With accusation and counter-accusation from Citroën and Ford over ‘tactics’ in the Jordan Rally, we look at who gained and lost out, and the lie of the land for Turkey this weekend.
Sébastien Loeb (FRA) – Citroën
Position in WRC drivers’ standings: 1 (68pts)
In what could yet be the hardest-fought title race for years, it’s nevertheless advantage Loeb, despite the fact that the man from Alsace’s 56th WRC win was clouded by a row over early and late entries and exits from service to try to influence road position on Jordan’s unswept gravel. Quite apart from this, Loeb’s 25-point lead was greatly helped by Mikko Hirvonen’s crash on day two that broke the Finn’s suspension and ruined his rally. What price a repeat of the Jordan approach, though – ‘road sweeping’ from the lead cost Seb the win here to Ford’s Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala the last time we were in Turkey two years ago…
Kimi Räikkönen (FIN) – Citroën
Position in WRC drivers’ standings: 11 (4pts)
He claimed the Jordan Rally was his hardest so far, and his relative inexperience on the rough stuff meant he actually doubled the mileage he’d covered on gravel just in that one event, but Kimi has points on the board after finishing eighth in Jordan. Räikkönen admitted the benefit from the result was as much growing his confidence as sealing a rally finish and world championship points. The experience of Kaj Lindström is also no doubt a great help, Kaj having come eighth in the first Rally of Turkey in 2003 as co-driver to Tommi Mäkinen – a good omen perhaps.
Sébastien Ogier (FRA) – Citroën
Position in WRC drivers’ standings: 5 (33pts)
Whatever the machinations in team meetings, the supposed attempts to influence road position hurt Ogier’s Jordan Rally badly. The Frenchman was having another terrific rally until instructions to drop just behind Latvala arrived too late to avoid a miscalculation that gave him an unwanted ‘advantage’ in second place at the end of Friday. In the event, subsequent deliberate penalties incurred saw Ogier sweeping the road for Loeb and co, ending his chances of a top-five finish as he finished down in sixth. What a pity – Turkey might throw up a similar situation, but hopefully any tactical shake-up this time will give Ogier the break he deserves for his team-player efforts.
Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN) – Ford
Position in WRC drivers’ standings: 2 (43pts)
Whether or not you agree with Citroën and Ford’s chess games, the Jordan Rally should be considered a deserved success for Jari-Matti, whose eventual second place behind Loeb in the Middle East has gained him that same position in the drivers’ standings, albeit effectively a whole rally win behind Loeb. His Turkey record is good, too – one rally (2008), one second place. And in case there was any doubt about Jari-Matti’s class on gravel in the light of events in Jordan, he achieved two convincing stage wins in that last Rally of Turkey – one by a massive 15 seconds – and his second place was secured despite two punctures during the event…
Petter Solberg (NOR) – Citroën
Position in WRC drivers’ standings: 4 (35pts)
The rejuvenated Petter continued his good form in the Middle East with another podium, and the Norwegian is clearly loving it. The C4 was understeering at times in Jordan, but Solberg now claims after a successful 117km test in Turkey ahead of this weekend’s event that he is ‘100 per cent happy’ with his Citroën’s set-up and that a ‘big attack’ is planned. Two previous podium finishes in Turkey, in 2004 and ’05, are also reasons for Petter to be cheerful.
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