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August was an action packed month in the WRC, playing
host to two integral events on the annual calendar – Rally
Finland and Rally Deutschland. And just as the world was
hailing Jari-Matti Latvala, who became the youngest driver to win the Rally of Finland, Sebastien Loeb put in a trademark stunning performance to lift the winner’s trophy at Rally Deutschland – for a record 8th time no less. In doing so,
he recorded the 59th win of his career. The Citroen Total
World Rally Team driver finished 51.3 seconds ahead of his team-mate, Dani Sordo.
With this win, Loeb enjoys an overall lead of 58 points in the Driver’s Standing over his nearest rival, Sebastien Ogier. Loeb set the fastest time on two of Sunday’s five special stages, which brought his total number of stage wins in the rally to nine. Citroen rounded out the podium, with Sebastian Ogier claiming third. Trailing him was Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala, who did well despite a stall on Sunday’s opening stage. Former WRC champ, Petter Solberg, came home fifth, despite suffering with a slipping clutch on the penultimate stage of the rally.
Former Formula One Champion, Kimi Raikkonen, completed the rally in seventh position – his best result of the season, and just 3.8 seconds behind Britain’s Matthew Wilson who was sixth. A heroic drive from Ford’s Khalid Al Qassimi saw him recover from 61st position after sliding into a ditch on Friday’s opening leg, and finish eighth overall. American rally sensation, Ken Block, suffered a broken alternator belt on the road section heading into Sunday’s first stage, which resulted in an early retirement on the final day.
The venerable Rally Finland, meanwhile, continued its tradition of Scandinavian dominance – only this time it was Jari-Matti Latvala’s turn to claim victory. At the age of 25, he became the youngest ever driver to claim victory at Rally Finland. The Finnish driver has a total of four wins at the World Championship level – the Rally of Sweden in 2008 was his first win, which made him the youngest driver ever to win a WRC event.
Sebastien Ogier claimed second in Finland, followed by Sebastien Loeb in third place. The Frenchman struggled with handling problems after losing his cars’ front splitter. Privateer Petter Solberg was just behind, only 4.7 seconds adrift.
Rally Finland notwithstanding, Sebastien Loeb is placed to clinch his 7th WRC title as early as Rally Japan this month. He continues to lead the Driver’s Standing, with an overall tally of 191 points, followed by Ogier in second who has 133 points, while Latvala moves up to third place with a total of 117 points. Meanwhile, privateer Petter Solberg is in fourth position with 100 points.
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Naren wins Rally Coimbatore
Naren Kumar won the second round of the INRC, held at his home town in Coimbatore last month. He was followed by his teammate, Vikram Mathias, who came in second to complete a 1-2 finish for Red Rooster Racing. MRF’s Arjun Balu took the final step of the podium in 2000cc N+ category.
Naren led the rally from the first stage, and managed to gain a sizable lead on the rough terrain. MRF’s star, Guarav Gill, couldn’t match the speed of his rival in the Red Rooster Cedia. By the end of Stage 3, Gill was already 25 seconds down on Naren, and later retired as a broken ball joint put him out of contention.
By the end of Stage 6, Naren had increased his overall lead to 2 minutes over his nearest rival, Mathais, who was being trailed by Amittrajit Ghosh in third place. Red Rooster Racing had a 1-2-3 finish in the bag. But, as the saying goes, ‘it ain’t over till the fat lady sings.’ And she wasn’t in favour of Amittrajit Gosh, who suffered a technical glitch on a transport section, which forced him out of the rally. This promoted Arjun Balu of MRF to the third spot.
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