From the World Rally Championship
Ford Focus RS WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen got his quest for the 2010 World Rally Championship drivers' title off to the best possible start today by winning the opening round of the series, Rally Sweden. Hirvonen, team-leader of the BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team, took the lead on Friday and successfully fought off a two-day attack from defending champion Sebastien Loeb, who finished second, 42.3sec behind in a Citroen C4 WRC. Today's win was the 12th at World Championship level for the Finn, who lost the 2009 title fight by a single point to Loeb. Under the new WRC points system, Hirvonen opened his 2010 account with a maximum score of 25. After a careful approach through the final snow-covered stage, Hirvonen and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen leapt onto the roof of their car at he finish control to celebrate their win. Having lost out to Hirvonen in a tyre gamble on Saturday afternoon, Loeb began Sunday's competition trailing by 16.1sec. But after failing to make a big impression on Sunday’s opening two stages, the Frenchman took the uncharacteristic decision to give up on the victory challenge after SS18, settling for second, and 18 championship points instead. Third in Sweden, 33.1sec behind Loeb, was Hirvonen's team-mate, Jari-Matti Latvala, who started his season with a 15 points haul - helping to put Ford in the lead of the manufacturers' contest. Fourth went to Loeb's team-mate Dani Sordo. The Spaniard finished 1min 26.2sec behind Latvala, largely because of a silly mistake on Saturday when a blanking plate wasn't removed from the front of his car, causing its engine to overheat. But after an otherwise strong performance, Sordo put a brave face on the result. Petter Solberg's first event in his 2009 specification Citroen C4 WRC turned out to be a disappointing one, with the former champion ending the rally ninth after failing to gel with his car. Swedish driver P-G Andersson brought his Super 2000 specification Skoda Fabia to tenth place, to take the class win and collect the final point in the WRC drivers' championship. Rally Sweden classification : 1. Hirvonen (Ford) in 3h09m30.4 2. Loeb (Citroen) + 42’’3 3. Latvala (Ford) + 1’15’’3 4. Sordo (Citroen) + 2’41’’6 5. Ogier (Citroen) + 4’15’’3 6. H. Solberg (Ford) + 5’23’’4 7. Wilson (Ford) + 7’53’’9 8. Ostberg (Subaru) + 9’22’’2 9. P.Solberg (Citroen) + 10’17’’5 10. Andersson (Skoda) + 12’08’’9 Etc.
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