Rally Cyprus 2009

 Rally Cyprus 2009

Racing data
3rd of 12 races of the 2009 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Cyprus
Date:	13-15 March 2009
Begin:	Limassol
Exams:	14 tests over 332.07 km
Distance:	1198 km
Covering:	Asphalt and gravel
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën World Rally Team
Second:	Mikko Hirvonen Ford World Rally Team
Third:	Petter Solberg Petter Solberg World Rally Team

Sébastien Loeb / Daniel Elena in Cyprus 2009

The Cyprus Rally was the third round of the 2009 World Rally Championship and was driven at Limassol between March 13th and 15th. A WRC rally was last organized in Cyprus in 2006. The ground was mixed with asphalt and gravel roads. On the first day we only drove on asphalt roads, on the two following days on gravel roads.

Race report

Sébastien Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena achieved their 50th WRC victory. After 14 special stages, the Citroën driver crossed the finish line with a lead of 27.2 seconds over Mikko Hirvonen (Ford). Loeb laid the foundation stone for victory on Friday when “gravel tires” were used on asphalt. He took the lead with five special stage best times and had a comfortable lead for the next two days, which were driven on gravel. Hirvonen was able to oust Citroën driver Dani Sordo from second place on Saturday morning . Petter Solberg's third place could be described as a small miracle . During the winter, the former Subaru driver set up his own team in record time and bought a Citroën Xsara . Four weeks ago he made the WRC comeback at the Rally Norway . In his second run as a privateer, he made it onto the podium in third place and relegated Sordo to fourth place.

In the PWRC class , which completed the second round of the season in Cyprus, victory again went to Patrik Sandell in the Škoda Fabia S2000. Armindo Araujo was in the lead until shortly before the finish line. But Araujo got technical problems and fell behind. In the JWRC the victory went to Martin Prokop ahead of Michal Kosciuszko . Aaron Burkart was third out of just three starters.

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	4: 50: 34.7		10
2	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 51: 01.9	0: 27.2	8th
3	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Citroën Xsara WRC	4: 52: 24.1	1: 494	6th
4th	Dani Sordo	Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	4: 53: 01.0	2: 26.3	5
5	Matthew Wilson	Scott Martin	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 57: 15.7	6: 41.0	4th
6th	Conrad Rautenbach	Daniel Barritt	Citroën C4 WRC	5: 01: 46.6	11: 11.9	3
7th	Federico Villagra	Jorge Perez Companc	Ford Focus RS WRC	5: 03: 53.2	13: 18.5	2
8th	Khalid Al Qassimi	Michael Orr	Ford Focus RS WRC	5: 04: 18.8	13: 44.1	1
JWRC
1 (14)	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Citroën C2 S1600	5: 20: 54.0		10
2 (17)	Michal Kosciuszko	Maciek Szczepaniak	Suzuki Swift S1600	5: 22: 30.8	1: 36.8	8th
3 (21)	Aaron Burkart	Michael Koelbach	Suzuki Swift S1600	5: 40: 42.9	19: 48.9	6th
PWRC
1 (9)	Patrik Sandell	Emil Axelsson	Škoda Fabia S2000	5: 10: 11.3		10
2 (10)	Armindo Araujo	Ramalho Miguel	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	5: 10: 29.6	0: 18.3	8th
3 (11)	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Giovanni Bernacchini	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	5: 11: 10.1	0: 58.8	6th
4 (13)	Toshi Arai	Glenn MacNeal	Subaru Impreza	5: 18: 45.4	8: 34.1	5
5 (15)	Andis Neiksans	Peteris Djirkals	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	5: 21: 46.6	11: 35.3	4th
6 (16)	Charalambos Timotheou	Savvas Laos	Subaru Impreza	5: 22: 01.7	11: 50.4	3
7 (19)	Gaurav Singh Gill	David Sr.	Subaru Impreza	5: 31: 222	21: 109	2
8 (20)	Frederic Sauvan	Thibault Gorczyca	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	5: 39: 10.2	28: 58.9	1

Special stages

Day	WP number	WP name	length	WP winner	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 (March 13th)	WP1	Panagia 1	30.33 km	Sébastien Loeb	22: 01.3	82.68 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP2	Mylikouri 1	7.37 km	Sébastien Loeb	5: 33.9	79.53 km / h
	WP3	Gerakies 1	29.40 km	Sébastien Loeb	21: 09.2	83.36 km / h
	WP4	Panagia 2	30.33 km	Sébastien Loeb	22: 06.8	82.30 km / h
	WP5	Mylikouri 2	7.37 km	Sébastien Loeb	5: 34.9	79.25 km / h
	WP6	Gerakies 2	29.40 km	Daniel Sordo	21: 18.0	82.82 km / h
Day 2 (March 14th)	WP7	Anadiou Dam 1	11.70 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	11: 02.4	63.59 km / h
	WP8	Pano Panagia	28.17 km	Mikko Hirvonen	30: 29.8	55.42 km / h
	WP9	Orkontas	18.54 km	Sébastien Loeb	18: 36.5	59.77 km / h
	WP10	Xyliatos	30.94 km	Petter Solberg	28: 16.1	65.66 km / h
	WP11	Kourdali	26.25 km	Petter Solberg	26: 31.5	59.37 km / h
Day 3 (March 15th)	WP12	Foini	30.03 km	Mikko Hirvonen	26: 18.7	68.48 km / h
	WP13	Anadiou	40.54 km	Mikko Hirvonen	39: 27.2	61.66 km / h
	WP14	Anadiou Dam 2	11.70 km	Matthew Wilson	10: 14.8	68.49 km / h

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: "Super-Seb" Loeb's 50th WRC victory! , Retrieved December 27, 2014

Web links

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

• Official website