Thread: Rally Argentina 2008 (WRC)

One of the Championship's most spectacular and demanding events, Rally Argentina is the second WRC fixture in the Americas this month and is based in the town of Villa Carlos Paz, 35km south of Cordoba and right in the heart of the stunning Cordobese Sierras. In general the stages of Rally Argentina are soft and sandy, with many river crossings, and frequently become rutted during the second pass.

Hirvonen will open up the stages again for everyone else on the first day, but in Argentina it's not going to be that hard than it was in Mexico. I'd bet my money on Latvala and Loeb on this rally. Seb again "downplayed" Hirvonen by saying that Latvala is as good as Gr?nholm was, and Hirvonen is slower than him, mental games, mental games....Loeb's Citroen will be painted in their new main sponsor Red Bull colours. Will it give Citroen the wings for win?

Top 3 at Shakedown were Solberg, Loeb and Hirvonen. Stages at Argentina are very muddy since it has rained alot, and the rain will go on for whole weekend.

SS1: Hirvonen benefits from the weather and is the fastest with 48sec gap.
SS2: Latvala rolls out and is now 9 minutes behind the lead.

Two stages down...New Red Bull sponsored C4 looks cool and football legend Diego Maradona had the change to get into Loeb's co-driver seat at shakedown.

Originally Posted by Harakimi

Two stages down...New Red Bull sponsoder C4 looks cool and football legend Diego Maradona had the change to get into Loeb's co-driver seat at shakedown.

I thought it was only in touring cars they added weight penalties when you're too good.

SS5: Hirvonen is out, Loeb takes the lead with almost 1min gap to Atkinson, Solberg is 3rd.
SS6: Nothing new, Latvala fastest here but still 9.30 minutes behind the lead.
SS7: Fight for 3rd position is very hard.
SS8: Latvala is fastest again but Loeb (citroen) leads now with 1min32sec to Atkinson and looks content to win. 2nd and 3rd position is still open between Atkinson (subaru), P. Solberg (subaru) and Galli (ford). Even Daniel Sordo in his Citroen is pretty close.

Standings after day 1

Code:

 1. Sebastien Loeb    Citroen 1.54.28,0  
 2. Chris Atkinson    Subaru    +1.30,6  
 3. Petter Solberg    Subaru    +1.38,9  
 4. Gigi Galli        Ford      +1.47,7  
 5. Daniel Sordo      Citroen   +2.06,9  
 6. Federico Villagra Ford      +4.48,3  
 7. Matthew Wilson    Ford      +6.18,3  
 8. J-M. Latvala      Ford      +9.27,5

SS10: Solberg takes 2nd place from Atkinson, Hirvonen continues the rally under Super Rally rules and takes the 25 minute penalty.
SS11: Latvala in technical problems and misses the stage start by 15 minutes.
SS13: Galli's Ford is on fire after stage finish, damages unknown. Latvala is still waiting decision from race officials if he is going to get DQ or not.
SS14: Ford pulls Latvala out for the day but he continues again on sunday with another +25min penalty.
SS17: Loeb in content lead, Hirvonen is 6th.

Standings after day 2:

Code:

 1. Sebastien Loeb    Citroen  3.28.16,5  
 2. Petter Solberg    Subaru     +1.19,6  
 3. Chris Atkinson    Subaru     +2.08,5  
 4. Daniel Sordo      Citroen    +3.32,3  
 5. Conrad Rautenbach Citroen   +18.00,1  
 6. Mikko Hirvonen    Ford      +24.44,5  
 7. Andreas Aigner    Mitsub.   +25.27,2  
 8. Federico Villagra Ford      +25.53,4