Hirvonen wins in Japan

Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen secured his second victory of the World Rally Championship season by winning the Rally of Japan.

Hirvonen, who was driving a Ford Focus, won the third leg with a time of three hours 23 minutes and 57.6 seconds to finish 37.4secs ahead of Spain’s Dani Sordo in his Citroen.

“I was very comfortable,” said BP-Ford World Rally Team driver Hirvonen. “The car was perfect and there were no moments.

“I had the same feeling as I did in Finland. I could do what I wanted with the car and it will work out. The feeling was very good.”

Stobart Ford’s Henning Solberg finished third with a time of 3:28:31.3 for his third-ever finish on the podium.

Hirvonen coped with the testing conditions that had seen points leader Marcus Gronholm crash out during the first leg on Friday and Frenchman Sebastien Loeb follow suit a day later.

Loeb managed to take part on Sunday but after four stage victories his Citroen was forced to retire with oil problems on the penultimate stage.

It meant Loeb was unable to take advantage of the chance to close in on Gronholm in the race for the world title.

“I really would like Marcus (Gronholm) to take the title and all I can do to help is be ahead of Sebastien (Loeb),” added Hirvonen. “But at the same time we couldn’t lose manufacturer points.

“The whole weekend was very, very difficult. It was very good and, of course, I am happy for myself. I got the win and important points.

“Because it’s Marcus’ last year, I want to help him get the title. It’s been very good with Marcus for the last two years; he has done a great deal to help me, which is why I will do as much as I can for him.”

Loeb trails Gronholm by four points with two races remaining.

BP-Ford World Rally Team principal Malcolm Wilson confessed he was pleased the weekend ended on a high note after a poor start for his team.

“It’s certainly better than it was on Friday,” he said. “Like Mikko said, the whole team was down. If you look at Marcus’ record it was Sardinia last year that he didn’t finish in the points.

“As the event unfolded it put a whole new perspective on things and brought more pressure on Mikko.

“We had the rally in the bag, subject to driver error. Mikko did a fantastic job, thinking about the manufacturers’ points as well.

“We did have a little conversation, that he didn’t take too kindly to, but what can I say – he did a fantastic job here.”

Briton Matthew Wilson secured his best-ever WRC finish as he took fourth place after moving ahead in the final full-length stage while Luis Perez Companc ended the rally 2.5secs behind in fifth.

Manfred Stohl finished sixth in his OMV Kronos Citroen, Federico Villagra took seventh, local driver Katsuhiko Taguchi claimed eighth while Gabriel Pozzo and Armindo Araujo completed the top 10.

Final Overall positions after Special Stage 27:

1 Mikko Hirvonen (Fin) Ford 3hrs 23mins 57.600secs,

2 Dani Sordo (Spa) Citroen 3:24:35.000,

3 Henning Solberg (Nor) Ford 3:28:31.300,

4 Matthew Wilson (Gbr) Ford 3:30:35.500,

5 Luis Perez Companc (Arg) Ford 3:30:38.000,

6 Manfred Stohl (Aut) Citroen 3:31:01.900,

7 Federico Villagra (Arg) Ford 3:35:12.900,

8 K. Taguchi (Jpn) Mitsubishi 3:44:37.700,

9 Gabriel Pozzo (Arg) Mitsubishi 3:45:50.600,

10 Armindo Araujo (Por) Mitsubishi 3:48:11.100