2008 Wales Rally GB

The 2008 Rally GB was the fifteenth and final round of the 2008 World Rally Championship season and was held between December 5–7, 2008. The event was again held in Wales, with Cardiff being the host of the ceremonial start and finish, and Swansea providing the service park. The special stages took place on gravel roads on private land, owned either by the Forestry Commission (for the special stages run on Friday and Sunday, and the Resolfen stage on Saturday) or the Army (for the remaining Saturday stages). The event saw a return to the mid Wales stages of Hafren, Sweet Lamb, and Myherin for the first time since 2000. The rally was won by Sébastien Loeb in a Citroën C4 WRC. This was his eleventh win of the season - breaking his own previous record set in 2005. Second place went to Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala who was just 12.7 seconds behind. The final podium position was filled by Loebs teammate Dani Sordo. With this result Citroën clinched the manufacturers championship. This was the final appearance of the Subaru and Suzuki in the World Rally Championship.

2008 Rally GB 64th Wales Rally GB
Round 15 of the 2008 World Rally Championship ← Previous event
Petter Solberg sliding on the Shakedown stage of Rally GB
Rally base	Cardiff
Dates run	December 5 – 7, 2008
Stages	19 (348.99 km; 216.85 miles)
Stage surface	Gravel/Ice/Snow
Overall distance	1,428.44 km (887.59 miles)
Statistics
Crews	84 at start, 47 at finish
Overall results
Overall winner	Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team Citroën C4 WRC

Entry

Valentino Rossi during practice for the 2008 Wales Rally GB

The event was supported by the usual works entries from Citroën, Ford, Subaru, Stobart Ford, and Suzuki, plus regular privateers Conrad Rautenbach in his Citroën C4 WRC and Mads Ostberg in a Subaru Impreza WRC. A notable omission was Urmo Aava who was scheduled to enter the event with his semi-works effort Citroën C4, but had to pull out only days before the event due to the ongoing economic problems. In another Citroën C4 was Frenchman Sébastien Ogier who was handed the drive as a reward for winning the JWRC category of the 2008 championship. The most newsworthy entry of all was that of 2008 Moto GP champion Valentino Rossi who was competing in a Ford Focus WRC complete with a Children in Need livery. Rossi was aiming to beat his previous two efforts in a WRC event, an early retirement at 2002 Rally GB and an eleventh-place finish at the 2006 Rally New Zealand.

Summary

Day one

The surprise package of day one - Sébastien Ogier

The rally began in tricky conditions with ice and heavy rain making the roads very slippery and fog hampering the competitors' visibility. For safety reasons, the first and fourth stages held in Hafren (which had already been shortened from 19 km to 3 km) were cancelled. Stages 2 and 4 (Sweet Lamb) were slightly shortened (moving the start around 1 km into the stage due to ice) and the third and sixth stages at Myherin were dramatically shortened, using the middle 18 km of the original 35 km. The FIA regulations came in for criticism from several of the teams and champion elect Sébastien Loeb for the lack of flexibility in the tyre rules which state that only one type of tyre is allowed on the event with no modifications allowed to that tyre. Loeb also spoke out against the lack of gravel crews, which run through the stage before the start and report any bad conditions to the drivers. The year's junior world champion Sébastien Ogier surprised by winning his first stage in a World Rally Car, albeit he was among the competitors to benefit from a late starting position. On the same stage, Production World Rally Championship leader Juho Hänninen retired after his drive shaft broke, leaving Andreas Aigner to take the title if he finishes the event in the top three. On the fifth stage, last year's winner Mikko Hirvonen rolled his Ford Focus WRC and lost several minutes. The next top entrant to roll was Subaru's Chris Atkinson, who was placed sixth before retiring after a bad accident on the first corner of stage seven, the first super special stage. After day one, Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala led from Citroën's Sébastien Loeb, Suzuki's Per-Gunnar Andersson and Subaru privateer Mads Østberg.

Day two

Mikko Hirvonen battled back towards the points positions throughout day two

Day two began with a long stage in Resolfen. Two of the rally's surprises ran into problems; Østberg's Impreza WRC suffered an engine problem and Ogier rolled his C4 WRC very close to the stage finish. The crews reported more icy conditions in the stages, with Latvala feeling particularly ill at ease as he was the first car on the road and therefore the first to encounter the treacherous patches of ice. Throughout the day the conditions improved enough for Latvala to manage to hold off the challenges of firstly Dani Sordo, and then Sébastien Loeb. Latvala held a 10.8 second lead going into the short Cardiff superspecial but clutch problems developed when he had to queue in heavy traffic on the approach to the stage and he lost 3.5 seconds of this advantage. In fourth position was Petter Solberg who was only twenty seconds behind third place. Per-Gunnar Andersson had slipped back to fifth place, but was still three places ahead of his more experienced teammate Toni Gardemeister. The two other points positions were held by Henning Solberg and François Duval. Mikko Hirvonen was homing in on a world championship point, ahead of top home driver Matthew Wilson who was in a slightly disappointing tenth position. Valentino Rossi was making progress after a very steady start and was now in fifteenth position - ahead of WRC regulars such as Khalid Al-Qassimi and Conrad Rautenbach.

Day three

Jari-Matti Latvala had to be content with second place

Freezing conditions overnight meant that there was ice again on the remaining stages at Rheola and Port Talbot. This was not ideal for rally leader Latvala, who had hoped for warmer conditions overnight for a better chance of holding Loeb at bay. Loeb had been told by Citroën boss Olivier Quesnel to push for the victory as a third place for Sordo would be enough to clinch the manufacturers title. After the first loop of Sunday's stages the gap was down to 1.4 seconds and a victory for Loeb was looking inevitable. Loeb was then initially handed a ten-second time penalty for a jump start at SS18 which meant that Latvala took a slender advantage of 2.2 seconds into the last stage. However, Loeb's pace was too strong and a further stage win meant that he won the rally by 12.7 seconds after his earlier time penalty was rescinded. Latvala finished a disappointed second but believed that the battle with Loeb would make him mentally stronger for next season. Sordo followed team instructions to drive carefully and finished third. Petter Solberg maintained his fourth place and the remaining points positions remained the same, except for a late retirement for Henning Solberg which meant that Hirvonen claimed eighth place. Wilson took the position of highest Brit position, ahead of Barry Clark. Rossi continued his progression and finished in twelfth position, earning praise from Ford team boss Malcolm Wilson.

Results

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Difference	Points
WRC
1.	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	2:43:09.6	–	10
2.	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	2:43:22.3	12.7	8
3.	Dani Sordo	Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	2:44:30.2	1:20.6	6
4.	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC2008	2:45:09.2	1:59.6	5
5.	Per-Gunnar Andersson	Jonas Andersson	Suzuki SX4 WRC	2:47:13.7	4:04.1	4
6.	François Duval	Denis Giraudet	Ford Focus RS WRC 07	2:48:17.4	5:07.8	3
7.	Toni Gardemeister	Tomi Tuominen	Suzuki SX4 WRC	2:48:34.6	5:25.0	2
8.	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	2:48:48.4	5:38.8	1
PCWRC
1.	Patrik Flodin	Goran Bergsten	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	2:56:01.3	–	10
2.	Andreas Aigner	Klaus Wicha	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	2:57:43.4	1:42.1	8
3.	Guy Wilks	Phil Pugh	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	2:58:09.0	2:07.7	6
4.	Jari Ketomaa	Miika Teiskonen	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	3:00:48.2	4:46.9	5
5.	Jaromir Tarabus	Daniel Trunkát	Fiat Grande Punto S2000	3:08:18.6	12:17.3	4
6.	Spyros Pavlides	Steve Lancaster	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	3:21:19.3	25:18.0	3
7.	Armindo Araújo	Miguel Ramalho	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3:24:53.9	28:52.6	2
8.	David Higgins	Ieuan Thomas	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	3:28:17.8	32:16.5	1

Special stages

All dates and times are GMT (UTC).

Day	Stage	Time	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Avg. spd.	Rally leader
1 (5 DEC)	SS1	09:08	Hafren 1	3.67 km	Cancelled
	SS2	09:32	Sweet Lamb 1	4.28 km	S. Ogier	2:48.6	91.4 km/h	S. Ogier
	SS3	09:53	Myherin 1	18.28 km	J. Latvala	10:59.2	99.8 km/h
	SS4	13:16	Hafren 2	3.67 km	Cancelled
	SS5	13:40	Sweet Lamb 2	4.28 km	S. Loeb	2:50.4	90.4 km/h
	SS6	14:01	Myherin 2	18.28 km	J. Latvala	10:56.5	100.2 km/h	J. Latvala
	SS7	17:06	Walters Arena 1	2.29 km	J. Latvala	1:44.5	78.9 km/h
	SS8	17:17	Walters Arena 2	2.29 km	S. Loeb	1:45.0	78.5 km/h
2 (6 DEC)	SS9	08:18	Resolfen 1	30.68 km	D. Sordo	17:12.5	107.0 km/h
	SS10	09:47	Halfway 1	18.57 km	J. Latvala	11:24.3	97.7 km/h
	SS11	10:13	Crychan 1	14.86 km	D. Sordo	9:25.1	94.7 km/h
	SS12	13:21	Resolfen 2	30.68 km	M. Hirvonen	16:19.9	112.7 km/h
	SS13	14:50	Halfway 2	18.57 km	S. Loeb	11:11.9	99.5 km/h
	SS14	15:16	Crychan 2	14.86 km	J. Latvala	9:00.6	99.0 km/h
	SS15	18:15	Cardiff	0.99 km	S. Loeb	0:56.5	63.1 km/h
3 (7 DEC)	SS16	07:55	Rheola 1	27.96 km	S. Loeb	16:15.0	103.2 km/h
	SS17	09:03	Port Talbot 1	20.09 km	S. Loeb	11:17.9	106.7 km/h
	SS18	11:10	Rheola 2	27.96 km	S. Loeb	16:25.0	102.2 km/h	S. Loeb
	SS19	12:18	Port Talbot 2	20.09 km	S. Loeb	11:12.0	107.6 km/h

Final championship standings

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver MON SWE MEX ARG JOR ITA GRC TUR FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN GBR  Pts  1 Sébastien Loeb 1 Ret 1 1 10 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 122 2 Mikko Hirvonen 2 2 4 5 1 2 3 1 2 4 3 3 2 1 8 103 3 Dani Sordo 11 6 17 3 2 5 5 4 4 2 2 2 Ret DSQ 3 65 4 Jari-Matti Latvala 12 1 3 15 7 3 7 2 39 9 Ret 6 4 2 2 58 5 Chris Atkinson 3 21 2 2 3 6 Ret 13 3 6 Ret 7 6 4 Ret 50 6 Petter Solberg 5 4 12 Ret Ret 10 2 6 6 5 4 5 5 8 4 46 7 François Duval 4 3 Ret 4 3 Ret 6 25 8 Henning Solberg 9 13 5 Ret 4 7 8 5 5 7 9 11 15 Ret Ret 22 9 Gigi Galli 6 3 Ret 7 8 4 Ret Ret Ret Ret Inj Inj Inj Inj Inj 17 10 Matthew Wilson 10 Ret 6 Ret 5 12 6 7 9 12 17 9 8 7 9 15 11 Urmo Aava 18 Ret 8 4 Ret 16 8 5 35 7 13 12 Per-Gunnar Andersson 8 Ret Ret 24 Ret 9 11 Ret Ret 15 6 32 17 5 5 12 13 Toni Gardemeister Ret 7 Ret Ret Ret Ret 9 Ret 8 10 7 13 13 6 7 10 14 Federico Villagra 7 6 6 14 13 9 Ret 8 12 9 9 15 Conrad Rautenbach Ret 16 16 4 26 13 10 8 10 10 Ret Ret 14 Ret 15 6 16 Andreas Mikkelsen 5 Ret 19 12 11 8 11 5 17 Jean-Marie Cuoq 7 2 Matti Rantanen 7 19 Juho Hänninen 8 21 13 14 29 24 10 Ret 1 Sébastien Ogier 8 11 22 36 19 Ret 20 26 Andreas Aigner 31 8 14 11 Ret Ret 13 Pos Driver MON SWE MEX ARG JOR ITA GRC TUR FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN GBR Pts

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

Manufacturers' championship

Rank	Team	Event															Total points
		MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	JOR	ITA	GRC	TUR	FIN	GER	NZL	ESP	FRA	JPN	GBR
1	Citroën Total World Rally Team	11	4	10	16	9	14	15	11	15	18	18	18	10	6	16	191
2	BP Ford World Rally Team	8	18	11	7	13	14	10	18	9	7	6	11	14	18	9	173
3	Subaru World Rally Team	10	6	9	8	6	3	8	3	9	7	5	6	7	6	5	98
4	Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team	8	8	3	3	7	5	3	4	4	6	0	4	7	2	3	67
5	Suzuki World Rally Team	2	3	0	1	0	1	3	0	2	1	7	0	1	7	6	34
6	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team	0	0	6	4	4	2	0	3	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	22

External links

• Media related to 2008 Rally GB at Wikimedia Commons