Rally Italy 2009

 Rally Italy 2009

Racing data
6th of 12 races of the 2009 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Sardinia
Date:	22.-24. May 2009
Begin:	Olba
Exams:	14 tests over 347.12 km
Distance:	1263.20 km
Covering:	gravel
Podium
First:	Jari-Matti Latvala Ford World Rally Team
Second:	Mikko Hirvonen Ford World Rally Team
Third:	Petter Solberg Petter Solberg World Rally Team

The Rally Sardinia (Italy) was the sixth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship . The rally consisted of 17 special stages and was held from May 22nd to 24th.

Race report

Before the rally in Sardinia, the tactics had been discussed. In fact, Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) and Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) already played for the starting positions for Saturday on Friday evening. Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) did not take part in the tactics and dominated the rally from the start. Latvala had been in the lead since the first special stage and was able to maintain his lead on the second day despite the worst starting position. On the last day of the rally it turned out that first place on the grid was a big advantage. While all drivers had to struggle with the thick dust of the vehicles ahead, Latvala benefited from a clear view and was able to outrun the field. Hirvonen, second in the world championship, had hoped he would win if world championship leader Loeb got a problem. But now he was beaten by his teammate. Things didn't go according to plan for Sébastien Loeb. It looked good for him on Friday, but tactically on Friday evening he dropped back to third in order not to have to start first on Saturday. But several problems made his rally difficult on Saturday. At first he had braking problems, then he received a ten-second penalty for being late at a special stage. In the eleventh stage, his dreams of victory were over when he lost over a minute due to a puncture. The FIA commissioners subsequently gave the Citroën driver a time penalty of two minutes. They came to the conclusion that Loeb and his co-driver Daniel Elena were not properly buckled up after their tire change on Saturday afternoon. So Petter Solberg (Citroën) came in third, despite steering problems in the last special stages.

In the PWRC classification , the decision to win was exciting. In the end, Nasser Al-Attiyah secured victory 1.5 seconds ahead of Patrik Sandell . In the JWRC , Martin Prokop won ahead of Michal Kosciuszko and Aaron Burkart despite numerous problems and several time penalties .

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 00: 55.7		10
2	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 01: 25.1	0: 29.4	8th
3	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Citroën Xsara WRC	4: 02: 53.3	1: 57.6	6th
4th	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	4: 04: 39.4	3: 43.7	5
5	Evgeny Novikov	Dale Moscatt	Citroën C4 WRC	4: 06: 07.5	5: 11.8	4th
6th	Matthew Wilson	Scott Martin	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 08: 25.0	7: 29.3	3
7th	Mads Østberg	Veronica Engan	Subaru Impreza WRC	4: 14: 16.3	13: 20.6	2
8th	Henning Solberg	Cato Menkerud	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 14: 16.9	13: 21.2	1
PWRC
1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Giovanni Bernacchini	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 20: 39.4		10
2	Patrik Sandell	Emil Axelsson	Škoda Fabia S2000	4: 20: 40.9	0: 01.5	8th
3	Armindo Araújo	Ramalho Miguel	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 24: 23.5	3: 44.1	6th
4th	Patrick Flodin	Göran Bergsten	Subaru Impreza	4: 27: 14.9	6: 35.5	5
5	Eyvind Brynildsen	Denis Giraudet	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 34: 37.9	13: 58.5	4th
6th	Frederic Sauvan	Sebastien Capanna	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 47: 14.5	26: 35.1	3
7th	Gianluca Linari	Paolo Gregoriani	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 48: 10.7	27: 31.3	2
8th	Gabor Mayer	Robert Tagai	Subaru Impreza	4: 48: 11.3	27: 31.9	1
JWRC
1	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Citroën C2 S1600	4: 23: 40.6		10
2	Michal Kosciuszko	Maciek Szczepaniak	Suzuki Swift S1600	4: 23: 53.8	0: 13.2	8th
3	Aaron Burkart	Michael Koelbach	Suzuki Swift S1600	4: 31: 55.4	8: 14.8	6th
4th	Yoann Bonato	Benjamin Boulloud	Suzuki Swift S1600	4: 34: 45.2	11: 04.5	5
5	Alessandro Bettega	Simone Scattolin	Renault Clio R3	4: 35: 40.2	11: 59.5	4th
6th	Hans Weijs jr	Bjorn Degandt	Citroën C2 S1600	4: 37: 14.2	13: 33.5	3
7th	Simone Bertolotti	Luca Celestini	Suzuki Swift S1600	5: 13: 03.0	49: 22.4	2

Special stages

Day	WP number	WP name	length	WP winner	time	leader
Day 1 (May 22nd)	WP1	Sa Conchedda 1	14.99 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	10: 33.3	Jari-Matti Latvala
	WP2	Loelle 1	22.3 km	Dani Sordo	13: 41.6
	WP3	Crastazza 1	27.81 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	18: 24.8
	WP4	Sa Conchedda 2	14.99 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	10: 16.3
	WP5	Loelle 2	22.3 km	Sébastien Loeb	13: 19.8
	WP6	Crastazza 2	27.81 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	17: 57.0
Day 2 (May 23)	WP7	Sa Linea 1	14.2 km	Mikko Hirvonen	9: 10.5
	WP8	Fiorentini 1	22.02 km	Sébastien Loeb	18: 06.4
	WP9	Monte Lerno 1	29.15 km	Sébastien Loeb	19: 36.7
	WP10	Sa Linea 2	14.2 km	Mikko Hirvonen	9: 05.4
	WP11	Fiorentini 2	22.02 km	Petter Solberg	17: 53.3
	WP12	Monte Lerno 2	29.15 km	Sébastien Loeb	18: 58.6
Day 3 (May 24th)	WP13	Monte Olia 1	19.31 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	14: 24.3
	WP14	Sorillis 1	18.66 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	14: 21.1
	WP15	Arzachena	10.24 km	Henning Solberg	5: 46.7
	WP16	Monte Olia 2	19.31 km	Henning Solberg	14: 02.6
	WP17	Sorillis 2	18.66 km	Sébastien Loeb	13: 48.3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Overjoyed Latvala triumphs in Sardinia , accessed on December 29, 2014

Web links

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

• Official website