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Jordan thrills with closest ever finish in WRC
publication date: Apr 18, 2011
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author/source: Robin Roberts
The closest finish in world
rallying history brought a dramatic Jordan Rally to the end on Sunday.
The event had to be
shortened to two days after a boat bringing the teams' equipment across the Mediterranean
broke down and was then delayed from docking by a storm. Sébastien
Ogier and Julien Ingrassia snatched victory in Rally Jordan in the very last
stage, the Power Stage shown live on TV throughout the world. |  |
The
Citroën Total World Rally Team crew won the 260kms event by two-tenths of a
second, the smallest gap ever at the end of a WRC round. Sébastien Loeb and
Daniel Elena, who came third, have now taken the overall lead in the Drivers'
World Championship, while Citroën is now dead-heating for first place in the Manufacturers'
World Championship with arch rivals Ford, who experienced mixed fortunes on the
event.
Ford
Abu Dhabi World Rally Team's Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila missed a
dramatic victory after they held a slender 0.5sec lead in their Ford Fiesta RS
World Rally Car ahead of the final desert speed test on the shores of the Dead
Sea, but were edged into second.
Team-mates
Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen finished fourth in another Fiesta RS
WRC. In an equally enthralling conclusion to this fourth round of the
championship, they took runners-up bonus points after claiming second fastest
time in that final special stage - just 0.046sec behind the winner.
The
previous closest rally result came in 2007 when Ford's Marcus Grönholm and Timo
Rautiainen won Rally New Zealand by 0.3sec.
Round
five of the series takes competitors to the island of Sardinia for the
all-gravel Rally d'Italia Sardegna, which is based in Olbia on 5 - 8 May.
| Final positions Jordan Rally 260kms
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| 1. S Ogier/J Ingrassia | Citroen
DS3 | 2hr
48min 28.2sec | | 2. J-M Latvala/M
Anttila | Ford Fiesta RS
| 2hr 48min
28.4sec | | 3. S Loeb/D Elena | Citroen
DS3
| 2hr
48min 55.9sec | | 4. M Hirvonen/J
Lehtinen | Ford Fiesta RS | 2hr 51min 12.9sec
| | 5. M Wilson/S Martin | Ford Fiesta RS
| 2hr 54min
13.1sec | | 6. K Räikkönen/K Lindström | Citroen DS3
| 2hr 54min 43.1sec | | 7. F Villagra/J Perez | Companc Ford Fiesta RS
| 2hr 57min 46.9sec
| | 8. K Al Qassimi/M Orr | Ford Fiesta RS
| 2hr
58min 11.9sec | | 9. D Kuipers/B Degandt | Ford Fiesta
RS
| 3hr 02min 55.7sec
| | 10 B Sousa/A Costa | Ford Fiesta
S2000
| 3hr 03min 33.7sec |
| Word Rally Championship | Drivers
| | Manufacturers
| | | 1. S Loeb | 74pts
| | 1= Ford Abu
Dhabi
1= Citroen Total
| 130pts
130pts | 2. M Hirvonen
| 72pts | | 3. S Ogier
| 69pts | | 3. M-Sport Stobart
Ford
| 43pts | 4. J-M Latvala
| 66pts | | 4. Ice 1
Racing
| 26pts | 5. P Solberg
| 31pts | | 5. Petter Solberg
| 22pts | 6. M Østberg
| 28pts | | 6. Munchi's
Ford
| 20pts |
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