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was_tansu_now_badhedgehogThis rally was in a new location this year, so everything was brand new to all the crews, making it much harder than driving on familiar roads.
"Everything happens to Toni Gardemeister", part howevermany: On the Monday before the rally, Toni (one of the most experienced of all the WRC drivers, has been competing since 1996) had to spend all day at a driving test centre taking the Japanese driving test - his international driving licence was the wrong kind to be valid in Japan, so he had to get a Japanese licence.
Everything that doesn't happen to Toni Gardemeister happens to Henning Solberg: Henning and his codriver Cato Menkerud were presented with a dvd of Japanese porn by a mad rally fan dressed in an orange jumpsuit.
Day one: One stage was cancelled due to heavy snow (in years gone by, teams might have managed to drive it because they'd have had the choice of different tyre compounds and the option to put more cuts in or even to use a full snow tyre). Sébastien Loeb got off to an unsure start, but made up a couple of places in the day. Hirvonen and Latvala were very fast. The Subarus were in their customary there or thereabouts position. Dani Sordo had turbo failure in stage 6 and had to retire for the day. François Duval had a huge crash on stage 6 which badly injured his codriver, Patrick Pivato. The codrivers side door was massively deformed in the impact with a barrier. If they'd hit something taller, Pivato could have been killed. As it is, he has a fractured tibia and fractured pelvis, and there was some internal bleeding.
At the end of the day, the two runs through of the indoor superspecial stage were a farce. There were marshalls who didn't understand their jobs properly, and didn't understand English to communicate with crews. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena weren't given their time card back after the first run through (this is a vital piece of paperwork that the codriver needs to give the the marshalls at the next time control), and I think that Jari-Matti Latvala's codriver was given a time card with the wrong time on it. Cars were sent out onto the stage before the cars ahead of them had finished and left the stage. Ridiculous. You can't have marshalls working on a time control who can't communicate with the crews.
Day two: Hirvonen continued to be extremely fast on the wet bumpy forest roads. With Duval out, Loeb was up into third place. If he finished in third place, he would win the world championship for a fifth time, even if Hirvonen won this rally and the rally of Wales. Subaru's Petter Solberg started the day well, with a fastest time on stage 12, and got up into fourth place, before retiring with a broken suspension on stage 18. Petter was the only driver close enough to Loeb to challenge him for third position, so with him out for the rest of the day, Loeb was, barring misfortune, nailed on for the title. In this day's run throughs of the superspecial (they had 5 goes on it. Five. In my opinion, you should have one superspecial stage, and that should be it. Shortish spectator stages are one thing, but the superspecials are inventing another sport really - it isn't rallying) Toni Gardemeister got Suzuki's first ever fastest stage time.
Day three: Petter Solberg was quick again, showing that Subaru are doing something right with this new car. Mikko Hirvonen continued to lead, with team mate Jari-Matti Latvala in second place. Latvala would be required by his team boss to hold second place instead of challenging Hirvonen for the win, but he decided to go for it anyway on the very wet and slippy stage 23. Having decided that he wouldn't be able to catch Hirvonen without taking too many risks (and possibly after getting a talking to from the boss), he backed off a little. There was a little intra-team competition at Suzuki, though, with both drivers fighting for fifth place.
Result: Hirvonen first, Latvala second, Loeb third. Loeb wins the world championship, and is the first driver to win it five times. He has won ten out of the year's 15 events, and truly deserves the title. For me, when he managed to win in Finland, that really underlined what an incredible driver he is. This event in Japan was probably his least favourite kind of rally - bumpy, rutted roads, lots of mud, and every stage brand new. Seb has a very good memory, and likes to know the stages off by heart, with the notes from his codriver being confirmation of what he already knows. Nevertheless, although he didn't enjoy it much, he got third place.
The constructors championship will go down to the final event in the season, next month's Wales Rally GB. Ford are 11 points behind Citroën. If Ford get a 1-2 finish, picking up 18 points, Citroen will only need to get 8 points to win the title - this could be a third place and a seventh place, or a fourth place and a fifth or sixth place. If one of the Citroëns doesn't get into the points, then Ford will win the title. Tsemppiä Mikko ja Jari-Matti!. (Personally I would love for Jari-Matti to win, and Dani Sordo to finish outside the points - then Jari-Matti would be third in the championship ahead of Dani, proving that he is one of the best drivers, and partly making up for his shocking run of results in August. But I am a DREADFUL FANGIRL, so there you go.)
