2007 Tour de Corse - Final - Motorsport Discussion

15 October, 200718 yr

Final Leaderboard:

1. S Loeb/D Elena F Citroen C4

3hr 28min 31.5sec

2. M Grönholm/T Rautiainen FIN Ford Focus RS 3hr 28min

55.2sec

3. D Sordo/M Marti E Citroen C4

3hr 29min 15.8sec

4. J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 3hr

31min 02.0sec

5. P Solberg/P Mills N Subaru Impreza 3hr

31min 13.6sec

6. C Atkinson/S Prévot AUS Subaru Impreza 3hr 32min

25.3sec

7. J Kopecky/F Schovanek CZ Skoda Fabia

3hr 36min 34.4sec

8. X Pons/X Amigo E Subaru Impreza 3hr

38min 05.7sec

9. H Solberg/C Menkerud N Ford Focus RS 3hr

38min 43.7sec

10 D Sola/C Del Barrio E Peugeot 207 3hr

46min 29.1sec

1. BP-Ford

2. Citroen Total

3. Subaru

4. OMV Kronos Citroen

5. Stobart M-Sport Ford

6. Munchis Ford

1. BP-Ford

Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen finished second on Rallye de France in Corsica today to ensure BP-Ford World Rally Team preserved its lead of both the manufacturers' and drivers' standings in the FIA World Rally Championship. It was the 11th podium from 13 rounds for the Finns in a Ford Focus RS World Rally Car. Team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen staged a superb fightback after a first day crash to claim the final manufacturers' point in another Focus RS.

Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen: "I only conceded two points to Loeb on what is one of his strongest events of the season and I still lead the championship after two consecutive weekends on asphalt, which is my least favourite surface. I really had to drive quite hard today because Dani Sordo was pushing behind us and I couldn't afford to let him get near. On the first day I was really close to Seb but I couldn't match him on Saturday, although I feel my asphalt driving is more consistent than last year."

Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen: "It was an up-and-down weekend but in the end it all feels OK. I didn't think I would be able to carry on after the accident but we scored this point because of unbelievable work by our mechanics. I'm disappointed not to finish higher but relieved to score a point for the team. It was good for our confidence to continue and even on the last stage I made two corrections to my pace notes so they should be good for next year."

2. Citroen Total

The disappointment felt in the Citroën camp after the French national rugby squad's defeat yesterday evening was amply surpassed today by the resounding victory of the Citroën C4 WRC, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena on the 2007 Tour de Corse. Their success on home soil was compounded by third place for their Spanish team-mates Dani Sordo and Marc Martí.

Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena: "Our role was to keep an eye on the times of our rival and adjust our pace accordingly. Even so, I tried to drive quickly in order to keep up my concentration. It's not the sort of situation I enjoy but it means you are leading, so I am always happy to live with it."

Dani Sordo/Marc Marti: "I didn't feel

comfortable with my car yesterday and I fell too far back to stand any real chance of ensuring another one-two finish for Citroën after our result in Spain last weekend. I still had tremendous fun, even though this was only my second visit to Corsica in a WRC car."

3. Subaru

The third and final leg brought mixed fortunes for the Subaru World Rally Team, but the team ended with two cars in the top six. After a close battle with Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala, Petter finished fifth, while Chris and Xevi finished sixth and eighth respectively.

Petter Solberg/Phil Mills: "I thought the car felt better today and easier to drive which is a good step forward for us. The speed is still not quite there and we are struggling on the very flat surfaces. Unfortunately for us the stages today were mostly flat so weren't able to catch Jari-Matti Latvala, although it was a good battle to the final stage. Overall this weekend has been good for the team and I am feeling more confident with the car which is important going into Japan next."

Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot: "This weekend was not quite what we had expected and the result is not as good as we wanted, but we have collected some good points again and as a team have learnt a lot ahead of Japan. We saw yesterday that the car is capable of good pace with third fastest on SS9, but there is still speed to come. A big area for us to work on is my confidence in the car on the smooth asphalt. The surface here over the three legs has been so varied, between bumpy and smooth, that it has been hard to develop a good rhythm."

Xavier Pons/Xavier Amigo: "Looking at today it was not good for us, but for this weekend as a whole I am happy. The car has had no problems, which is important, and we have been able to concentrate on developing my style rather than making changes to the car which has helped me a great deal. Leg one was hard for us, and yesterday was good. This morning was tough again, but this afternoon was much better. Xavier and I are developing our style with the car, and a championship point for us is very positive."

4. OMV Kronos Citroen

The OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team will put the "Rallye de France - Tour de Corse" behind them as fast as possible. Both Francois Duval and Manfred Stohl never stood a chance due to technical defects. While the faulty generator forced the Belgian OMV driver to retire the 35-year-old Austrian had to wrestle with a fuel pump problem. He finished the 13th run to the FIA World Rally Championship in 14th overall place. Thus the OMV driver missed one WRC-point for the manufacture ranking by only 14,8 seconds.

Francois Duval/Patrick Pivato: "The generator already broke down on the eleventh special stage. We could only go on in safety mode from then on. I had hoped we would make it to the service but six kilometres short of Ajaccio everything broke down. A repair would have taken too long and wouldn't have made sense since we didn't stand a chance for WRC-points anymore."

Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor: "That's no fun anymore. The whole team tries desperately but there is no progress. All that remains now is hope. Perhaps Japan will bring on the turnaround. Such a series just has to end sometime.

We're sporadically achieving very good times. If we manage to keep that going for a whole rally we'll be up top again."

5. Stobart M-Sport Ford

The Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team have again excelled at this weekend's Rallye de France - Tour de Corse, round 13 of the FIA World Rally Championship. Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila have been the stars of the show, finishing with a tarmac-best fourth place overall helping their Stobart team stay in contention for third place in the Manufacturers'

Championship.

Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud: "The most important thing for me on this event was to finish and get the experience of both the stages and the asphalt surface. This was a new rally for me and I needed to finish; this is exactly what I have done. I have learnt so much in the last two weekends about driving on asphalt, my driving style and how my car should feel on these stages. Realistically this is the best job I could have done as I have completed all the stages and without any problems with the car. Both myself and Jari-Matti have scored more points here for the Stobart team and this is also important for me; being consistent and scoring points."

Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila: "This has been a fantastic day for me and a very important mark in my career. This is my best performance and best result on asphalt so far but the most important thing is my improvement on asphalt driving. I have been concentrating very hard on driving better, more controlled and less aggressive, and it really has been working. We came here with a lot of confidence from Spain which helped with our car set-up to start the rally. In Spain I was over three minutes behind the winner and now I am just over two behind, so the improvement is easy to see. I didn't concentrate on beating Petter today, I wasn't getting any of his split times, but just wanted to drive well and give my best performance. This has worked and I'm so pleased with this rally."

Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr: "This has been another good event for me from an experience point of view. We have learnt quite a bit regarding suspension settings for these stages and I have been trying to improve my driving style over the last two asphalt rallies. I made a mistake here last year and didn't get the experience of all the stages and I was determined not to do the same thing again. It was disappointing to not finish, especially after having got up inside the top-ten but it's been great to cover all the stages competitively; it has been a massive help to me and I feel much more confident with the car now on asphalt."

6. Munchis Ford

Munchis Ford are not entered in Corsica.

7. Skoda Czech Rally Team

No information available at time of going to press. Please check site later.

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Next Event

After two consecutive asphalt rounds the series returns to gravel in Japan for the third rally in four weeks. Rally Japan (25 - 28 October) is based in Obihiro on the northernmost island of Hokkaido.