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2009 Acropolis Rally
The 2009 Acropolis Rally of Greece was the 56th running of the Acropolis Rally and the seventh round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season. The rally consisted of 17 special stages. Ford's Mikko Hirvonen took his first win of the season and Citroën Junior Team's Sébastien Ogier his first-ever podium position. Hirvonen's teammate Jari-Matti Latvala climbed back to third place after going off the road and dropping from first to 11th place on the first day. Citroën's championship leader Sébastien Loeb crashed out from third place, and Dani Sordo broke his suspension while running second, right behind Hirvonen. Stobart M-Sport Ford's fifth-placed driver Henning Solberg crashed into the same rock as Sordo and also retired. Petter Solberg found himself Hirvonen's main challenger for the win, but also had to retire with a broken suspension. With mechanical problems for Mads Østberg and Evgeny Novikov, who took his first-ever stage win in the event, Federico Villagra finishe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2009 World Rally Championship Season
The 2009 World Rally Championship was the 37th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of twelve rallies and began on 30 January, with Rally Ireland and ended with Rally GB on 25 October. Sébastien Loeb won the World Drivers' championship at Rally GB by one point from Mikko Hirvonen, taking his sixth consecutive crown. Citroën secured their fifth Manufacturers' title, Martin Prokop won the JWRC Drivers' championship and Armindo Araujo won the PWRC Drivers' championship. Regulation changes The number of mechanics available per car has been dropped from 12 to 8. Calendar The 2009 championship was contested over twelve rounds in Europe, South America and Oceania. The 2009 season included twelve rallies, which was three fewer than the 2008 season, because the FIA imposed a "Round Rotation" System in order to attract candidate rallies to have a chance to be a WRC event. Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, Jordan, Turkey, Germany, New Zealand, France and Ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petter Solberg
Petter Solberg (born 18 November 1974) is a Norwegian former professional rally and rallycross driver. Solberg debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1998 and was signed by the Ford factory team in 1999. The following year, Solberg started his successful partnership with the Subaru World Rally Team. With the Subaru works team, Solberg finished runner-up to Marcus Grönholm in 2002 and then became the first Norwegian to win the drivers' world title in 2003. In the following two seasons, he finished runner-up to Sébastien Loeb. Following Subaru's withdrawal from the WRC at the end of the 2008 season, Solberg secured private backing to start the Petter Solberg World Rally Team and competed with a Citroën Xsara WRC, a Citroën C4 WRC and a Citroën DS3 WRC. In 2012 Petter returned to a factory team, joining the Ford World Rally Team 12 years after making his WRC debut with the same team. He switched to rallycross for the 2013 season, and in the 2014 he became the inaugura ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miikka Anttila
Miikka Anttila (born 10 September 1972) is a Finnish rally co-driver, currently teaming with Jari-Matti Latvala at Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT. Anttila has previously served alongside such drivers as Mikko Hirvonen, Janne Tuohino and Kosti Katajamäki. Career Debuting in the World Rally Championship in 1999, Anttila began co-driving Latvala at the 2003 Rallye Deutschland and got his first win at the 2008 Swedish Rally. He missed the birth of his second child to participate in the Rally de Espana in 2011. He joined Volkswagen Motorsport after its formation as a manufacturer team in 2013. For 2017, Anttila is racing for the works Toyota team. At the 2018 Tour de Corse, Anttila made his 197th WRC start which made him the most experienced competitor in the history of the sport. The record was previously held by Spanish driver and two times world-champion Carlos Sainz who started 196 events. He became the first-ever competitor to start 200 rallies in the WRC at the 2018 Rally d'Italia. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Citroën C4 WRC
The Citroën C4 WRC is a World Rally Car built for the Citroën World Rally Team by Citroën Racing to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Citroën C4 road car and replaced the Citroën Xsara WRC. The car was introduced for the 2007 World Rally Championship season and has taken the drivers' title each year since in the hands of Sébastien Loeb, as well as the manufacturers' title in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The C4 WRC and Loeb maintained a 100% record on asphalt events during its WRC career, winning all 13 pure asphalt rounds of the World Rally Championship. Competition history 2007 The car made its debut at the 2007 Monte Carlo Rally in the hands of Citroën World Rally Team drivers Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Sordo. Loeb won the rally after leading throughout, with Sordo finishing as runner-up, with the pair winning the first nine of 15 stages. Loeb went on to win seven of the remaining 15 rallies that season to beat Ford's Marcus Grönholm to the title ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julien Ingrassia
Julien Ingrassia (born 26 November 1979) is a retired French rally co-driver. Working with Sébastien Ogier, he became World Rally Champion in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 with Volkswagen Motorsport, 2017 and 2018 with M-Sport World Rally Team, and in 2020 and 2021 with Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT. Rally career While starting his professional life as a salesman, Julien Ingrassia discovered rallying and made his debut as a codriver in 2002 in France's Critérium des Cévennes. For several years, he gained experience in regional rallies, and then competed in the Peugeot 206 Cup in 2004. At the end of 2005, he attended the Rallye Jeunes selection organised by the French Federation and discovered Sébastien Ogier, winner that year. They teamed up for the 2006 season in the Rallye Jeunes FFSA team and Julien codrived Sébastien for his first rallies and his first wins in the Peugeot 206 Cup. Together, they learnt their work in regional and national rallies and then quickly entered the i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ford Focus RS WRC
The Ford Focus RS WRC is a car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford Europe and M-Sport and based on the Ford Focus Climate 2-litre production hatchback, developed to compete in the World Rally Championship. The RS stands for ''Rallye Sport'' and the WRC for ''World Rally Car'', the car's FIA specification. The Focus RS WRC was in competition from 1999 to 2010, winning 44 world rallies and two manufacturers' world titles (2006 and 2007). It was replaced by the Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Like all contemporary World Rally Cars, the car is heavily modified from the production version, with which it shares only the basic shape and some parts of the bodyshell. The car features four-wheel drive, rather than the front-wheel drive of the road car. The engine used in the 2007 Focus WRC is based on Ford's 2.0 Litre Duratec from other models in the Focus range as rallying rules do not permit the standard 2.5-litre engine of the Focus ST or road going RS. As with most rally cars, the 2.0-litre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jarmo Lehtinen
Jarmo Lehtinen (born 3 January 1969) is a rally co-driver from Finland. He was the co-driver to former World Rally Championship driver Mikko Hirvonen and have scored 15 WRC wins competing under Ford World Rally Team and Citroën Total. As of 2019, he is current co-driver for M-Sport driver Teemu Suninen. Career Lehtinen started co-driving in 1988 alongside friend Jari Mikkola. He later partnered Marko Ramanen in the Finnish Rally Championship, and he made his WRC debut in the 1997 Rally Finland. In 1999 Lehtinen partnered Ramanen in the British Rally Championship and accompanied Jouni Ampuja to sixth in Group N in the Finnish Championship. He worked with Ampuja in the Finnish Championship for another two seasons. In 2002 he took up a new role in the gravel crew for Skoda driver Toni Gardemeister on the world championship. He also began to work with Hirvonen on international events. The pair have worked together on all their WRC outings since 2003, with Subaru in 2004 and with F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Production World Rally Championship
The FIA Production World Rally Championship, or PWRC, was a companion rally series to the World Rally Championship, contested by Group N rally cars. History The series started in 1987 as ''FIA Cup for Production Rally Drivers'' and obtained the world championship status in 2002. The eligible cars were still Group N modified road cars such as the Subaru Impreza WRX and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Between 2007 and 2009 the PWRC allowed Super 2000 cars alongside regular Group N entries. In 2010 the S2000 cars were moved to a dedicated championship named SWRC (Super 2000 World Championship). With the introduction of Group R cars since 2008, the PWRC was cancelled at the end of 2012 and was replaced by the World Rally Championship-3 open exclusively to 2WD based cars homologated in R1, R2 and R3 classes. The 4WD Group N cars were moved to the new World Rally Championship-2 alongside S2000, RRC, R4 and R5 cars. Results Drivers' Championship See also *Junior World Rally Champion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nasser Al-Attiyah
Nasser Salih Nasser Abdullah Al-Attiyah ( ar, ناصر صالح ناصر عبدالله العطية : nāṣir ṣāliḥ nāṣir ʿabdullāh al-ʿaṭṭīyah; born 21 December 1970 in Doha) is a Qatari rally driver and sport shooter. He was the 2006 Production World Rally Champion, 2014 and 2015 WRC-2 champion, a 16 time Middle East Rally Champion, five times winner of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, and a quadruple (2011, 2015, 2019, 2022) Dakar Rally winner. His four victories in the Dakar Rally make him the only Middle Easterner and West Asian to win the competition more than once. In shooting, Al-Attiyah won the bronze medal in the men's skeet event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Career Rallying Al-Attiyah has competed in the Middle East Rally Championship since 2003, having claimed 65 race wins and 13 titles. He drove a Subaru Impreza until 2009 and a Ford Fiesta since 2010, except in 2012 when he drove Peugeot 207 in two rounds, and in 2016 when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lambros Athanassoulas
Lambros Athanassoulas (born November 10, 1976, in Athens) is a Greek rally driver. Career Athanassoulas graduated from the American College of Greece and got a BEng in Mechanical Engineering and an M.A. in Finance from the University of Westminster. He started racing in 2001, after winning a competition by Greek magazine 4 Wheels and Toyota Hellas. This earned him the chance to drive a Toyota Yaris rally car. In 2005 he won the A5 class of the Greek Rally Championship driving a Ford Puma Kit Car. This led to him becoming an official driver for Ford Motor Hellas. This included making his World Rally Championship debut in a Ford Fiesta S1600 at the 2005 Acropolis Rally. In 2006 Athanassoulas competed in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, as part of the WRC. In 2007 and 2008 he competed at his home event of the WRC in a Group N Subaru Impreza. For the 2009 Acropolis Rally, Athanassoulas competed in a Škoda Fabia S2000, winning the PWRC class and finishing eighth overall. He followed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khalid Al-Qassimi
Sheikh Khalid bin Faisal bin Sultan Al Qassimi ( ar, الشيخ خالد بن فيصل بن سلطان القاسمي) is a rally driver from the United Arab Emirates, and a member of the royal house of Al Qasimi who rule the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah, and has competed in the World Rally Championship and Dakar Rally. Family Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi is the son of Sheikh Faisal bin Sultan Al Qassimi and Sheikha Moza bint Hilal Al Nahyan. Career Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi won the FIA Middle East Cup for Drivers of Production Cars in 2002 and the FIA Middle East Rally Championship in 2004. At the half way stage of the 2007 World Rally Championship season, a joint venture between the BP Ford World Rally Team and the Abu Dhabi Tourism Board was announced to bring a third official Focus RS WRC to the team's World Rally Championship campaign. With heavy sponsorship from the latter, Khalid was given a chance to drive alongside Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala in the e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conrad Rautenbach
Conrad Rautenbach (born 12 November 1984) is a rally driver from Zimbabwe who competed in the World Rally Championship for the Citroën Junior Team along with his co-driver Daniel Barritt. He won the African Rally Championship twice, in 2007 and 2011. Career He drove for the privately run PH Sport team with Urmo Aava in a Citroën C4 WRC for the 2008 season, where he achieved points finishes on two occasions, an 8th at Rally Turkey and a best result of 4th at the Rally Argentina. However, he also had some bizarre moments in 2008, not least of which the now infamous collision with Sébastien Loeb at the Jordan Rally where both cars managed to collide head-on forcing both to retire instantly. For 2009 Rautenbach joined the Citroën Junior Team where he continued to campaign in a Citroën C4 WRC. On Rally Ireland, the first event of the season, Rautenbach had a promising first day, setting stage times consistently in the top eight, and ended the day in fifth place. However ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
