Rally Italy 2012

 Rally Italy 2012

Racing data
12th of 13 races in the 2012 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Italy Sardinia
Date:	18.-21. October 2012
Begin:	Olbia
Exams:	16 tests over 305.8 km
Distance:	1183.52 km
Covering:	gravel
Podium
First:	Mikko Hirvonen Citroën Total World Rally Team
Second:	Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford World Rally Team
Third:	Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford World Rally Team

The 9th Rally Sardinia , also called Rally Italy Sardinia, took place from October 18th to 21st, 2012. A total of 16 special stages were driven on gravel.

Mikko Hirvonen

Reports

Day 1 (Thursday, October 18)

In the first two special stages, the Citroën works drivers drove for the lead. Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen were separated by just 1 second. Behind them Petter Solberg (Ford), almost 14 seconds behind, Thierry Neuville (Citroën) and Mads Østberg (Ford). Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) lost 42 seconds due to a puncture and was sixth after the first day.

Day 2 (Friday, October 19)

Loeb had to park the vehicle in the third special stage. The world champion had to get out of the race because of a damaged steering system that was affected by a rockfall. Loeb wants to compete again on Saturday according to the Rally 2 regulations . Sébastien Ogier (Skoda) set the fastest time in the fifth special stage . Latvala flew off the road in a right turn and had to give up the rally a short time later due to a damaged radiator. After a rollover and loss of oil, Thierry Neuville also had to end the rally. That afternoon, Solberg hit the front of his car. In doing so, he damaged the steering and it was no longer possible to continue driving. Evgeny Novikov (Ford) drove the fastest time in special stages six and seven, behind Hirvonen in second place overall. They were followed by Ott Tanak (Ford) and Ogier.

3rd day (Saturday, October 20th)

Hirvonen managed his lead over the competition on Saturday. Østberg won four of six special stages, Novikov won one, as did Latvala. Hirvonen was leading the last two special stages on Sunday with 1.28.2 minutes ahead of Novikov, Tänak and Ostberg.

4th day (Sunday, October 21)

Mikko Hirvonen (Citroën) won the penultimate rally in 2012, ahead of Evgeny Novikov (Ford) and Ott Tänak (Ford). The drivers, who were allowed to drive again thanks to the rally 2 regulations , after the car had been repaired, made the power stage among themselves. Here drove Petter Solberg in front of Jari-Matti Latvala and Thierry Neuville a victory.

Classifications

Bottom line

rank	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points + power stage
WRC
01	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Citroën DS3 WRC	3: 23: 54.9		25th
02	Evgeny Novikov	Ilka Minor	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3: 25: 15.5	01: 20.6	18th
03	Ott Tanak	Kuldar Sikk	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3: 26: 16.0	02: 21.1	15th
04th	Mads Østberg	Jonas Andersson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3: 27: 37.8	03: 42.9	12
05	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Škoda Fabia S2000	3: 28: 22.4	04: 27.5	10
06th	Chris Atkinson	Stéphane Prévot	Mini John Cooper Works WRC	3: 29: 17.1	05: 22.2	08th
07th	Andreas Mikkelsen	Ola Fløene	Škoda Fabia S2000	3: 30: 07.4	06: 12.5	06th
08th	Martin Prokop	Zdeněk Hrůza	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3: 33: 24.2	09: 29.3	04th
09	Petter Solberg	Chris Patterson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3: 33: 47.2	09: 52.3	2 + 3 power stage
10	Luca Pedersoli	Matteo Romano	Citroën DS3 WRC	3: 44: 30.5	20: 35.6	01
PWRC
01 (14)	Nicolás Fuchs	Fernando Mussano	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3: 49: 25.7		25th
02 (15)	Marcos Ligato	Rubén García	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3: 49: 56.1	00: 30.4	18th
03 (16)	Valeriy Gorban	Andriy Nikolaev	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3: 50: 07.8	00: 42.1	15th
04 (17)	Subhan Aksa	Nicola Arena	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	3: 52: 26.9	03: 01.2	12
05 (20)	Oleksiy Kikireshko	Sergei Larens	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3: 56: 28.4	07: 02.7	10
06 (21)	Michał Kościuszko	Maciej Szczepaniak	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	3: 56: 38.9	07: 13.2	08th
07 (22)	Ricardo Triviño	Àlex Haro	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3: 57: 44.0	08: 18.3	06th
08 (24)	Benito Guerra	Borja Rozada	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	4: 00: 12.7	10: 47.0	04th
09 (25)	Gianluca Linari	Andrea Cecchi	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 03: 35.8	14: 10.1	02
10 (30)	Louise Cook	Stefan Davis	Ford Fiesta ST	4: 42: 48.5	53: 22.8	01

Special stages

Day	WP number	begin	WP name	length	WP winner	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 (October 18th)	WP1	16:13	Terranova 1	28.14 km	Sébastien Loeb	19: 09.4	088.08 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP2	18:16	Terranova 2	28.14 km	Mikko Hirvonen	18: 49.4	089.41 km / h
Day 2 (October 19th)	WP3	08:43	Monte Lerno 1	29.68 km	Mikko Hirvonen	18: 16.2	097.28 km / h	Mikko Hirvonen
	WP4	11:34	Castelsardo 1	14.00 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10: 45.9	078.01 km / h
	WP5	12:24	Tergu-Osilo 1	14.88 km	Sébastien Ogier	10: 16.1	086.56 km / h
	WP6	14:46	Castelsardo 2	14.00 km	Evgeny Novikov	10: 27.6	080.18 km / h
	WP7	15:36	Tergu-Osilo 2	14.88 km	Evgeny Novikov	09: 41.8	092.04 km / h
	WP8	17:50	Monte Lerno 2	29.68 km	Mikko Hirvonen	18: 32.8	090.23 km / h
Day 3 (October 20th)	WP9	09:28	Coiluna Loelle 1	29.35 km	Mads Østberg	17: 39.4	099.44 km / h
	WP10	10:35	Monte di Ala 1	14.49 km	Evgeny Novikov	09: 12.9	094.20 km / h
	WP11	11:37	Monte Olia 1	14.12 km	Mads Østberg	10: 18.2	082.13 km / h
	WP12	14:48	Coiluna Loelle 2	29.35 km	Mads Østberg	17: 12.6	102.19 km / h
	WP13	15:55	Monti di Ala 2	14.49 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	8: 57.4	097.04 km / h
	WP14	16:57	Monte Olia 2	14.12 km	Mads Østberg	10: 02.6	084.21 km / h
Day 4 (October 21)	WP15	09:20	Gallura 1	08.24 km	Mads Østberg	06: 25.0	077.05 km / h
	WP16	11:00	Gallura (power stage)	08.24 km	Petter Solberg	06: 13.4	079.44 km / h

Web links

• Official site of the WRC

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com - website: Rallye News: motorsport-total.com/rallye/news.html?m=10&y=2012&r=sn_13&snb=0&Submit.x=14&Submit.y=11. Retrieved March 2, 2014 .