Rally Greece 2009

 Rally Greece 2009

Racing data
7th of 12 races of the 2009 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Sardinia
Date:	12-14 June 2009
Begin:	Loutraki
Exams:	17 tests over 371.02 km
Distance:	1208.18 km
Covering:	gravel
Podium
First:	Mikko Hirvonen Ford World Rally Team
Second:	Sébastien Ogier Citroën Junior Team
Third:	Jari-Matti Latvala Ford World Rally Team

The Rally Greece (Acropolis) was the 56th edition and the seventh world championship round in 2009. The rally consisted of 17 special stages and was driven between June 12 and 14. The 16th special stage had to be canceled due to the high number of spectators.

Race report

Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen approached the special stages on the gravel roads with heavy loads on the material with caution and patience. While Sébastien Loeb , Daniel Sordo , Petter Solberg and Henning Solberg dropped out of the overall standings or dropped back with damaged cars, Hirvonen drove on safety and got through the extremely difficult rally without any problems. In the end Hirvonen won his first win of the season with a lead of over 1:12 minutes, the eighth win in his WRC career and the 70th win for Ford. Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) came through the tough test in Greece without any major problems and stood second for the first time on the podium in the highest WRC class . Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala took third place . Since Ogier was not nominated for manufacturer points, Ford was able to achieve the maximum number of points for the manufacturer's classification. Sébastien Loeb (Citroën), in third place, went too fast into a curve, rammed a stone and rolled over several times. Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena were uninjured, but their car was so badly damaged that the rally was over for the duo. Something similar happened to Dani Sordo in the second Citroën, he was also eliminated. In the world championship table, Hirvonen shortened the gap to first-placed Loeb to seven points.

The Greek Lambros Athanassoulas (Skoda), on the road as a guest starter, won the PWRC class . He not only won, but also took a WRC point with eighth overall. Second place went to Nasser Al-Attiyah (Subaru), who was ninth overall.

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 09: 42.5		10
2	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Citroën C4 WRC	4: 10: 55.4	1: 12.9	8th
3	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 11: 27.5	1: 45.0	6th
4th	Federico Villagra	Jose Diaz	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 13: 30.8	3: 48.3	5
5	Conrad Rautenbach	Daniel Barritt	Citroën C4 WRC	4: 13: 42.3	3: 59.8	4th
6th	Khalid Al Qassimi	Michael Orr	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 16: 46.8	7: 04.3	3
7th	Mads Østberg	Jonas Andersson	Subaru Impreza WRC	4: 22: 07.4	12: 24.9	2
8th	Lambros Athanassoulas	Nikolaos Zakheos	Škoda Fabia S2000	4: 22: 30.1	12: 47.6	1
PWRC
1	Lambros Athanassoulas	Nikolaos Zakheos	Škoda Fabia S2000	4: 22: 30.1		10
2	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Giovanni Bernacchini	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 22: 52.4	0: 22.3	8th
3	Armindo Araújo	Miguel Ramalho	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 24: 47.0	2: 16.9	6th
4th	Toshi Arai	Glenn MacNeall	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 25: 45.0	3: 14.9	5
5	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 28: 28.9	5: 58.8	4th
6th	Bernardo Sousa	Jorge Carvalho	Fiat Grande Punto S2000	4: 31: 49.6	9: 19.5	3
7th	Andis Neiksans	Peteris Dkreisals	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 32: 02.6	9: 32.5	2
8th	Patrik Flodin	Göran Bergsten	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 37: 28.8	14: 58.7	1

Special stages

Day	WP number	WP name	length	WP winner	time	leader
Day 1 (June 12th)	WP1	Harvati	25.00 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	18: 18.9	Jari-Matti Latvala
	WP2	Thiva 1	23.76 km	Dani Sordo	17: 00.6
	WP3	Evangelistria	21.03 km	called off
	WP4	Bauxites	23.17 km	Evgeny Novikov	14: 39.8
	WP5	Drossohori	23.68 km	Sébastien Ogier	19: 41.9
	WP6	Thiva 2	23.76 km	Mikko Hirvonen	16: 59.5	Mikko Hirvonen
Day 2 (June 13th)	WP7	Klenia Mycenae 1	17.25 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	11: 36.0
	WP8	Ghymno 1	26.28 km	Evgeny Novikov	19: 03.6
	WP9	Kefelari 1	24.15 km	Mikko Hirvonen Petter Solberg	19: 32.8
	WP10	Klenia Mycenae 2	17.25 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	11: 21.8
	WP11	Ghymno 2	26.28 km	Evgeny Novikov	18: 51.2
	WP12	Kefelari 2	24.15 km	Evgeny Novikov	19: 10.1
Day 3 (June 14th)	WP13	Loutraki 1	8.98 km	Mads Østberg	7: 38.2
	WP14	Aghii Theodori 1	33.00 km	Henning Solberg	22: 43.2
	WP15	New Pissia	11.3 km	Matthew Wilson	8: 16.2
	WP16	Loutraki 2	8.98 km	called off
	WP17	Aghii Theodori 2	33.00 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	22: 14.2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Hirvonen wins Greek failure orgy , accessed on December 30, 2014

Web links

Commons : World Rally Championship 2009  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website