2007 Rally Ireland

2007 Rally Ireland 1st Rally Ireland
Round 15 of the 2007 World Rally Championship ← Previous event Next event →
Benbulbin Mountain, in County Sligo, Ireland.
Host country	Ireland / Northern Ireland
Rally base	Sligo, County Sligo, Republic of Ireland
Dates run	November 15 – 18 2007
Stages	20 (328.43 km; 204.08 miles)
Stage surface	Tarmac
Overall distance	1,196.25 km (743.32 miles)
Statistics
Crews	84 at start, 66 at finish
Overall results
Overall winner	Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team

Marcus Grönholm retired.

The 2007 Rally Ireland, the first Rally Ireland and fifteenth round of the 2007 World Rally Championship, was a motor rally run from 15 to 18 November. It took place over eight counties on both sides of the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Event started in Stormont, Belfast and finished in Mullaghmore, County Sligo.

Report

The rally began with the first special stage in front of Stormont Castle in Belfast, which Marcus Grönholm won on Thursday evening. The next day, in the fourth special stage, Grönholm hit a wall hard, and he and co-driver Timo Rautiainen were taken to hospital as a precaution. Both remained unhurt, but withdrew from the rally.

Citroën driver Sébastien Loeb took a step towards his fourth Drivers' World Championship title, taking the lead again in the drivers' standings. His advantage over his rival Grönholm, who retired on Friday after a serious accident, had been six points before the last round of the world championship. Mikko Hirvonen finished fourth, securing the second manufacturers' world championship title in a row for the Ford team.

Jari-Matti Latvala was third, taking his first WRC podium. Latvala edged out Hirvonen from third place on Friday. He was able to hold this position to the finish despite briefly going off the road on Saturday, losing a little time.

Results

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Difference	Points
WRC
1.	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3:01:39.2	0.0	10
2.	Dani Sordo	Marc Martí	Citroën C4 WRC	3:02:32.6	53.4	8
3.	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC 06	3:03:27.4	1:48.2	6
4.	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC 07	3:03:56.9	2:17.7	5
5.	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC 07	3:04:35.0	2:55.8	4
6.	Guy Wilks	Phil Pugh	Subaru Impreza WRC	3:07:37.1	5:57.9	3
7.	Matthew Wilson	Michael Orr	Ford Focus RS WRC 06	3:11:44.1	10:04.9	2
8.	Gareth McHale	Allan Harryman	Ford Focus RS WRC 06	3:12:47.5	11:08.3	1
PCWRC
1. (10.)	Niall McShea	Marshall Clarke	Subaru Impreza	3:18:11.3	0.0	10
2. (11.)	Gabriel Pozzo	Daniel Stillo	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:18:55.4	44.1	8
3. (17.)	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Chris Patterson	Subaru Impreza C 07	3:22:42.4	4:31.1	6
4. (18.)	Simone Campedelli	Danilo Fappani	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:24:47.2	6:35.9	5
5. (20.)	Štěpán Vojtěch	Michal Ernst	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:26:45.4	8:34.1	4
6. (21.)	Fumio Nutahara	Daniel Barritt	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:27:32.8	9:21.5	3
7. (22.)	Colm Murphy	Ger Loughrey	Subaru Impreza	3:27:34.6	9:23.3	2
8. (23.)	Philip Morrow	David Senior	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:28:46.9	10:35.6	1

Retirements

• Eugene Donnelly - mechanical (SS4);
• Marcus Grönholm - went off the road - hit the wall (SS4);
• Xavier Pons - mechanical - engine (SS4);
• Andreas Aigner - went off the road (SS7);
• Kris Meeke - mechanical (SS9);
• Andrew Nesbitt - went off the road (SS11);
• Gareth Jones - mechanical (SS11);
• Ray Breen - went off the road (SS11);
• Tim McNulty - mechanical (SS12);
• Manfred Stohl - mechanical (SS13);
• Mark Higgins - rolled (SS16) ;
• Leszek Kuzaj - mechanical (SS16);
• Patrik Flodin - mechanical (SS17);
• Armindo Araújo - went off the road (SS19);

Special Stages

All dates and times are GMT (UTC).

Leg	Stage	Time	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Avg. spd.	Rally leader
1 (15/16 Nov)	SSS1	19:00 (15-Nov)	Stormont	1.82 km	M. Grönholm	1:30.8	72.16 km/h	M. Grönholm
	SS2	08:05 (16-Nov)	Geevagh 1	11.47 km	S. Loeb	6:05.7	112.92 km/h	S. Loeb
	SS3	08:33	Arigna 1	27.89 km	D. Sordo	15:44.0	106.36 km/h
	SS4	09:24	Lough Gill 1	20.56 km	D. Sordo	10:54.7	113.05 km/h	D. Sordo
	SS5	11:29	Geevagh 2	11.47 km	S. Loeb	6:22.0	108.09 km/h	S. Loeb
	SS6	11:57	Arigna 2	27.89 km	S. Loeb	16:09.6	103.55 km/h
	SS7	12:48	Lough Gill 2	20.56 km	D. Sordo	10:55.5	112.92 km/h
	SS8	15:01	Glenboy	22.25 km	S. Loeb	11:56.0	111.87 km/h
	SS9	15:54	Bencroy	15.43 km	D. Sordo	8:21.3	110.81 km/h
	SS10	16:19	Drumshanbo	8.65 km	S. Loeb	5:00.3	103.70 km/h
2 (17 Nov)	SS11	8:13	Sloughan Glen 1	20.95 km	S. Loeb	11:37.7	108.10 km/h
	SS12	09:08	Ballinamallard 1	17.95 km	S. Loeb	9:35.9	112.21 km/h
	SS13	09:51	Tempo 1	13.46 km	S. Loeb	7:31.6	107.30 km/h
	SS14	14:04	Sloughan Glen 2	20.95 km	C. Atkinson	11:25.7	109.99 km/h
	SS15	14:59	Ballinamallard 2	17.95 km	S. Loeb	9:30.7	113.23 km/h
	SS16	15:42	Tempo 2	13.46 km	J-M. Latvala	7:28.9	107.94 km/h
3 (18 Nov)	SS17	09:03	Murley	24.70 km	M. Hirvonen	13:19.9	111.16 km/h
	SS18	09:51	Fardross	14.77 km	M. Hirvonen	8:49.8	100.36 km/h
	SS19	11:39	Donegal Bay	14.06 km	J-M. Latvala	7:00.9	120.26 km/h
	SS20	13:08	Mullaghmore	2.38 km	P. Solberg	1:16.9	111.42 km/h

Championship standings after the event

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 1 110 2 Marcus Grönholm 3 1 2 2 4 2 1 1 1 4 1 3 2 Ret Ret 104 3 Mikko Hirvonen 5 3 1 3 5 3 2 4 2 3 3 4 13 1 4 89 4 Dani Sordo 2 12 25 4 3 6 3 24 Ret Ret 6 2 3 2 2 61 5 Petter Solberg 6 Ret 4 Ret 2 Ret 5 3 Ret 6 7 6 5 Ret 5 42 6 Henning Solberg 14 4 3 9 9 5 4 5 5 14 9 10 9 3 16 34 7 Jari-Matti Latvala Ret Ret 5 7 8 4 9 12 Ret 8 5 7 4 26 3 30 8 Chris Atkinson 4 8 19 5 Ret 7 10 6 4 15 4 8 6 Ret 42 29 9 François Duval Ret 2 5 Ret 12 Manfred Stohl 10 7 12 6 10 8 7 8 Ret Ret 12 Ret 14 6 Ret 12 11 Jan Kopecký 8 10 8 22 Ret 7 Ret 5 Ret 7 10 Toni Gardemeister 7 6 Ret DSQ 6 7 10 13 Daniel Carlsson 5 7 6 Ret 9 14 Matthew Wilson 12 Ret 26 8 12 30 12 10 10 9 10 11 Ret 4 7 8 15 Gigi Galli 13 6 7 5 16 Luís Pérez Companc 15 19 DNS 28 Ret 11 11 23 Ret 5 4 Xavier Pons 25 Ret 16 6 18 Ret 9 8 36 Ret 4 18 Guy Wilks Ret Ret 9 9 10 6 3 Urmo Aava 28 15 13 14 7 12 8 18 Ret 18 3 20 Federico Villagra DNS 9 11 32 14 11 13 7 2 21 Juho Hänninen DSQ 17 11 8 Ret Ret 19 23 24 1 Mads Østberg 9 37 Ret Ret 8 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 Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Manufacturers' championship

Rank	Manufacturer	Event																Total points
		MON	SWE	NOR	MEX	POR	ARG	ITA	GRC	FIN	GER	NZL	ESP	FRA	JPN	IRL	GBR
1	BP Ford World Rally Team	10	16	18	14	9	14	18	15	18	11	16	11	9	10	5	-	194
2	Citroën Total World Rally Team	18	9	1	15	16	13	6	8	6	10	11	18	16	8	18	-	173
3	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford	1	5	10	3	2	9	7	4	4	5	5	2	7	7	9	-	80
4	Subaru World Rally Team	8	2	5	4	8	2	5	9	5	5	7	4	7	2	6	-	79
5	OMV Kronos	2	7	5	3	4	1	3	2	0	8	0	4	0	4	0	-	43
6	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team		0		0		0	0	1	5		0	0		8		-	14

External links

• Results on the official site: WRC.com
• Stage Time List on rallyireland.org
• Results on eWRC.com
• Results at Jonkka's World Rally Archive