2009 Rally d'Italia Sardegna

2009 Rally d'Italia Sardegna 6º Rally d'Italia Sardegna
Round 6 of the 2009 World Rally Championship ← Previous event Next event →
Host country	Italy
Dates run	May 22 – 24, 2009
Stages	17
Stage surface	Gravel with some Tarmac
Results
Overall winner	Jari-Matti Latvala BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT
Crews	59 at start, 39 at finish

The 2009 Rally d'Italia Sardegna was the sixth running of the Rally d'Italia Sardegna and the sixth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season. The rally consisted of 17 special stages.

This year's Rally d'Italia Sardegna has new reforms of this rally, with new stages at the first day & the last day, mostly these new stages are gravel with some section of tarmac that make it difficult for drivers especially the grip of the tyres.

Finns Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen took a double win for the Ford factory team.^[1] Latvala's win was his career second, after becoming the youngest-ever driver to win a world rally at the 2008 Swedish Rally. Norwegian privateer Petter Solberg took the final podium spot.

Summary

Several front-runners ran into problems on stage eleven. Citroën's defending world champion Sébastien Loeb lost over a minute and dropped from third to fourth due to a puncture. His fifth-placed teammate Dani Sordo lost even more time and positions with a turbo problem. Eighth-placed Stobart driver Henning Solberg's day ended after he went off the road and broke his Ford Focus WRC's right-hand front suspension, and Citroën Junior Team's Conrad Rautenbach retired after the stage from tenth place with a damper failure. The rally leader Jari-Matti Latvala of Ford also spun during the stage, but escaped without damage.^[2]

Latvala led the event from start to finish, taking Ford's first win since the one-two at the 2008 Rally Japan. His teammate Mikko Hirvonen was less than ten seconds behind after two days and supposed to benefit from running behind Latvala on the road, but dust clouds and the resulting hampered visibility suddenly forced him to settle for second. Ford boss Malcolm Wilson decided against applying team orders. Loeb, whose record-equaling six win streak came to an end, took the third place back by passing Petter Solberg, but was later given a two-minute penalty for a safety rule violation; co-driver Daniel Elena unfastened his safety belts before the crew stopped the car for a tire change (after the puncture on SS11). Loeb escaped a disqualification as the stewards considered the infringement less severe because it had happened while they were not driving at a competitive pace.^[3]

Citroën Junior Team's 18-year-old Evgeny Novikov finished fifth, taking his career first points-finish. Stobart's Matthew Wilson took sixth place despite hydraulic problems that slowed him down on day one. After Khalid al-Qassimi had run into several problems while heading for career-best seventh place, the battle for the position was between two Norwegians who had had troublesome rallies, both losing about ten minutes and re-joining the event under SupeRally rules. Henning Solberg chased down Mads Østberg throughout the last day but only got within 0.6 seconds. Nasser Al-Attiyah edged out Patrik Sandell on the last stage to take the honours in the Production World Rally Championship, while the win in the Junior World Rally Championship went to Martin Prokop.^[4]

Results

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Difference	Points
WRC
1	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC 09	4:00:55.7	0.0	10
2	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC 09	4:01:25.1	29.4	8
3	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Citroën Xsara WRC	4:02:53.3	1:57.6	6
4	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	4:04:39.4	3:43.7	5
5	Evgeny Novikov	Dale Moscatt	Citroën C4 WRC	4:06:07.5	5:11.8	4
6	Matthew Wilson	Scott Martin	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	4:08:25.0	7:29.3	3
7	Mads Östberg	Veronica Engan	Subaru Impreza WRC	4:14:16.3	13:20.6	2
8	Henning Solberg	Cato Menkerud	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	4:14:16.9	13:21.2	1
JWRC
1	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Citroën C2 S1600	4:23:40.6	0.0	10
2	Michal Kosciuszko	Maciek Szczepaniak	Suzuki Swift S1600	4:23:53.8	13.2	8
3	Aaron Nikolai Burkart	Michael Kölbach	Suzuki Swift S1600	4:31:55.4	8:14.8	6
4	Yoann Bonato	Benjamin Boulloud	Suzuki Swift S1600	4:34:45.2	11:04.5	5
5	Alessandro Bettega	Simone Scattolin	Renault Clio R3	4:35:40.2	11:59.5	4
6	Hans Weijs	Bjorn Degandt	Citroën C2 S1600	4:37:14.2	13:33.5	3
7	Simone Bertolotti	Luca Celestini	Suzuki Swift S1600	5:13:03.0	49:22.4	2
PWRC
1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Giovanni Bernacchini	Subaru Impreza N14	4:20:39.4	0.0	10
2	Patrik Sandell	Emil Axelsson	Škoda Fabia S2000	4:20:40.9	1.5	8
3	Armindo Araujo	Ramalho Miguel	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4:24:23.5	3:44.1	6
4	Patrick Flodin	Göran Bergsten	Subaru Impreza	4:27:14.9	6:35.5	5
5	Eyvind Brynildsen	Denis Giraudet	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4:34:37.9	13:58.5	4
6	Frederic Sauvan	Sebastien Capanna	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4:47:14.5	26:35.1	3
7	Gianluca Linari	Paolo Gregoriani	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4:48:10.7	27:31.3	2
8	Gabor Mayer	Robert Tagai	Subaru Impreza	4:48:11.3	27:31.9	1

Special stages

Day	Stage	Time (CEST)	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Rally leader
1 (22 May)	SS1	9:32	Sa Conchedda 1	14.99 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	10:33.3	Jari-Matti Latvala
	SS2	10:08	Loelle 1	22.3 km	Dani Sordo	13:41.6
	SS3	10:43	Crastazza 1	27.81 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	18:24.8
	SS4	14:57	Sa Conchedda 2	14.99 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	10:16.3
	SS5	15:33	Loelle 2	22.3 km	Sébastien Loeb	13:19.8
	SS6	16:08	Crastazza 2	27.81 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	17:57.0
2 (23 May)	SS7	8:45	Sa Linea 1	14.2 km	Mikko Hirvonen	9:10.5
	SS8	9:31	Fiorentini 1	22.02 km	Sébastien Loeb	18:06.4
	SS9	10:32	Monte Lerno 1	29.15 km	Sébastien Loeb	19:36.7
	SS10	15:05	Sa Linea 2	14.2 km	Mikko Hirvonen	9:05.4
	SS11	15:51	Fiorentini 2	22.02 km	Petter Solberg	17:53.3
	SS12	16:52	Monte Lerno 2	29.15 km	Sébastien Loeb	18:58.6
3 (24 May)	SS13	7:08	Monte Olia 1	19.31 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	14:24.3
	SS14	7:42	Sorillis 1	18.66 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	14:21.1
	SS15	10:19	Arzachena	10.24 km	Henning Solberg	5:46.7
	SS16	11:46	Monte Olia 2	19.31 km	Henning Solberg	14:02.6
	SS17	12:20	Sorillis 2	18.66 km	Sébastien Loeb	13:48.3

Championship standings after the event

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver IRL NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRC POL FIN AUS ESP GBR  Pts  1 Sébastien Loeb 1 1 1 1 1 4 55 2 Mikko Hirvonen 3 2 2 2 Ret 2 38 3 Dani Sordo 2 5 4 3 2 23 31 4 Henning Solberg 4 4 18 5 3 8 21 5 Petter Solberg 6 3 4 Ret 3 20 6 Jari-Matti Latvala 14 3 12 Ret 6 1 19 7 Matthew Wilson 7 7 5 Ret 5 6 15 8 Federico Villagra 7 7 4 Ret 9 9 Mads Østberg 9 6 7 5 Sébastien Ogier 6 10 Ret 17 7 Ret 5 11 Evgeny Novikov 12 Ret Ret 5 4 Chris Atkinson 5 4 13 Conrad Rautenbach 18 Ret 6 Ret Ret 9 3 Khalid al-Qassimi 8 8 8 16 3 15 Nasser Al-Attiyah 11 16 8 10 1 Urmo Aava 10 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	Driver	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	-	-	-	-	-	-	90
2	BP Ford World Rally Team	8	14	10	8	3	18	-	-	-	-	-	-	61
3	Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team	8	8	6	5	10	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	44
4	Citroën Junior Team	5	2	4	0	2	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	19
5	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team	0	0	3	4	5	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	12

References

1. "Latvala wins Rally of Sardinia in Ford 1-2". USA Today. 2009-05-24. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
2. "SS11: Carnage!". WRC.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
3. Beer, Matt. "Penalty drops Loeb to fourth". Autosport. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
4. Beer, Matt. "Latvala ends Loeb's winning streak". Autosport. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 24 May 2009.

External links

• Official site