2007 Wales Rally GB

2007 Rally GB
*63rd Wales Rally of Great Britain*
2007 Rally GB; 63rd Wales Rally of Great Britain
Round 16 of the 2007 World Rally Championship
	← Previous event
	Rally winner Mikko Hirvonen.
Host country	United Kingdom
Rally base	Cardiff, Wales
Dates run	November 30 – December 2, 2007
Stages	17 (359.54 km; 223.41 miles)
Stage surface	Gravel
Statistics
Crews	108 at start, 83 at finish
Overall results
Overall winner	Mikko Hirvonen; BP Ford World Rally Team

The 2007 Wales Rally GB (formally known as 63rd Wales Rally of Great Britain) was the 16th round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. The race was held over three days between 30 November and 2 December 2007.

Report

Sébastien Loeb became world champion for the fourth time in a row. He had thus equaled Tommi Mäkinen's record. Third place at the season finale in Wales was enough for the Citroën driver. Loeb started the last world championship race of the season six points ahead of his rival Marcus Grönholm. Grönholm was able to make up two points with second place, and in the end Loeb had a four-point lead in the drivers' standings.

Rally won Grönholm teammate Mikko Hirvonen. He took the lead with four special stage best times on Friday. Hirvonen was 15.2 seconds clear of second-placed Gronholm to secure his fourth WRC win of his career.

Subaru driver Petter Solberg came fourth behind the leading trio. He was able to conclude such a season with moderate success in a reasonably forgiving manner. Fourth place and his teammate Chris Atkinson's seventh place secured Subaru third place in the Manufacturers' Championship ahead of the Stobart team. Days two and three were dominated by young M-Sport driver Jari-Matti Latvala, who had already been confirmed as a driver for Ford for next year. However, since he had lost almost ten minutes on the first day due to a broken windshield wiper, he was only able to finish tenth.

Results

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Difference	Points
WRC
1.	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC 07	3:22:50.9	0.0	10
2.	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC 07	3:23:06.1	15.2	8
3.	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3:24:23.9	1:33.0	6
4.	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC2007	3:25:48.2	2:57.3	5
5.	Dani Sordo	Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	3:26:05.2	3:14.3	4
6.	Matthew Wilson	Michael Orr	Ford Focus WRC 06	3:30:23.8	7:32.9	3
7.	Chris Atkinson	Stéphane Prévot	Subaru Impreza WRC2007	3:31:20.4	8:29.5	2
8.	Manfred Stohl	Ilka Minor	Citroën Xsara WRC	3:31:45.5	8:54.6	1
PCWRC
1. (13.)	Guy Wilks	Phil Pugh	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:44:23.7	0.0	10
2. (14.)	Juho Hänninen	Mikko Markkula	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:44:57.9	34.2	8
3. (16.)	Mark Higgins	Scott Martin	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:46:10.2	1:46.5	6
4. (17.)	Alessandro Bettega	Simone Scattolin	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:49:47.3	5:23.6	5
5. (19.)	David Higgins	Ieuan Thomas	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:51:32.8	7:09.1	4
6. (21.)	Mirco Baldacci	Giovanni Agnese	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:53:12.8	8:49.1	3
7. (23.)	Armindo Araújo	Miguel Ramalho	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	4:00:58.9	16:35.2	2
8. (23.)	Štěpán Vojtěch	Michal Ernst	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	4:02:31.4	18:07.7	1

Retirements

Gabriel Pozzo - retired (SS6);
Michał Sołowow - retired (SS6);
Claudiu David - mechanical (SS7);
Conrad Rautenbach - went off the road (SS8);
Andreas Mikkelsen - went off the road (SS9);
Stuart Jones - crashed (SS12);
Leszek Kuzaj - did not start leg 3 (SS13/14);
Hayden Paddon - did not start leg 3 (SS13/14);
Spyros Pavlides - mechanical (SS14);
Yevgeni Vertunov - mechanical (SS14);
Luís Pérez Companc - went off the road (SS14/15);
Patrik Flodin - mechanical (SS6);

Special Stages

All dates and times are GMT (UTC).

Leg	Stage	Time	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Avg. spd.	Rally leader
1 (30 Nov)	SS1	09:53	Port Talbot 1	17.41 km	M. Hirvonen	9:15.2	112.9 km/h	M. Hirvonen
	SS2	10:41	Resolfen 1	25.08 km	M. Hirvonen	12:50.6	117.2 km/h
	SS3	11:39	Rheola 1	27.91 km	M. Hirvonen	15:55.7	105.1 km/h
	SS4	14:10	Port Talbot 2	17.41 km	M. Hirvonen	9:17.2	112 km/h
	SS5	14:58	Resolfen 2	25.08 km	S. Loeb M. Grönholm	13:20.9	112.7 km/h
	SS6	16:23	Rheola 2	27.91 km	J. Latvala	16:39.3	100.5 km/h
2 (1 Dec)	SS7	09:38	Crychan 1	19.56 km	J. Latvala	10:31.2	111.6 km/h
	SS8	10:21	Epynt 1	13.76 km	J. Latvala	7:33.2	109.3 km/h
	SS9	10:54	Halfway 1	18.37 km	J. Latvala	10:28.3	105.3 km/h
	SS10	14:47	Crychan 2	19.56 km	J. Latvala	10:39.8	110.1 km/h
	SS11	15:30	Epynt 2	13.76 km	J. Latvala	7:40.1	107.7 km/h
	SS12	16:29	Halfway 2	18.37 km	J. Latvala	10:39.6	103.4 km/h
	SS13	19:00	Cardiff	1.10 km	M. Grönholm	1:03.8	62.1 km/h
3 (2 Dec)	SS14	07:46	Brechfa 1	28.89 km	J. Latvala M. Hirvonen	16:14.2	106.8 km/h
	SS15	08:33	Trawscoed 1	28.24 km	J. Latvala	16:39.7	101.7 km/h
	SS16	12:09	Brechfa 2	28.89 km	J. Latvala	16:11.6	107.0 km/h
	SS17	12:56	Trawscoed 2	28.24 km	J. Latvala	16:51.0	100.6 km/h

Final championship standings

Drivers' championship

Pos	Driver	MON	SWE	NOR	MEX	POR	ARG	ITA	GRC	FIN	GER	NZL	ESP	FRA	JPN	IRL	GBR	Pts
1	Sébastien Loeb	1	2	14	1	1	1	Ret	2	3	1	2	1	1	Ret	1	3	116
2	Marcus Grönholm	3	1	2	2	4	2	1	1	1	4	1	3	2	Ret	Ret	2	112
3	Mikko Hirvonen	5	3	1	3	5	3	2	4	2	3	3	4	13	1	4	1	99
4	Dani Sordo	2	12	25	4	3	6	3	24	Ret	Ret	6	2	3	2	2	5	65
5	Petter Solberg	6	Ret	4	Ret	2	Ret	5	3	Ret	6	7	6	5	Ret	5	4	47
6	Henning Solberg	14	4	3	9	9	5	4	5	5	13	9	10	9	3	16	15	34
7	Chris Atkinson	4	8	19	5	Ret	7	10	6	4	15	4	8	6	Ret	42	7	31
8	Jari-Matti Latvala	Ret	Ret	5	7	8	4	9	12	Ret	8	5	7	4	26	3	10	30
9	Manfred Stohl	10	7	12	6	10	8	7	8	Ret	Ret	12	Ret	14	6	Ret	8	13
10	François Duval								Ret		2		5	Ret				12
11	Matthew Wilson	12	Ret	26	8	12	30	12	10	10	9	10	11	Ret	4	7	6	11
12	Jan Kopecký	8	10	8		22		Ret	7	Ret	5		Ret	7			12	10
12	Toni Gardemeister	7	6	Ret		DSQ		6			7							10
14	Daniel Carlsson		5	7		6		Ret										9
15	Gigi Galli		13	6		7												5
16	Luís Pérez Companc		15		19	DNS	28	Ret	11	11		23	Ret		5		Ret	4
16	Xavier Pons	25	Ret	16						6	18	Ret	9	8	36	Ret	9	4
18	Guy Wilks			Ret		Ret			9	9	10					6	13	3
18	Urmo Aava			28		15		13	14	7	12	8	18	Ret	18			3
20	Federico Villagra					DNS	9	11	32	14		11	13		7		18	2
21	Juho Hänninen		DSQ	17			11	8	Ret	Ret		19	23		24			1
	Mads Østberg		9	37		Ret		Ret		8							11	1
	Katsuhiko Taguchi														8			1
	Gareth MacHale	11			Ret	13		Ret								8		1
Pos	Driver	MON	SWE	NOR	MEX	POR	ARG	ITA	GRC	FIN	GER	NZL	ESP	FRA	JPN	IRL	GBR	Pts

Key
Colour	Result
Gold	Winner
Silver	2nd place
Bronze	3rd place
Green	Points finish
Blue	Non-points finish
Blue	Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple	Did not finish (Ret)
Black	Excluded (EX)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
White	Did not start (DNS)
White	Cancelled (C)
Blank	Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Manufacturers' championship

Rank	Manufacturer	Event																Total points
Rank	Manufacturer	MON	SWE	NOR	MEX	POR	ARG	ITA	GRC	FIN	GER	NZL	ESP	FRA	JPN	IRL	GBR	Total points
1	BP Ford World Rally Team	10	16	18	14	9	14	18	15	18	11	16	11	9	10	5	18	212
2	Citroën Total World Rally Team	18	9	1	15	16	13	6	8	6	10	11	18	16	8	18	10	183
3	Subaru World Rally Team	8	2	5	4	8	2	5	9	5	5	7	4	7	2	6	8	87
4	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford	1	5	10	3	2	9	7	4	4	5	5	2	7	7	9	1	81
5	OMV Kronos	2	7	5	3	4	1	3	2	0	8	0	4	0	4	0	2	45
6	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team		0		0		0	0	1	5		0	0		8		0	14