Argentina : Stobart M-Sport Ford - FinishThe Stobart VK M-Sport Ford team have successfully reclaimed third spot from Subaru's factory outfit in the Manufacturers' championship after Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila and Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud both finished Rally
Argentina in top five positions overall.
The team backed-up the official BP-Ford World Rally Team to assist in the amazing result of four Ford Focus WRC cars in the top five overall positions.
Latvala drove a solid rally to finish equal with his best ever WRC result, in fourth, while team-mate Solberg held off a charging Dani Sordo to claim fifth place. After retiring from leg two on the opening stage, Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr re-started the final day finishing the event in 30th position.
This was, by far, one of the most oddly structured rallies the WRC has seen in many years. The event was shortened considerably when bad weather on Thursday stranded competitors and officials in Buenos Aires after the opening Super Special stage at the River Plate Stadium. This left competitors with a ‘free day' on Friday, after all seven proper stages of leg 1 were cancelled, with the only competitive action taking place on the Cordoba Super Special stage on Friday evening.
Due to the cancellation of 124.
5 kilometres of competitive route officials made the decision to add one more running of the Mina Clavero – Giulio Cesare stage during leg 3 in order for the event to have the sufficient distance to qualify for full championship points.
Overall conditions branched from one extreme to the other with blue skies being exchanged with fog and torrential downpours even during the same morning. Today played host to the highest elevated stage in El Condor – Copina at 2195 metreswhich, with its lunar type landscape, climbed well over the cloud line from foggy conditions into almost surreal sunshine and clear skies.
Solberg started off slowly with a puncture on stage 11, but after making some changes to his car during the day, battled back to an impressive fifth position; ready to hunt down team-mate Latvala sitting close in fourth. The final leg battle started early but thick morning fog impaired the vision of the Norwegian who dropped back to sixth. He picked up the pace again, finishing the penultimate stage third fastest, reclaiming fifth position but unable to reach his team-mate in fourth.
Latvala yet again showed he will be one to watch out for in the not too distant future, quietly climbing the leaderboard all rally to equal his best ever WRC finish. This year is all about experience for the speedy Finn who is proving his maturity as a driver, able to beat more experienced competitors while still maintaining a fairly issue-free rally for himself and his Stobart VK M-Sport Ford team.
20-year-old Wilson had an unfortunate start to his Argentine campaign, when he retired 14 kilometres into stage 10, after the on-board displays in his Ford Focus RS WRC06 went completely blank. On arrival back into service, the team traced the problem to a severed electrical cable carrying power to the ignition system.
The young Brit re-entered the final leg only to have another, un-related, electrical issue but still managed to finish all five stages with top ten times including a fourth quickest on the final test.
Stobart M-Sport Ford
