Wales Rally GB Day Three

Wales Rally GB Day Three

FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
WALES RALLY GB
(13 – 16 SEPTEMBER 2012)

16.09.2012

Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila claimed an emphatic win on Wales Rally GB today, the 10th round of the FIA World Rally Championship. The Finns led the event from stage three to take victory by 27.8 seconds. The battle for second position brought the event to a nail-biting climax in the final stage with Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena taking the position by a mere nine-tenths of a second over Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson.
 
In the FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers, Loeb continues to lead with team-mate Mikko Hirvonen second, one of the two drivers now guaranteed the Championship title. Norway’s Petter Solberg and Mads Østberg hold third and fourth respectively. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, Citroën continues to head Ford.
 
The final day of competition was the shortest of the weekend and covered two identical loops of three stages, concluding with the 15.33 kilometre Power Stage at Walters Arena where additional Championships points were available for the fastest three drivers. Here, Hirvonen, Loeb and Latvala added to their points tally.
 
All three front-runners ran without problems today with Latvala virtually guaranteed his second consecutive Rally GB victory after a faultless drive from the outset. It was however Loeb and Solberg who provided the thrilling battle to the finish, the duo split by one-tenth of a second as they went into the final stage. Loeb ultimately took the position after a great fight between the rivals all weekend. Despite engine problems this morning, Østberg made it to the finish in fourth with Hirvonen in fifth position. The leading retirement of the day was Ott Tanak who ripped a wheel off the car, and Chris Atkinson dropped out of the top 10 with suspension damage.
 
The 11th round of the FIA World Rally Championship returns to asphalt and takes the crews to the Alsace region for Rallye de France (4-7 October).

Wales Rally GB – Provisional Final Results (subject to final scrutineering)

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 10 of 13 rounds)

FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 10 of 13 rounds)