Three.
“We asked Sebastien Ogier
to check in early to sweep the road,”
explained Quesnel, the Citroen Racing
team principal. “We had a technical
problem with his car in the service park,
which dashed his hopes of a podium.
We reckoned that this strategy would
give Sebastien Loeb a better chance of
defending his fi rst place.”
Latvala’s team-mates Mikko
Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen, who suffered
bad luck early on Day Two, were lying
in 20th position overall at the start of
Day Three and were not in any position
to regain lost time to the leaders. The
Ford team’s boss Malcolm Wilson asked
Hirvonen to deliberately incur a time
penalty in the same way as Ogier did to
improve Latvala’s road position.
“It’s a much better birthday
than last year when I thought I might
die after crashing and rolling 200 metres
down a hillside in Portugal,” said Latvala.
“Second is a great result, although I felt
a little disappointed this morning when
I realised I wouldn’t be able to win. I
kept the pressure on in case he made
a mistake and I could capitalise, but I
also had to stay relaxed. This is my third
good result in three rallies this season
and this run has boosted my confi dence.
The tactical decisions this morning
changed the course of the day. It had a
huge effect with Loeb second in the start
order. The difference between fi rst and
second in the order is huge in terms of
road cleaning, while second and third or
third and fourth is only marginal.”
Despite tactics playing a
heavy hand in the fi nal classifi cation
of this rally, the WRC Jordan Rally
notched up Loeb and Elena’s 56th WRC
career victory (on their 21st different
rally). This Frenchman is undoubtedly
the world’s most successful rally
driver, and has started his World Rally
Championship title defense in the best
possible manner. With three rounds now
completed, Loeb has won back-to-back
gravel rallies to move into the lead of
the WRC Drivers’ Championship fi ght
with 68 points. Ten rounds still remain,
and Mikko Hirvonen and Petter Solberg
should not be underestimated. Loeb
proved in 2009 that each rally’s points
bagged are valuable, showing the world
that after he stumbled midway through
the 2009 season to allow Mikko Hirvonen
to close to within a single point of the
Drivers’ Championship title at the fi nal
event of the season in Wales.
This is a weekend Hirvonen
would like to forget: while lying in
fi fth place and poised to strike on day
Two’s stages, Hirvonen crashed out of
contention when he hit a bank 3km
into the morning’s fi rst stage. Hirvonen
and Lehtinen fi nished the event in
20th position and netted valuable
Manufacturers’ points for their BP Ford
Abu Dhabi World Rally Team.
“I made a mistake and took too
tight a line over a crest,” said Hirvonen.
“The car hit a small gravel bank on the