Telstra Rally Australia: Loeb doesn't win!

The 2005 Telstra Rally Australia (November 11-13) may go down in history with the sort of result re-crowned world manufacturers champ Citroen wanted -- two Xsaras on the podium and the marque's 12th win of the season. However, not everything went to plan for the French marque.

Indeed, the Perth-based event capped of one of the most memorable seasons in the history of WRC in a most remarkable way… In a year in which he proved unbeatable, newly crowned world rally champ, Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, did not complete the event after crashing out on day one.

And the drama continued… Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm and Subaru's Petter Solberg also crashed out of the event. And Skoda-driving WRC returnee Colin McCrae was set to finish third (the maker’s best ever result) before a clutch problem kept him overtime in service on the final day!

In the end, the man climbing to the top of the Rally Australia podium on Sunday was Loeb's teammate, François Duval. It was Belgian Duval’s first ever WRC win and makes him the second youngest ever driver to win a round of the WRC.

The second Xsara was that of German privateer, Manfred Stohl, who claimed third for Team Kronos – the privateer squad Loeb will join in 2006, pending returning to Citroen and its new team in 2007.

Second was Mitsubishi Motorsport’s Harri Rovanperä – also his best finish of the season.

Duval's win went a long way to salvaging a season which saw him unceremoniously dropped after a series of crashes. Duval and co-driver and compatriot, Sven Smeets, were greeted at final service by the Belgian flag, the Belgian national anthem and, the red berets which the team first brought out in Catalonia a fortnight ago and a standing ovation.

"I've been waiting and hoping for this victory for so long," beamed Duval. "I would like to say a big thank you to Citroën, to my parents, to Guy Fréquelin who has given me so much help, and to Sven who has done a tremendous job. I naturally found the final stages very long. But everything went okay. It's a great way to end what has at times been a difficult season for me!"

Second-placed Mitsubishi duo of Harri Rovanperä and Risto Pietiläinen claimed the team's best result of the season posting five fastest stage times during the three-day event. Teammates Gigi Galli and Guido d’Amore finished fifth.

"I am very very happy for the whole team," said a delighted Harri, "and especially for all the mechanics who have worked so hard since the beginning of the season. It’s been a great rally for us; the car has worked well, the performance and speed has been good and the feeling has been right all weekend. It's a great way to round off the year."

Ford meantime used the WA event to debut its all-new WRC Focus. BP-Ford World Rally Team drivers Roman Kresta and Jan Tománek and team-mates Toni Gardemeister and Jakke Honkanen each set a fastest time on stages on the final day of the event in the new model.

Kresta finished sixth on the four-day rally based on demanding gravel tracks in Western Australia. Gardemeister retired on the penultimate speed test with a broken water pump drive belt but the performance of the new Focus RS delighted BP-Ford team director Malcolm Wilson.

"It has been a fantastic weekend for us," he said. "We came here to test and the most important target was to last the full distance so that we could learn as much about the Focus RS as possible. I'm sorry we lost Toni on the penultimate stage but we scored two fastest times, which is remarkable for a car which has been designed and built in less than 11 months. It has been a great effort from the whole team and we've shown the potential of the car for the future."

Australian Subaru driver Chris Atkinson was one of the undoubted stars of the event and capped off a strong debut year in the World Rally Championship with a fighting fourth place in Telstra Rally Australia.

It was the young Queenslander's second top-five finish since joining the Subaru World Rally Team at the start of the year.

Atkinson was the dominant driver throughout the weekend recording the fastest time on nine of the 26 stages contested, four more than any other driver (Mitsubishi’s Rovanperä), taking his number of stage wins for the year to 15.

The only drivers to win more stages throughout the year are world champions Sebastien Loeb, Marcus Gronholm and Atkinson’s Subaru teammate, Petter Solberg.

Atkinson and West Australian co-driver Glenn Macneall led the rally by 11 seconds mid way through the opening day but were slowed by a steering problem which forced him down the order to 13th, almost two and a half minutes behind the rally leader.

As many of his more fancied rivals dropped out of the event due to various incidents during the opening two days, Atkinson clawed his way back up the order to move into sixth position and within striking distance of fifth-placed Galli on the final day.

By virtue of setting the fastest time across the opening 4.42km stage of the day Atkinson quickly moved inside the top five. He then continued this pace over the ensuing two stages by setting the second fastest time across the two tests and close the gap between himself and fourth placed Manfred Stohl to less than 30 seconds.

As if the drama of the opening two days wasn't enough, the demise of McRae due to a routine clutch change gone wrong in the final service of the event set up a titanic battle for the final podium position between Atkinson and Stohl. With just over 50 competitive kilometres remaining across the final three stages there was less than 30 seconds separating the pair.

On the first stage after service Atkinson equaled the time of Toni Gardemeister as fastest before winning the penultimate 29.93km stage and closing the gap to Stohl to within 7.9 seconds with one 17.31km test remaining.

Despite setting a time nine seconds faster than his earlier pass the young Australian was unable to bridge the gap to and fell six seconds shy of his second WRC podium finish in his debut year.

“What a rally full of highs and lows. When you look at what we have achieved with so many stage wins, it is has been a good rally but you always want more,” said Atkinson.

"It was the one that got away. If you take away the time we lost on the opening day it could have been a very different result but we have still got to be very happy with what we have achieved this weekend and also throughout the year."

RALLY AUSTRALIA IN FIGURES

Best Stage Times
Leg 1. SS1 : Petter Solberg (Subaru Impreza) - SS2 : Marcus Grönholm (Peugeot 307) - SS3 and 4 : Chris Atkinson (Subaru Impreza) - SS5 and 6 : Solberg - SS7 and 8 : Sébastien Loeb (Citroën Xsara) - SS9 and 10 : Atkinson - SS11 : Harri Rovanperä (Mitsubishi Lancer)

Leg 2. SS12 : Solberg - SS13 and 14 : Rovanperä - SS15 and 16 : François Duval (Citroën Xsara) - SS17 and 18 : Atkinson - SS19 : Eq Rovanperä/Duval - SS20

Leg 3. SS21 : Atkinson - SS22. F. Duval - SS23 : H. Rovanperä - SS24 : Ch. Atkinson et Toni Gardemeister (Ford Focus) - SS25 : Ch. Atkinson - SS26: Roman Kresta (Ford Focus).

Leaders
SS1 to 3 : P. Solberg - SS4 and 5 : Ch. Atkinson - SS6 and 7 : P. Solberg - SS8 : S. Loeb - SS9 to 13 : P. Solberg - SS14 to 26 : F. Duval

Final results: Telstra Rally Australia
1.      F. Duval/S. Smeets (Citroën Xsara)                      3 h 19 min 55s
2.      H. Rovanperä/R. Pietiläinen (Mitsubishi Lancer)    + 52.9s
3.      M.Stohl/I. Minor (Citroën Xsara Kronos)             + 1 min 33s
4.      Ch. Atkinson/G. Macneall (Subaru Impreza)         + 1 min 39s
5.      G. Galli/G. D'Amore (Mitsubishi Lancer)               + 3 min 04.4s
6.      R. Kresta/J. Tománek (Ford Focus)                     + 3 min 09s
7.      D. Solà/X. Amigo (Ford Focus)                            + 6 min 17.4s
8.      A. Schwarz/K. Wicha (Skoda Fabia)                     + 8 min 04.3s …

FIA World Rally Championship after round 16 - Manufacturers
1. Citroën, 188 pts (Champion du Monde 2005*) - 2. Peugeot, 135 points - 3. Ford, 104 pts - 4. Subaru, 97 pts - 5. Mitsubishi, 76 pts - 6. Škoda, 21 pts.

FIA World Rally Championship after round 16 - Drivers
1. S. Loeb, 127 points (Champion du Monde 2005*) - 2. P. Solberg, 71 pts - 3. M. Grönholm, 71 pts - 4. T. Gardemeister, 58 pts - 5. M. Märtin, 53 pts
- 6. F. Duval, 47 pts - 7. H. Rovanperä, 39 pts - 8. R. Kresta, 29 pts - 9. M. Stohl, 22 pts - 10. M. Hirvonen, 14 pts 12 - 11. G. Galli, 14 pts - 12. Ch. Atkinson, 13 pts - 13. C. Sainz, 11 pts - 14. H. Solberg, 9 pts - 15. G. Panizzi, 7 pts - 16. X. Pons, 7 pts - 17. S. Sarrazin, 6 pts - 18. A. Warmbold, 6 pts - 19. D. Carlsson, 5 pts - 20. N. Bernardi, 4 pts - 21. A. Bengué, 3 pts - 22. D. Solà, 2 pts - 23. C. McRae, 2 pts -- 24. A. Schwarz, 1 pt - 25. M. Higgins, 1 pt - 26. J. Kopecky, 1 pt - 27. J. Pykälistö, 1 pt.

* result subject to FIA confirmation