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Photo: Ford World Rally Team

The 2012 WRC Rally Mexico was a difficult event for the Ford team. Petter Solberg was slowed with four flats, while Jari-Matti Latvala rolled after being distracted by a crashed car. With a very hard won third place finish, Solberg indicated he’s a strong contender for the 2012 title race in his WRC Ford Fiesta RS.

First and second place went to the Citroen teams of Sebastian Loeb and Daniel Elena, and Mikko Hirvonen with Jarmo Lehtinen. But their success may be short lived if Petter Solberg has his way.

“I was very happy with my podium in Mexico,” wrote Solberg in a column for Crash.net. “We showed that both works Fords will be able to really give Citroen a battle this season and that is very encouraging.”

Photo: Ford World Rally Team

Having won Rally Mexico in 2004, Solberg was the last driver to win the event before Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb’s dominance. At that time, Solberg was driving for Subaru World Rally Team, and was the defending World Champion. Though he went on to win five of the 16 events on the 2004 calendar, Solberg, three DNFs mid season ultimately handed Loeb the advantage he needed to win the first in a record breaking string of WRC titles.

Petter Solberg got his start in the WRC in 1999, with a three year contract as a junior driver with Ford. That year, Solberg was nominated as a points scoring driver at the Safari Rally after Thomas Radstrom was forced to withdraw ahead of the event with a an injury.

However, in a move that likely upset Ford management, Solberg broke his contract a year later to move to Subaru, where he was a third driver, behind Richard Burns and Juha Kankkunen. Team orders meant Solberg didn’t earn his first podium until the 2001 Acropolis Rally.

A year later, with Tommi Makinen as teammate, Solberg won his first WRC event, at Rally GB, after Marcus Gronholm crashed out.

Solberg repeated the win a year later to cement his driver’s championship.

“It’s incredible, I’m completely knackered,” said a breathless Solberg after winning the 2003 title. “It’s been a very hard year, with so many ups, and so many downs. Just very good fun for the whole team. This has been a biggest dream in the world.”

2006 WRC Rally Acropolis (Photo: Artur6969 | Dreamstime.com)

Solberg stayed with Subaru through 2008, with continually decreasing luck, and a seemingly untouchable opponent in Loeb and Citroen. By the end of the year, owing partly to a worsening world economy, but ore likely worsening results in competition, Subaru withdrew from WRC competition. Since then, rule changes have more or less precluded the Japanese manufacturer from returning to the WRC.

With all teams pulling back their commitments, Solberg was unable to find a factory drive and sat out the first event of 2009. After putting together private sponsorship, Solberg got his hands on a 2006 specification Citroen Xsara.

2009 WRC Rally Sardegna (Photo: Sekdo | Dreamstime.com)

With an obviously outclassed car, Solberg continued to battle on events, and in between events, battle for better equipment. By the end of the season, Solberg had a 2009 spec Citroen C4, which brought him closer to the leaders.

2010 WRC Rally Bulgaria (Photo: Bstefanov | Dreamstime.com)

Yet, without teammates, and a more careful consideration of strategy, Solberg often found himself leading an event, only to be sweeping the road for drivers behind, and dropping back out of contention.

2010 WRC Rally Mexico (Photo: Odm | Dreamstime.com)

In the middle of the 2010 season, Solberg’s team suffered another blow – the retirement of long time co-driver Phil Mills, who announced he wanted to focus on other things in life. The two had a continuous run of 152 rallies together, and many memorable moments, including the 2003 title.

2011 WRC Rally Sweden (Photo: Mhjerpe | Dreamstime.com)

Taking up co-driving duties has been Chris Patterson, who also drove the power stage at the 2011 Rally Sweden, where Solberg had lost his driver’s license.

Difficulties nearing the end of the 2011 season saw Loeb sit out the Rally GB, when an end of season driver shuffle saw him earn a shot with the team that started it all – Ford – as the junior driver to the younger Jari-Matti Latvala.

The contrast has been clear. While Jari-Matti still occasionally exhibits his youth by getting distracted, Solberg’s driving is measured, yet incredibly fast.

The result has been a Ford team with a seemingly renewed energy, drivers hungry to win and a car that is every bit as capable as the competition.

2012 WRC Rallye Monte Carlo (Photo: Pierre Jean Durieu | Dreamstime.com)

“By the end of the event I had posted twelve top-three times and taken three stage wins. The Fiesta RS WRC was fantastic,” said Solberg. “I was extremely happy with it and to achieve this on my first gravel event with the car was just unbelievable. The Fiesta is extremely competitive on the loose and I am absolutely convinced we can do very well during the rest of the season.”

After opening the 2012 WRC Rally Mexico with the fastest time in the qualifying run, Solberg bookended the event by winning the Power stage, to take the maximum extra points for the driver’s title.

“It was nice for me to take the Power Stage win at the end as well,” wrote Solberg. “Scoring is always important, but there is something a bit magical about the Power Stage. It is at the back of your mind during the event and then to actually pull it off and set the best time in it is just great.”

Despite his status as second driver with Ford, Solberg is now third in the driver’s standings, and the highest ranked Ford driver, with nearly double the points of Latvala. Ford also had success with non-works drivers Mads Ostberg, Ott Tanak and Ken Block all finishing inside the top ten.

At the end of March, teams will take on Rally Portugal. With such positive results so far, Solberg could be the driver to outdo Loeb.

Jari-Matti Latvala (Photo: FordWRC)

Latvala was fastest on the qualifying stage, giving the Finn first choice of road position. By smartly choosing a position down the order, Latvala was able to take advantage of a road surface swept clean by those ahead of him.

“Four years ago I won my first world rally here and became the youngest driver to do so,” said Latvala. “To come back and win for a second time is very special. After retiring from the first round last month, I was under heavy pressure to do well.”

With a comfortable lead heading into the final stages on Sunday, Latvala clipped a rock, getting a flat tire. However, the Finn was able to stay calm, and make the most of the remaining stages to preserve his first place position.

“It feels like a heavy weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I’ve learned to stay calm when things go wrong and that paid dividends today. I knew Mikko [Hirvonen] would attack hard this morning so I was wide awake and ready for it. I had a comfortable lead before everything changed with just two stages to go, but I kept my cool,” added Latvala.

Unable to catch Latvala, Hirvonen was able to hold onto a second place position to the end of the rally. Though Sweden is billed as the only true winter rally on the WRC calendar, competitors had to drive on stages with exposed gravel, doing damage to the studded tires normally used for snow and ice.

Mikko Hirvonen (Photo: Citroen Racing Media)

“It was a very complicated stage, with a lot of gravel,” said Hirvonen, after the Lesjöfors 2 stage. “I am pleased that I felt good in the car again. Jari-Matti’s puncture puts him under a little bit of pressure, but I’ll keep to my race plan. First and foremost, we have to finish the rally.”

Hirvonen’s finish was the lone bright spot for the Citroen team. Early problems for Sebastian Loeb – an uncharachteristic mistake costing minutes – put the Frenchman out of contention, ultimately finishing sixth, though Loeb did manage to win the Power Stage, earning three points in his bid for a ninth career WRC title.

A tight battle took place for third overall between Norwegians Petter Solberg and Mads Ostberg. Solberg again showed his ability to quickly adapt to the Ford team, and held third for most of the rally, just 4.9 seconds ahead of Ostberg, until clipping the same rock Latvala hit and getting a puncture.

“I was disappointed to lose third, but I’m third in the championship and closed on the leader so it was a good weekend,” said Solberg. “I hit the same rock as Jari-Matti. I wasn’t cutting the bend but it was in the middle of the ruts and I couldn’t avoid it. It’s my first rally in the Fiesta RS WRC on the loose and I’m really encouraged to have been so competitively so quickly.”

Solberg went on to finish second on the power stage, and is in a good position in the driver’s championship heading into the first gravel rally of the year, Rally Mexico.

Petter Solberg (Photo: FordWRC)

Ford and M-Sport celebrated their 50th WRC win together, and enjoyed a stellar showing from both factory and private Ford team drivers. Ford Fiestas took seven of the top ten spots at the end of the rally, with only the two factory Citroens and the Mini of Patrick Sandell, finishing eighth.

Loeb retains the lead in the driver’s standings, with 39 points. He is followed by Hirvonen with 32, Solberg with 29 and Latvala with 26. Despite Ford’s strong showing, Citroen still leads in teh manufacturer’s standings with 65 points, while Ford is second with 55. M-Sport Ford WRT is third with 28, just ahead of the Mini World Rally Team with 26.

The next event on the WRC calendar is Rally Mexico, March 8-11, 2012.

Heading into the final stages, Antoine L’Estage and Nathalie Richard held a commanding lead. They had started the day by taking the lead, and had build a greater and greater margin heading into the second half of the day.

“It can be difficult to keep your concentration on those long night stages,” said L’Estage.

Difficult or not, L’Estage and Richard showed why the trophy shelves at home are built so strongly, winning the rally. It is L’Estage’s fifth win at Perce Neige, and Richard’s 100^th career start.

“It’s great to win here, and everything just works,” said Richard. “It’s also nice to have lots of snow on the roads, unlike last weekend at Sno*Drift [in Michigan].”

However, the teams behind were not always so composed.

Crazy Leo Urlichich and Carl Williamson were clawing their way back up the order after taking penalties and throwing the car into a telephone pole – an accident that caused no injury and no mechancial damage to the car aside from mangled bodyowrk – and looked as if they might catch third place Sylvain and Simon Vincent. In fact, they did make up the time, and finished second after a rival lost concentration, with unfortunate consequences.

“It’s incredible. After everything we’ve gone through today, to have such a good finish is amazing,” said Urlichich, who finished second. “We all made mistakes, but we tried so hard and it has paid off.

Bruno Carre and Yvan Joyal, who typically have good form and speed on ice and snow, rolled their car in the final stages, eventually getting back on the wheels and continuing, but not before dropping a lot of time and six positions, finishing eighth.

Meanwhile, the Vincent father-son team stuck to a strategy that shows why father Sylvain is aiming for a top ten ranking in lifetime driver standings.

“You have to be careful, like I said thins morning,” said Sylvain. “I thought we would get top five, but third is much better and gives really good points for my goal for the lifetime standings.”

Further down the order, Peter Kocandrle and Angela Cosner finished as the top two wheel drive car, 40 minutes back from the leaders, but 40 minutes up on their closest rival.

“Everything was great until the last four stages,” said Kocandrle. “We had a flat and had to change it, then we caught another car, and the spun in front of us and then backed into us, breaking one of our lights.”

Nevertheless, Kocandrle, who has support from Open Road Motorsports for the season, is thrilled by the result, and is looking forward to a busy 2012.

“I’m hoping to do all four Eastern Canadian nationals and maybe two US events, and try to go for the North American championship.”

Warren Haywood and John Hall wrapped up the Production GT class, the only non-Open class car in the top ten, finishing ninth overall.

Simon Losier, who was not in his usual car, was nevertheless smooth enough to get he and co-driver Brian Maxwell into a fifth place finish, just ahead of Joel Levac and Stephanie Lewis, in sixth.

So many teams reported triangles, and cars off the road, fans were wondering who was going to make it to the finish. The Rallye Perce Neige is always demanding and even finishing is an achievement.

“The Tortue stage is the biggest challenge in Canada. To finish it is an achievement,” said Clerk of the Course, Sylvain Erickson. “To see the speeds everyone was going was incredible. It was a great rally and great conditions.”

The Canadian Rally Championship next goes to Alberta, for the Rocky Mountain Rally in late May. Rocky has wildly unpredictable weather, and in the past four years, we’ve seen everything from bright hot sunny days to cold slush and snow to mud. Be sure to join us!