Rally Finland 2012

 Rally Finland 2012

Racing data
8th of 13 rounds of the 2012 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Finland
Date:	2-4 August 2012
Begin:	Jyväskylä
Exams:	18 tests over 303.52 km
Distance:	1375.15 km
Covering:	gravel
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team
Second:	Mikko Hirvonen Citroën Total World Rally Team
Third:	Jari-Matti Latvala Ford World Rally Team

The 62nd Rally Finland took place from 2nd to 4th August 2012. A total of 18 special stages were driven on gravel.

Rally enthusiasm in Finland (service park)

Reports

Day 1 (Thursday, August 2nd)

World rally championship races have been held since 1973 . The Rally Finland was the 500th edition of a World Championship rally. This began with a wafer-thin lead for world champion Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) in front of Petter Solberg and Jari-Matti Latvala (both Ford). In the third special stage, Loeb gained a little more lead. Solberg lost some time and fell behind Mads Østberg (Ford) and Thierry Neuville (Citroën). Third place went to Mikko Hirvonen (Citroën).

Day 2 (Friday, August 3)

On the second day of the rally , Hirvonen attacked team-mate Loeb and narrowed the gap. Hirvonen was only 4.4 seconds (after SS 8) behind Loeb, who was struggling with technical problems ( differential ). Nevertheless, Loeb was in the lead that evening, 3.7 seconds ahead of Hirvonen. The fight for fifth place between Neuville and Østberg was exciting. The two were separated by just 2.1 seconds, while Solberg worked his way up to fourth.

3rd day (Saturday, August 4th)

Sébastien Loeb , Mikko Hirvonen and Citroën celebrated their fifth double victory in Finland in the 2012 season. They relegated Ford drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg to third and fourth. Behind them, Mads Østberg was fifth, although he had technical problems on the last special stages.

Classifications

Bottom line

rank	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points + power stage
WRC
01	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën DS3 WRC	2: 28: 11.4		25 + 1 power stage
02	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Citroën DS3 WRC	2: 28: 17.5	00: 06.1	18 + 3 power stage
03	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	2: 28: 46.4	00: 35.0	15th
04th	Petter Solberg	Chris Patterson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	2: 29: 07.5	00: 56.1	12 + 2 power stage
05	Mads Østberg	Jonas Andersson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	2: 30: 43.5	02: 32.1	10
06th	Ott Tanak	Kuldar Sikk	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	2: 30: 59.0	02: 47.6	08th
07th	Matti Rautanen	Mikko Lukka	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	2: 33: 03.1	04: 51.7	06th
08th	Jari Ketomaa	Mika Stenberg	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	2: 34: 13.3	06: 01.9	04th
09	Martin Prokop	Zdeněk Hrůza	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	2: 34: 15.7	06: 04.3	02
10	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Škoda Fabia S2000	2: 36: 57.4	08: 46.0	01
SWRC
1 (11)	Per-Gunnar Andersson	Emil Axelsson	Proton Satria Neo S2000	2: 39: 01.2		25th
2 (17)	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Michael Orr	Ford Fiesta RRC	2: 42: 19.0	03: 17.8	18th
3 (18)	Juha Salo	Marko salt mines	Proton Satria Neo S2000	2: 44: 47.9	05: 46.7	15th
4 (23)	Maciej Oleksowicz	Andrzej Obrebowski	Ford Fiesta S2000	2: 50: 34.6	11: 33.4	12
5 (25)	Esapekka Lappi	Janne Ferm	Ford Fiesta S2000	2: 51: 19.0	12: 17.8	10
JWRC
1	Elfyn Evans	Philip Pugh	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 34: 07.7		25 + 7 for SS victories
2	Pontus Tidemand	Stig rune Skjærmoen	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 35: 03.0	00: 55.3	18 + 6 for SS victories
3	Brendan Reeves	Rhianon Smyth	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 35: 35.1	01: 27.4	15 + 2 for SS victories
4th	José Antonio Suarez	Cándido Carrera	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 36: 22.5	02: 14.8	12 + 1 for SS victories
5	John MacCrone	Stuart Loudon	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 37: 09.7	03: 02.0	10
6th	Christopher Duplessis	Alexander Kihurani	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 41: 26.2	07: 18.5	8th
7th	João Silva	Hugo Magalhães	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 47: 45.7	13: 38.0	6th
8th	Ashley Haigh-Smith	Craig Parry	Ford Fiesta R2	3: 04: 09.2	30: 01.5	4th
9	Alastair Fisher	Daniel Barritt	Ford Fiesta R2	3: 14: 16.6	40: 08.9	2 + 1 for SS victories

Special stages

Day	WP number	begin	WP name	length	WP winner	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 (August 2nd)	WP1	17:23	Koukunmaa	13.68 km	Sébastien Loeb	06: 59.8	117.31 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP2	19:00	WP Jokimaa SS	02.00 km	Petter Solberg	01: 32.5	077.84 km / h
	WP3	20:50	Mynnila	14.22 km	Sébastien Loeb	06: 34.7	129.70 km / h
Day 2 (August 3rd)	WP4	07:42	Urria	12.75 km	Sébastien Loeb	05: 59.5	127.68 km / h
	WP5	08:39	Jukojärvi	22.29 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10: 34.0	126.57 km / h
	WP6	11:28	Mökkiperä 1	11.38 km	Mikko Hirvonen	05: 29.6	124.30 km / h
	WP7	12:14	Palsankylä 1	13.92 km	Sébastien Loeb	07: 06.8	117.41 km / h
	WP8	13:32	Lankamaa 1	23.06 km	Mikko Hirvonen	11: 11.4	123.65 km / h
	WP9	16:08	Mökkiperä 2	11.38 km	Mikko Hirvonen	05: 26.8	125.36 km / h
	WP10	16:54	Palsankylä 2	13.92 km	Sébastien Loeb	07: 01.7	118.83 km / h
	WP11	18:12	Lankamaa 2	23.06 km	Petter Solberg	11: 03.2	125.17 km / h
	WP12	20:00	WPS Killeri	02.06 km	Sébastien Loeb	01: 22.8	089.57 km / h
Day 3 (August 4th)	WP13	07:56	Surkee 1	14.95 km	Sébastien Loeb	08: 05.7	110.81 km / h
	WP14	08:54	Leustu 1	21.94 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10: 25.8	126.21 km / h
	WP15	11:18	Surkee 2	14.95 km	Sébastien Loeb	08: 00.3	112.05 km / h
	WP16	12:16	Leustu 2	21.94 km	Sébastien Loeb Jari-Matti Latvala	10: 20.2	127.35 km / h
	WP17	15:37	Ouninpohja 1	33.01 km	Mikko Hirvonen	15: 26.9	128.21 km / h
	WP18	18:00	Ouninpohja 2 (power stage)	33.01 km	Mikko Hirvonen	15: 17.3	129.55 km / h

Web links

• Official site of the WRC

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com website: News: motorsport-total.com. Retrieved February 23, 2014 .