Frenchman Sebastien Loeb won his fourth Rally Sardinia this weekend after he completely dominated the event from the start. By the start of yesterday’s stages, Loeb’s Citroën DS3 WRC was almost half a minute ahead of championship rival Mikko Hirvonen’s Fiesta RS WRC, and that pace proved enough till the end.
Loeb has performed right from the start of the season, which put him on 100 points but, with good finishes for the first five events of the year, Hirvonen is just seven points adrift.
“It’s a great victory as we won without any particular strategy. We started with the big disadvantage of being first out on the road on the opening day. We managed to take the lead and build up a small cushion, which we maintained yesterday and today. To do so, we had to go pedal to the metal from start to finish. I felt good in the car, and this helped me push really hard. Obviously, it was very fraught at certain moments so it’s a big relief to see the end of the rally,” Loeb said yesterday.
Even after a mishap that saw Hirvonen lose 50 seconds early on, the Finn did well to chase Loeb down and even gained bonus points by winning the power stage for the Ford team – now sitting just 17 points adrift of Citroën’s 167-point first-place position in the championship standings.
"Second was a strong finish and I'm delighted with the bonus points. I had a good rhythm throughout the stage. I was happy with my speed over the weekend and I feel increasingly confident with the Fiesta RS WRC with every event,” Hirvonen said.
Norwegian privateer Petter Solberg took his best finish of the season by scooping third after losing time with minor issues but fought valiantly to catch Loeb’s teammate Sebastien Ogier, who seemed set for a podium. Unfortunately, the Frenchman clipped a rock with his left rear wheel coming out of a corner and broke the Citroën DS3’s suspension.
Ogier went on to recover to take fourth, while Stobart M-Sport’s Mads Ostber took a comfortable fifth. Spaniard Dani Sordo did well in the new Mini Countryman to finish sixth and take home points – if only for himself because the team, under management by Prodrive, isn’t competing the entire season.
The WRC circus now heads southwest and over the Atlantic to South America, where Rally Argentina takes place from 26 to 29 May.