Rally Ireland 2009

 Rally Ireland 2009

Racing data
1st of 12 races of the 2009 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Ireland
Date:	January 30–1. February 2009
Begin:	Sligo
Exams:	19 tests over 366.94 km
Distance:	1407.68 km
Covering:	asphalt
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën World Rally Team
Second:	Dani Sordo Citroën World Rally Team
Third:	Mikko Hirvonen Ford World Rally Team

The Rally Ireland 2009 was the first round of the 2009 World Rally Championship and was held between January 30th and February 1st. It was also the first run of the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC). The rally base was set up near the city of Sligo . The special stages were driven on asphalt roads in the northwest of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland .

Race report

It was raining in Ireland and aquaplaning made driving a dangerous proposition for the pilots. In addition, the windows fogged up again and again. One who coped well with the poor conditions was Sébastien Loeb (Citroën). After just 11 special stages, Loeb had a lead of over 1:12 minutes over teammate Dani Sordo . Nothing changed in this order until the end of the rally. Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen finished the Rally Ireland in third place . At the end of the day, he was over 2:07 minutes behind Loeb and 39.9 seconds short of Sordo.

Aaron Burkart (Suzuki) won the JWRC class . Burkhart had switched from a Citroën C2 S1600 to a Suzuki Swift S1600 for the 2009 season. At first he had a close fight with Hans Weijs , which was canceled after an accident. From then on, Burkart only had to manage his lead. In the end, he had a lead of 47.3 seconds over second-placed Martin Prokop .

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	2: 48: 25.7		10
2	Dani Sordo	Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	2: 49: 53.6	01: 27.9	8th
3	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	2: 50: 33.5	02: 07.8	6th
4th	Henning Solberg	Cato Menkerud	Ford Focus RS WRC	2: 54: 58.1	06: 32.4	5
5	Chris Atkinson	Stéphane Prévot	Citroën C4 WRC	2: 56: 17.6	07: 51.9	4th
6th	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Citroën C4 WRC	2: 59: 09.7	10: 44.0	3
7th	Matthew Wilson	Scott Martin	Ford Focus RS WRC	2: 59: 49.5	11: 23.8	2
8th	Khalid Al Qassimi	Michael Orr	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 02: 33.6	14: 07.9	1
JWRC
1 (16)	Aaron Burkart	Michael Koelbach	Suzuki Swift S1600	3: 16: 41.5		10
2 (17)	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Citroën C2 S1600	3: 17: 28.8	00: 47.3	8th
3 (19)	Simone Bertolotti	Luca Celestini	Suzuki Swift S1600	3: 25: 41.6	09: 00.1	6th
4 (20)	Yoann Bonato	Benjamin Boulloud	Suzuki Swift S1600	3: 29: 47.7	13: 06.2	5
5 (22)	Kevin Abbring	Erwin Mombaerts	Renault Clio S1600	3: 34: 19.5	17: 38.0	4th
6 (25)	Luca Griotti	Corrado Bonato	Renault Clio S1600	3: 43: 49.9	27: 08.4	3

Special stages

Day	WP number	WP name	length	WP winner	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 (Jan. 30)	WP1	Glenboy 1	22.25 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	12: 44.0	104.8 km / h	Jari-Matti Latvala
	WP2	Cavan 1	15.09 km	Sébastien Loeb	8: 31.5	106.2 km / h	Urmo Aava
	WP3	Aughnasheelan 1	25.19 km	Sébastien Loeb	14: 35.2	103.6 km / h
	WP4	Glenboy 2	22.25 km	Sébastien Loeb	11: 37.4	114.9 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP5	Cavan 2	15.09 km	Sébastien Loeb	7: 40.5	118.0 km / h
	WP6	Aughnasheelan 2	25.19 km	Sébastien Loeb	13: 44.6	110.0 km / h
	WP7	Murley	24.70 km	called off
	WP8	Fardross	14.77 km	called off
Day 2 (Jan. 31)	WP9	Sloughan Glen 1	27.76 km	Sébastien Loeb	14: 43.3	113.1 km / h
	WP10	Ballinamallard 1	25.46 km	Sébastien Loeb	13: 02.1	117.2 km / h
	WP11	Tempo, County Fermanagh 1	13.46 km	Sébastien Loeb	7: 33.1	106.9 km / h
	WP12	Sloughan Glen 2	27.76 km	Mikko Hirvonen	14: 33.9	114.4 km / h
	WP13	Ballinamallard 2	25.46 km	Sébastien Loeb	12: 51.4	118.8 km / h
	WP14	Tempo, County Fermanagh 2	13.46 km	Sébastien Loeb	7: 30.1	107.7 km / h
Day 3 (Feb. 1)	WP15	Geevagh	11.48 km	Mikko Hirvonen	6: 11.3	111.3 km / h
	WP16	Arigna	10.88 km	Sébastien Loeb	6: 03.6	107.7 km / h
	WP17	Lough Gill	13.51 km	Mikko Hirvonen	6: 27.0	125.7 km / h
	WP18	Donegal Bay	14.47 km	Mikko Hirvonen	8: 09.7	106.4 km / h
	WP19	Donegal Town	1.50 km	Mikko Hirvonen	1: 08.1	79.3 km / h

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Citroën triumphs at the season opener , accessed on December 26, 2014

Web links

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

• Official website