Rally Norway 2007

 Rally Norway 2007

Racing data
3rd of 16 rounds of the 2007 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Norway
Date:	16.-18. February 2007
Begin:	Hamar
Exams:	18 tests over 358.72 km
Distance:	1127.61 km
Covering:	snow and ice
Podium
First:	Mikko Hirvonen Ford World Rally Team
Second:	Marcus Grönholm Ford World Rally Team
Third:	Henning Solberg Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team

Juho Hänninen at the 2007 Rally Norway

The first Rally Norway , which was held as a World Championship round, was the third of 16 FIA World Championship rounds in 2007. The rally consisted of 18 special stages and was held between February 16 and 18.

Race report

Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) won a World Rally Championship run for the second time after his victory in Australia in 2006. In the last special stage, over 44 kilometers long, Hirvonen, who had led from the first special stage, was no longer attacked by his pursuer and team-mate Marcus Grönholm . Hirvonen's lead over Grönholm was 9.5 seconds in the end.

The third on the podium was Henning Solberg (Ford). He made it exciting when he stalled the engine at the start of the last stage. Henning Solberg was still able to save a lead of 16.5 seconds on his brother Petter Solberg (Subaru) at the finish.

The fifth place overall went to Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford). Manfred Stohl (Citroën) lost sixth place to Gigi Galli (Citroën). In the last special stage, Stohl remained standing for minutes due to technical problems and slipped out of the points.

Saturday was an extremely bad day for the Citroën works team. World champion Sébastien Loeb was third overall with an intact chance of victory. But then everything turned out differently. Loeb's team-mate Dani Sordo had an accident first in the ninth special stage. Sordo got off the track and couldn't go any further. Loeb's accident followed three exams later. In the tenth special stage, Loeb was even fastest and he caught up. In the 12 special stage he got off the road and got stuck in a snow bank. Loeb lost over eighteen minutes on the leaders.

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 28: 17.0		10
2	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 28: 26.5	00: 09.5	8th
3	Henning Solberg	Cato Menkerud	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 32: 01.6	03: 44.6	6th
4th	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 32: 18.1	04: 01.1	5
5	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Antilla	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 33: 47.7	05: 30.7	4th
6th	Gigi Galli	Giovanni Bernacchini	Citroën Xsara WRC	3: 35: 22.2	07: 05.2	3
7th	Daniel Carlsson	Denis Giraudet	Citroën Xsara WRC	3: 37: 40.7	09: 23.7	2
8th	Jan Kopecký	Filip Schovánek	Škoda Fabia WRC	3: 40: 06.9	11: 49.9	1
J-WRC
1 (18)	Per-Gunner Andersson	Jonas Andersson	Suzuki Swift S1600	3: 49: 37.9	21: 20.9	10
2 (21)	Patrik Sandell	Emil Axelsson	Renault Clio R3	3: 57: 11.6	28: 54.6	8th
3 (28)	Urmo Aava	Kuldar Sikk	Suzuki Swift S1600	4: 04: 50.3	36: 33.3	6th
4 (31)	Jaan Mölder Jr.	Katrin Becker	Suzuki Swift S1600	4: 08: 41.0	40: 24.0	5
5 (38)	Aaron Burkart	Timo Gottschalk	Citroën C2 S1600	4: 13: 22.6	45: 05.6	4th
6 (39)	Trond Svenkerud	Kay Ødegård	Ford Fiesta ST	4: 18: 03.9	49: 46.9	3
7 (41)	Andrea Cortinovis	Flavio Zanella	Renault Clio S1600	4: 19: 02.9	50: 45.9	2
8 (44)	Shaun Gallagher	Clive Jenkins	Citroën C2 R2	4: 25: 57.8	57: 40.8	1

Special stages

Day	WP number	Start CET	WP name	length	driver	automobile	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 Feb 16	WP1	07:43	Plumb 1	30.30 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	16: 14.1	111.98 km / h	Mikko Hirvonen
	WP2	08:34	Haslemoen	11.92 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	8: 08.4	87.86 km / h
	WP3	11:24	Plumb 2	30.30 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	16: 09.9	112.47 km / h
	WP4	12:30	Grue	14.36 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	7: 31.8	114.42 km / h
	WP5	13:52	Opaque	14.64 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	Ford Focus RS WRC	7: 59.8	109.85 km / h
	WP6	14:36	Kongsvinger	14.60 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	9: 44.5	89.92 km / h
	WP7	3:30 p.m.	Finnskogen	21.29 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	12: 42.3	100.54 km / h
	WP8	16:33	Kirkanaer	6.75 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	5: 48.9	69.65 km / h
Day 2 Feb 17th	WP9	08:09	Eleverum 1	44.27 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	24: 40.3	107.66 km / h
	WP10	09:23	Terningmoen	12.71 km	Daniel Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	7: 59.1	95.5 km / h
	WP11	12:05	Mountain 1	24.36 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	14: 01.8	104.18 km / h
	WP12	13:06	Lillehammar	5.98 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 33.9	78.6 km / h
	WP13	14:00	Ringsaker 1	27.30 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	16: 29.7	99.3 km / h
	WP14	15:10	Hamar 1	1.14 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	1: 13.8	55.61 km / h
Day 3 Feb 18th	WP15	08:08	Mountain 2	24.36 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	13: 18.2	109.87 km / h
	WP16	08:55	Ringsaker 2	27.30 km	Henning Solberg	Ford Focus RS WRC	15: 28.6	105.84 km / h
	WP17	10:05	Hamar 2	1.14 km	Xavier Pons Sébastien Loeb Petter Solberg	Mitsubishi Lancer WRC Citroën C4 WRC Subaru Impreza S12 WRC	1: 11.8	57.16 km / h
	WP18	12:14	Eleverum 2	44.27 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	24: 10.3	109.89 km / h

Source:

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Rally Hirvonen wins Rally Norway , accessed on December 23, 2015.
2. ↑ ewrc-results.com: Rally Norway 2007 , accessed on December 22, 2015.

Web links

Commons : World Rally Championship 2007  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website