2009 Rally Australia

2009 Rally Australia 20th Repco Rally Australia
Round 10 of the 2009 World Rally Championship ← Previous event Next event →
Eventual winner Mikko Hirvonen during day one.
Host country	Australia
Rally base	Kingscliff
Dates run	3 – 6 September 2009
Stages	35
Stage surface	Gravel
Results
Overall winner	Mikko Hirvonen BP Ford WRT
Crews	40 at start, 25 at finish
Picture gallery on Wikimedia Commons

The 2009 Repco Rally Australia was the 20th Rally Australia and the tenth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season. The rally consisted of 35 special stages and was won on the road by Citroën's Sébastien Loeb. However, Loeb's win was short-lived as his Citroën along with those of his team-mate Dani Sordo, and Sébastien Ogier were given one-minute time penalties for irregularities with their cars' anti-rollbars. Ford's Mikko Hirvonen inherited the win, for his fourth win in succession.

Entries

The final entry list included 40 crews. 10 drivers contested in the World Rally Car class and 14 contested in the Production World Rally Championship class. This was the first time in the season that Petter Solberg and co-driver Phil Mills did not compete in their privately entered Citroën Xsara WRC since Rally Ireland.

Protests

The event was disrupted by environmental activists protesting against the running of the rally, claiming that the event threatened local wildlife. One week before the rally, protesters unsuccessfully filed an injunction against the event in an effort to stop it. During the rally itself, signs were placed around the route of the rally, telling the drivers and those involved in the rally to go home.^[1] The CTEK East stages, scheduled to be held on 4 September as the sixth and eleventh stages of the rally, were cancelled after rocks were thrown at the course car and the stage itself was blocked when protesters pulled a fence across the road.^[2] Early reports also emerged claiming that protesters had taken animals killed on local roads and placed them along the rally route to give the appearance that wildlife had been killed by rally cars, though these reports were later denied. Following the cancellation of the CTEK East stages, New South Wales police announced that they would prosecute those responsible as public nuisances.

Results

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Penalty	Difference	Points
WRC
1	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC 09	2:53:06.5		0.0	10
2	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	2:53:54.0	1:00	+47.5	8
3	Dani Sordo	Marc Martí	Citroën C4 WRC	2:54:11.1	1:00	+1:04.6	6
4	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC 09	2:54:58.5		+1:52.0	5
5	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Citroën C4 WRC	2:55:29.8	1:00	+2:23.3	4
6	Matthew Wilson	Scott Martin	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	2:58:32.8		+5:26.3	3
7	Henning Solberg	Cato Menkerud	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	3:00:24.3	0:20	+7:17.8	2
8	Federico Villagra	Jorge Pérez Companc	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	3:00:45.9		+7:39.4	1
PWRC and class N4
1	Hayden Paddon	John Kennard	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	3:08:42.6		0.0	-
2	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	3:08:51.2		+8.6	10
3	Richard Mason	Sara Mason	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:09:33.4		+50.8	8
4	Cody Crocker	Ben Atkinson	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:10:26.5		+1:43.9	6
5	Armindo Araújo	Miguel Ramalho	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	3:12:59.3		+4:16.7	5
6	Stewart Taylor	Warwick Searle	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	3:14:30.3		+5:47.7	4
7	John Gouasdoue	Scott Beckwith	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI	3:60:41.8	7:20	+21:59.2	-
8	Stephen Tonna	Lorell Tonna	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V	3:60:41.8	2:00	+21:59.2	-
9	Gianluca Linari	Massimo Salvucci	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:38:52.8		+30:01.6	3

Special stages

Day	Stage	Time (AEST)	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Rally leader
1 (3-4 Sep)	SS1	18:53	Tweed 1	2.55 km	Sébastien Ogier	1:49.0	Sébastien Ogier
	SS2	19:08	Tweed 2	2.55 km	Sébastien Ogier	1:46.1
	SS3	7:38	Kyogle 1	7.32 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	4:05.5
	SS4	8:36	Repco 1	22.41 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10:27.3	Jari-Matti Latvala
	SS5	9:24	Kyogle 2	7.32 km	Dani Sordo	3:59.1
	SS6	10:37	CTEK East 1	11.33 km	stage cancelled
	SS7	11:40	Mooball 1	5.85 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	4:41.7
	SS8	11:58	Kidney Health 1	5.74 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	4:29.4
	SS9	12:16	Castrol Edge 1	6.85 km	Sébastien Ogier	4:38.9
	SS10	14:03	Castrol Edge East 2	6.85 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	4:29.3
	SS11	15:03	CTEK East 2	11.33 km	stage cancelled
	SS12	16:06	Mooball 2	5.85 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	4:36.7
	SS13	16:24	Kidney Health 2	5.74 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	4:26.0
	SS14	18:30	Tweed 3	2.55 km	Sébastien Ogier	1:48.1
	SS15	18:45	Tweed 4	2.55 km	Sébastien Ogier	1:46.8
2 (5 Sep)	SS16	7:28	Dayco 1	20.31 km	Mikko Hirvonen	9:45.1
	SS17	8:13	Bosch 1	18.75 km	Sébastien Loeb	9:26.3
	SS18	9:04	Armor All 1	8.2 km	Sébastien Loeb	3:47.2
	SS19	10:42	Urliup	5.24 km	Mikko Hirvonen	4:25.7
	SS20	13:55	Armor All 2	8.2 km	Sébastien Loeb	3:42.8
	SS21	14:34	CTEK West 1	8.59 km	Sébastien Loeb	4:28.3	Sébastien Loeb
	SS22	15:27	Dayco 2	20.31 km	Sébastien Loeb	9:38.3
	SS23	16:12	Bosch 2	18.75 km	Dani Sordo	9:30.6	Mikko Hirvonen
	SS24	19:15	Tweed 5	2.55 km	Sébastien Ogier	1:47.4
	SS25	19:30	Tweed 6	2.55 km	Sébastien Ogier	1:46.2	Dani Sordo
3 (6 Sep)	SS26	7:14	Monroe 1	7.4 km	Sébastien Loeb	3:25.8	Sébastien Loeb
	SS27	7:36	Castrol Edge West 1	21.52 km	Dani Sordo	10:01.9
	SS28	8:37	Gondwana 1	10.88 km	Mikko Hirvonen	6:19.0
	SS29	8:56	Upper Clarence 1	6.94 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	3:14.6
	SS30	9:40	CTEK West 2	8.59 km	Sébastien Loeb	4:27.5
	SS31	11:03	Monroe 2	7.4 km	Sébastien Loeb	3:21.1
	SS32	11:25	Castrol Edge West 2	21.52 km	Dani Sordo	9:46.9
	SS33	12:26	Gondwana 2	10.88 km	Sébastien Loeb	6:09.1
	SS34	12:45	Upper Clarence 2	6.94 km	Jari-Matti Latvala Sébastien Ogier	3:12.2
	SS35	13:27	Repco 2	22.41 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10:14.4

Championship standings after the event

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver IRL NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRC POL FIN AUS ESP GBR  Pts  1 Mikko Hirvonen 3 2 2 2 Ret 2 1 1 1 1 78 2 Sébastien Loeb 1 1 1 1 1 4 Ret 7 2 2 73 3 Dani Sordo 2 5 4 3 2 23 12 2 4 3 50 4 Jari-Matti Latvala 14 3 12 Ret 6 1 3 Ret 3 4 36 5 Henning Solberg 4 4 18 5 3 8 15 3 30 7 29 6 Petter Solberg 6 3 4 Ret 3 Ret 4 Ret 25 7 Matthew Wilson 7 7 5 Ret 5 6 14 5 8 6 23 8 Sébastien Ogier 6 10 Ret 17 7 Ret 2 Ret 6 5 20 9 Federico Villagra 7 7 4 Ret 4 11 8 15 10 Conrad Rautenbach 18 Ret 6 Ret Ret 9 5 8 Ret Ret 8 11 Mads Østberg 9 6 7 7 Ret Ret 7 12 Khalid al-Qassimi 8 8 8 16 6 9 19 6 13 Evgeny Novikov 12 Ret Ret 5 16 9 Ret 4 14 Chris Atkinson 5 4 15 Matti Rantanen 5 4 16 Krzysztof Hołowczyc 6 3 17 Jari Ketomaa 7 2 18 Nasser Al-Attiyah 11 16 8 10 EX 1 19 Urmo Aava 10 8 29 1 20 Lambros Athanassoulas 8 1 Pos Driver IRL NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRC POL FIN AUS ESP GBR Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Withdrew entry before the event (WD)

Manufacturers' championship

Pos	Team	Event												Total points
		IRL	NOR	CYP	POR	ARG	ITA	GRC	POL	FIN	AUS	ESP	GBR
1	Citroën Total World Rally Team	18	14	16	16	18	8	4	12	13	14			133
2	BP Ford World Rally Team	8	14	10	8	3	18	18	10	16	15			120
3	Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team	8	8	6	5	10	7	5	11	4	5			69
4	Citroën Junior Team	5	2	4	0	2	5	6	5	4	4			37
5	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team	0	0	3	4	5	0	6	0	2	1			21

References

1. Evans, David (September 4, 2009). "Loeb defends rally amid protests". Autosport.
2. Evans, David (September 4, 2009). "Police warn of action on protests". Autosport.

External links

• Official website
• Event at WRC.com