Rally Japan 2008

We have received more photos from Rally Japan. The report is in Japanese only, and you can see it on the Japanese part of the website. Click on the Japanese flag.

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Photos from Rally Japan

Hiroyuki Watanabe is a Japanese member of the PSSC. This is his pictures from the rally, and if you check out the Japanese site, you can read his story – in Japanese!

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Rally Japan – result

Mikko Hirvonen won Rally Japan, while Sebastien Loeb secured the 2008 Championship with his third place. Petter, who restarted again today under SupeRally-regulations, managed to get the final point with his eight place. After setting the fastest time on three stages today, Petter said that he was quite happy with the weekend. – Again the car has shown its potential and we have proved that the paste is getting there. And the guys made a brilliant job getting the car back on the road after the accident yesterday.

Heavily rain made the stages muddy and wet today. – We got a puncture on SS23 and the windscreen was fully blocked with fog in the morning, otherwise I think we would have won more stages.

Next, and final event for the season, is Wales Rally GB, 5. – 7. December 2008.

Overall classification Rally Japan 2008:

1. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford
2. Jari-Matti Latvala, Ford +31,1
3. SebastienLoeb, Citroen +2.30,6
4. Chris Atkinson, Subaru +3.42,4
5. PG Andersson, Suzuki +5.12,9
6. Toni Gardemeister, Suzuki +6.09,4
7. Matthew Wilson, Ford +7.05,3
8. Petter Solberg, Subaru +13.19,9

More photos from Japan

From a stage win – to a broken suspension

- It was a great start today, with the stagewin on SS12, and a not so good end. The stage win felt really good, knowing that the others were doing their best. This proves that we are getting there, step by step. The team is now working to get the car ready for SupeRally tomorrow.

Petter out of Rally Japan

The second day of Rally Japan started much better than it ended for Petter. Fantastic driving on stage 12, the second longest stage of the rally, ended with a stage win. But then a whole in the road and a spin damaged the right-hand rear wheel and suspension, and they had to retire on SS18.

Mikko Hirvonen is still leading Rally Japan, and Latvala is second. Sebastien Loeb is third. Henning retired from the rally on the road-section just after the finish on SS17 with a broken wheel and suspension. The condition of Duvals codriver, Patrick Pivato, is still critical, but stable. Pivato were taken to hospital yesterday after an accident on stage 6.

Rally Japan continuous with 9 more stages Sunday.

Overall classifictaion day 2 – Rally Japan

1. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford
2. Jari-Matti Latvala, Ford +15,5
3. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen +53,5
4. Chris Atkinson, Subaru +2.26,0
5. Matthew Wilson, Ford +4.31,6
6. Toni Gardemeister, Suzuki +4.38,5
7. PG Andersson, Suzuki +5.11,8
8. Federico Villagra, Ford +9.59,6
13. Petter Solberg +13.02,7
20. Henning Solberg +18.58,8

Rally Japan – Dag 1

The first day of Rally Japan are finished, and Petter is in fifth position. Mikko Hirvonen is leading the rally ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala in second. Sebastien Loeb is third, and on his way to secure the championship.

10 stages were on the itinerary today, but two of them were cancelled already this morning, due to the snowy conditions.  Duval had an accident on stage 6, and the stage was stopped afterwards. Duvals codriver, Patrick Pivato, was taken to hospital for surgery after the accident. Due to the delays after the accident, stage 8 was also cancelled.

Rally Japan continues with 10 more stages Saturday, first car is on the road at 0828 local time.

Overall classification, day 1

1. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford

2. Jari-Matti Latvala, Ford +26,2

3. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen +30,6

4. Chris Atkinson, Subaru +1.00,3

5. Petter Solberg, Subaru +1.02,0

6. Matthew Wilson, Ford +1.11,2

7. PG Andersson, Suzuki +1.11,6

8. Toni Gardemeister, Suzuki +1.36,8

9. Henning Solberg, Ford +1.46,6

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Rally Japan – day 1 after 8 stages

Still two more stages to go before day 1 is completed, but after 8 stages the overall-list is like this:

1. Hirvonen
2. Latvala +22,1
3. Loeb +27,3
4. Petter Solberg +54,4
5. Henning Solberg +1.38,8

Big in Japan

If you ask Petter to demonstrate how to use a mountain-bike, anything can happen. Subaru has produced one piece of this fantastic mountain-bike, and Petter really showed the photographers how to use it.

On Wednesday evening Petter was invited to a Subaru dealer in Sapporo to meet with supporters. He brought with him a pair of shoes and gloves as prizes in a competition. This little fellow was so happy about getting one of the shoes, that he put it on his head as a hat. His younger brother got the other shoe, whilst the mother – who actually won the competition – left empty handed.