Rally Ireland 2007

 Rally Ireland 2007

Racing data
15th of 16 races in the 2007 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Ireland
Date:	15-18 November 2007
Begin:	Sligo
Exams:	20 tests over 328.43 km
Distance:	1196.25 km
Covering:	asphalt
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team
Second:	Dani Sordo Citroën Total World Rally Team
Third:	Jari-Matti Latvala Stobart VK M-Sport Ford

The 1st Rally Ireland (with World Championship title) was the fifteenth of 16 FIA World Championship races in 2007. The rally consisted of 20 special stages on asphalt roads and was held between November 15th and 18th.

Marcus Grönholm (Ford Focus WRC) had to retire after an accident

Race report

Sébastien Loeb had seized his chance in Ireland and made a big step towards the fourth driver's world title. The Citroën driver had taken the lead again in the drivers' standings. His lead over rival Marcus Grönholm (Ford), who retired on Friday after a serious accident, was six points before the last world championship run. Mikko Hirvonen finished in fourth place and thus secured the Ford factory team the second manufacturers' world championship title in a row. Ford was 21 points ahead of Citroën and could not be overtaken at the season finale.

The rally began with the first special stage in front of Stormont Castle in Belfast , which Grönholm won on Thursday evening. But the next day the accident took its course. In the fourth special stage, Grönholm had a severe impact on a wall and had to be taken to the hospital as a precaution together with co-driver Timo Rautiainen. Both were uninjured, but that ended the rally for the duo.

Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) finished third and won his first podium in the WRC . The Stobart team took third place in the Manufacturers' World Championship ahead of Subaru. Latvala ousted Hirvonen from third place on Friday. He was able to hold this position to the finish, although he briefly drifted off the road on Saturday. That cost Latvala a little time, but he had gained so much advantage that he stayed third. In the end, Latvala was 54.8 seconds behind Dani Sordo (Citroën) and 29.5 seconds ahead of Hirvonen.

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 01: 39.2		10
2	Dani Sordo	Marc Martí	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 02: 32.6	00: 53.4	8th
3	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 03: 27.4	01: 48.2	6th
4th	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 03: 56.9	02: 17.7	5
5	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 04: 35.0	02: 55.8	4th
6th	Guy Wilks	Phil Pugh	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 07: 37.1	05: 57.9	3
7th	Matthew Wilson	Michael Orr	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 11: 44.1	10: 04.9	2
8th	Gareth McHale	Allan Harryman	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 12: 47.5	11: 08.3	1
PCWRC
1 (10)	Niall McShea	Marshall Clarke	Subaru Impreza STI	3: 18: 11.3	16: 32.1	10
2 (11)	Gabriel Pozzo	Daniel Stillo	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3: 18: 55.4	17: 16.2	8th
3 (17)	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Chris Patterson	Subaru Impreza STI	3: 22: 42.4	21: 03.2	6th
4 (18)	Simone Campedelli	Danilo Fappani	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3: 24: 47.2	23: 08.0	5
5 (20)	Štěpán Vojtěch	Michal Ernst	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3: 26: 45.4	25: 06.2	4th
6 (21)	Fumio Nutahara	Daniel Barritt	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3: 27: 32.8	25: 53.6	3
7 (22)	Colm Murphy	Ger Loughrey	Subaru Impreza STI	3: 27: 34.6	25: 55.4	2
8 (23)	Philip Morrow	David Sr.	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3: 28: 46.9	27: 07.7	1

Special stages

Day	WP number	Start CET	WP name	length	driver	automobile	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 Nov 15th	WP1	19:00	Stormont Super Special	1.82 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	1: 30.8	72.16 km / h	Marcus Grönholm
Day 2 Nov 16	WP2	08:05	Geevagh 1	11.47 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	6: 05.7	112.92 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP3	08:33	Arigna 1	27.89 km	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	15: 44.0	106.36 km / h
	WP4	09:24	Lough Gill 1	20.56 km	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	10: 54.7	113.05 km / h	Dani Sordo
	WP5	11:29	Geevagh 2	11.47 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	6: 22.0	108.09 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP6	11:57	Arigna 2	27.89 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	16: 09.6	103.55 km / h
	WP7	12:48	Lough Gill 2	20.56 km	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	10: 55.5	112.92 km / h
	WP8	15:01	Glenboy	22.21 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	11: 56.0	111.87 km / h
	WP9	15:54	Bencroy	15.44 km	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	8: 21.3	110.81 km / h
	WP10	16:19	Drumshanbo	8.65 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	5: 00.3	103.70 km / h
Day 3 Nov 17th	WP11	8:13	Sloughan Glen 1	20.95 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	11: 37.7	108.10 km / h
	WP12	09:08	Ballinamallard 1	17.94 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	9: 35.9	112.21 km / h
	WP13	09:51	Tempo 1	13.44 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	7: 31.6	107.30 km / h
	WP14	14:04	Sloughan Glen 2	20.95 km	Chris Atkinson	Subaru Impreza WRC	11: 25.7	109.99 km / h
	WP15	14:59	Ballinamallard 2	17.94 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	9: 30.7	113.23 km / h
	WP16	15:42	Tempo 2	13.44 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	Ford Focus RS WRC	7: 28.9	107.94 km / h
Day 4 Nov 18th	WP17	09:03	Murley	24.70 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	13: 19.9	111.16 km / h
	WP18	09:51	Fardross	14.77 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	8: 49.8	100.36 km / h
	WP19	11:39	Donegal Bay	14.06 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	Ford Focus RS WRC	7: 00.9	120.26 km / h
	WP20	13:08	Mullaghmore	2.38 km	Petter Solberg	Subaru Impreza WRC	1: 16.9	111.42 km / h

Source:

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Loeb wins rally, Ford wins the title , accessed on January 2, 2016
2. ↑ ewrc-results.com: Rally Ireland 2007 , accessed on January 2, 2016

Web links

Commons : World Rally Championship 2007  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website