Yay! Shiny!
May. 26th, 2009 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
was_tansu_now_badhedgehogHe's back, back, BACK!
Jari-Matti Latvala is back to winning form. Latvala and codriver Miikka Antilla have won the 2009 Rally Italia Sardegna, putting an end to a run of bad luck, mistakes and crashes. Since lunchtime on Sunday I have been a very happy rally fan indeed.
Jari-Matti led from the start, but did not crash out on the second or third stage of the day as he had unfortunately done in some recent events. I had confidence that he would make it through the first day without incident, as he'd got back onto the right track in Argentina at the end of April. It was still good to note that he'd made it back to midday service with the car in one piece. At the end of the day both Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen decided to play tactics to decide day two's running order. Loeb slowed by 26 seconds but Hirvonen managed to bugger up his attempt at losing time. Latvala was therefore asked to push hard to build up as big a lead as possible - a huge contrast to being asked to back off and just bring the car back in one piece.
day two: 23 May 2009. Put that date in your diary. That is the day on which Sébastien Loeb's codriver Daniel Elena made a mistake. In fact, he made two mistakes. His first mistake was to he accidentally make Seb arrive late at a time control because he misjudged how far away from the tc they were when they stopped to bleed their brakes. This got them a 10 second time penalty. Later in the day, Seb got a puncture, which is kind of rare in itself. When they stopped to change it (which took just over 1 minute), Daniel had his seatbelt undone and the tools in his hand before the car stopped (so that'll be part of why they got it done so fast). In-car footage shows that Daniel's seatbelt was undone for maybe a hundred yards or so before the car stopped. The harvest of this could be interesting - strictly speaking, all safety equipment must be worn at all times on the stage, and the penalty is exclusion from the rally. Dani Sordo got excluded for something similar a couple of years ago. Anyway, through all this, Latvala was coping well with being first on the road and cleaning the loose gravel. He ended the day with a 10 second lead, which was less than the 25 seconds he expected to need., but on the plus side, Loeb had lost over a minute with the puncture, so wasn't a big threat any more. It was between Latvala and Hirvonen, and you'd have expected Hirvonen to make up time on the first stages of day three.
day three: Being first on the road turned out to be a blessing. The first two stages of the day were run very early in the morning, and the early morning stillness made for a great deal of hanging dust which combined with the low angle of the sunlight to make for bloody dreadful visibility. The cars behind Latvala lost a lot of time, most having to stop for a few seconds to let the dust clear. Hirvonen lost 18 seconds on the first stage, rather than making up any time. Like a lot of people, I did wonder whether Ford might use team orders to make Latvala let Hirvonen win, as Hirvonen still has a slim chance at the drivers title. I really hoped they wouldn't, because it would not be worth it for just 2 points and most importantly because the win would mean so much to Jari-Matti's confidence and therefore provide a potential return in the future.
At the end of the final stage, Jari-Matti ran round to the front of the car and kissed the Ford badge. I'm not usually fond of badge-kissing, as it's terribly overdone by footballers, but I'll make an exception in this case. It was nice to symbolise the faith that the team have had in him after all the problems and crashes of last summer and this spring.
Hirvonen was second, Petter Solberg third. Petter had been fourth, but after having finished third, Loeb was given a 2 minute time penalty. To be honest I think he should have been excluded. Nothing against him, but rules is rules.
For once, Seb got the bad luck, and Jari-Matti got the good luck. But more than that, he drove beautifully and only made one mistake (too fast into a junction, managed to only lose a few seconds). This is someone who a lot of people thought had buggered his chances in the WRC just a few weeks ago. I've never doubted that he's got everything that it takes to be a great champion, but I was getting very concerned and I was even starting to think that he might need to step away from the team in order to get his head sorted out (see this previous entry). I feel hellish guilty for even thinking it.
If this is "the new evolution of Jari-Matti" as he put it, then I like it, and I think a lot of rally fans will as well. It's good for the sport to have someone other than Sébastien Loeb winning.
Jari-Matti Latvala is back to winning form. Latvala and codriver Miikka Antilla have won the 2009 Rally Italia Sardegna, putting an end to a run of bad luck, mistakes and crashes. Since lunchtime on Sunday I have been a very happy rally fan indeed.
Jari-Matti led from the start, but did not crash out on the second or third stage of the day as he had unfortunately done in some recent events. I had confidence that he would make it through the first day without incident, as he'd got back onto the right track in Argentina at the end of April. It was still good to note that he'd made it back to midday service with the car in one piece. At the end of the day both Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen decided to play tactics to decide day two's running order. Loeb slowed by 26 seconds but Hirvonen managed to bugger up his attempt at losing time. Latvala was therefore asked to push hard to build up as big a lead as possible - a huge contrast to being asked to back off and just bring the car back in one piece.
day two: 23 May 2009. Put that date in your diary. That is the day on which Sébastien Loeb's codriver Daniel Elena made a mistake. In fact, he made two mistakes. His first mistake was to he accidentally make Seb arrive late at a time control because he misjudged how far away from the tc they were when they stopped to bleed their brakes. This got them a 10 second time penalty. Later in the day, Seb got a puncture, which is kind of rare in itself. When they stopped to change it (which took just over 1 minute), Daniel had his seatbelt undone and the tools in his hand before the car stopped (so that'll be part of why they got it done so fast). In-car footage shows that Daniel's seatbelt was undone for maybe a hundred yards or so before the car stopped. The harvest of this could be interesting - strictly speaking, all safety equipment must be worn at all times on the stage, and the penalty is exclusion from the rally. Dani Sordo got excluded for something similar a couple of years ago. Anyway, through all this, Latvala was coping well with being first on the road and cleaning the loose gravel. He ended the day with a 10 second lead, which was less than the 25 seconds he expected to need., but on the plus side, Loeb had lost over a minute with the puncture, so wasn't a big threat any more. It was between Latvala and Hirvonen, and you'd have expected Hirvonen to make up time on the first stages of day three.
day three: Being first on the road turned out to be a blessing. The first two stages of the day were run very early in the morning, and the early morning stillness made for a great deal of hanging dust which combined with the low angle of the sunlight to make for bloody dreadful visibility. The cars behind Latvala lost a lot of time, most having to stop for a few seconds to let the dust clear. Hirvonen lost 18 seconds on the first stage, rather than making up any time. Like a lot of people, I did wonder whether Ford might use team orders to make Latvala let Hirvonen win, as Hirvonen still has a slim chance at the drivers title. I really hoped they wouldn't, because it would not be worth it for just 2 points and most importantly because the win would mean so much to Jari-Matti's confidence and therefore provide a potential return in the future.
At the end of the final stage, Jari-Matti ran round to the front of the car and kissed the Ford badge. I'm not usually fond of badge-kissing, as it's terribly overdone by footballers, but I'll make an exception in this case. It was nice to symbolise the faith that the team have had in him after all the problems and crashes of last summer and this spring.
Hirvonen was second, Petter Solberg third. Petter had been fourth, but after having finished third, Loeb was given a 2 minute time penalty. To be honest I think he should have been excluded. Nothing against him, but rules is rules.
For once, Seb got the bad luck, and Jari-Matti got the good luck. But more than that, he drove beautifully and only made one mistake (too fast into a junction, managed to only lose a few seconds). This is someone who a lot of people thought had buggered his chances in the WRC just a few weeks ago. I've never doubted that he's got everything that it takes to be a great champion, but I was getting very concerned and I was even starting to think that he might need to step away from the team in order to get his head sorted out (see this previous entry). I feel hellish guilty for even thinking it.
If this is "the new evolution of Jari-Matti" as he put it, then I like it, and I think a lot of rally fans will as well. It's good for the sport to have someone other than Sébastien Loeb winning.
