Day 3 – Loeb wins a 4th Argentine victory!

French driver Sébastien Loeb won his 4th consecutive Argentine rally today, finishing more than two minutes ahead of Subaru driver Chris Atkinson, achieving his best result in the WRC. The podium is completed by the second Citroën C4 driver: Dani Sordo, who makes his first podium appearance of the season.

The four-time world champion from France claimed the top position by default on the first day. Overtaken by the two Ford drivers, he took advantage of their mechanical issues to secure the first place with over a minute lead over his pursuers and never relinquished it.

Despite this victory, the difficulty of the rally, very muddy and wet, puzzled Loeb: “I had built up a lead, and thankfully we didn’t have to attack today because driving in these conditions was impossible, especially with the tires available to us. That’s why I was very cautious today.”

One of the few changes in the leaderboard on the last day concerns Peter Solberg. The Norwegian was in second place before retiring in SS19, the first stage of the day, due to an electrical problem. His retirement benefits another Subaru, that of his teammate Chris Atkinson. The Japanese team narrowly misses out on a very good performance. We haven’t seen two Subarus on a podium in 3 years…

« I am disappointed for the team, because we were very happy to have two cars in the top three », Atkinson also commented. « Being second is great, but there was a bittersweet feeling… »

The top 4 in the standings are the only ones not to have encountered a major problem in this rally. That’s why we find Conrad Rautenbach in 4th position. With his Citroën Xsara and aided by the Citroën C4 team, he achieves the best performance of his career, still 20 minutes behind Loeb.

« It’s fantastic! » said Rautenbach. « We knew that this was going to be a very rough rally, so we tried to do our best while gaining experience, and this strategy worked! »

Mikko Hirvonen, the lead Ford driver, still placed in the top 5 despite encountering a problem on the first day. He rejoined in Super Rally and brought back 4 points for Ford in the constructors’ championship.

Federico Villagra at home achieved a feat with his Ford equipped by the Munchi’s team. The Argentine takes a good 6th position by taking advantage of an error by Gigi Galli in the last super special of the rally to overtake him. The latter therefore finishes in 7th position after having held 4th position the day before.

The other drivers; Jari-Matti Latvala, Henning Solberg, and Malcolm Wilson for Ford as well as the two Suzukis, have retired and did not resume the rally today.

In the championship, Loeb and Citroën take advantage of Ford’s problems to return among the leaders. The Frenchman thus regains the first position from Mikko Hirvonen. The latter retains second place.

On the manufacturer side, Citroën returns to second position, closer than ever this season to Ford.

Rally of Argentina – Day 3