WRC France: Pavement With a Bite

The roads of France’s Tour de Corse appeared to be very unforgiving. Pinch flats and punctures plagued many teams throughout this weekend’s race. Without that handy self-inflating mousse in their tires this time, teams hemorrhaged time and positions after incurring flats. More…

One man who again came out unscathed was championship leader Sebastien Loeb. Loeb, who has won the event three times in a row, made it four this weekend, extending his championship lead over Mikko Hirvonen and nearly cinching up the season. His teammate Dani Sordo blew it on the second day 700 meters into the first stage by over-cooking the corner and hitting into a wall on the far side, ultimately ending his rally. The FIA deemed that there was too much damage to the car, in particular the roll cage, and prohibited him from continuing.

Team Suzuki had a decent rally until PG Anderson had a bad bounce and his car ended up 30 ft down a bank off the course. PG was ok, as was his co-driver, and his teammate scored the last Manufacturer’s team point by overcoming fuel pump problems early on Day 2.

There was a great battle for 4th between Petter Solberg, Jarri-Matti Latvala, and Chris Atkinson. At the end of day 2 there were only 4 seconds separating the trio, but a tire puncture on day 3 put Atkinson way down on the leaderboard and left Solberg and Latvala to duke it out. Latvala ended up winning it but only by 22 seconds.

The big story was over at the Ford camp, as once again their #1 driver Mikko Hirvonen picked up a puncture on the last stage of the 2nd day and dropped to 5th. Team boss Malcolm Wilson asked Mikko’s Ford teammates to slow and let Mikko ahead, ensuring that he’d stay competitive in the drivers’ championship. Mikko did not feel good about the sacrifice his teammates had to make on his behalf, and declined interview at the end of the day.

Back to Gravel for the last 2 races of the year—stay tuned, Japan is coming up next around Halloween!