2007 Wales Rally GB

2007 Rally GB 63rd Wales Rally of Great Britain
Round 16 of the 2007 World Rally Championship ←  Previous event
Rally winner Mikko Hirvonen.
Host country	United Kingdom
Rally base	Cardiff, Wales
Dates run	November 30 – December 2, 2007
Stages	17 (359.54 km; 223.41 miles)
Stage surface	Gravel
Statistics
Crews	108 at start, 83 at finish
Overall results
Overall winner	Mikko Hirvonen BP Ford World Rally Team

The 2007 Wales Rally GB (formally known as 63rd Wales Rally of Great Britain) was the 16th round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. The race was held over three days between 30 November and 2 December 2007.

Report

Sébastien Loeb became world champion for the fourth time in a row. He had thus equaled Tommi Mäkinen's record. Third place at the season finale in Wales was enough for the Citroën driver. Loeb started the last world championship race of the season six points ahead of his rival Marcus Grönholm. Grönholm was able to make up two points with second place, and in the end Loeb had a four-point lead in the drivers' standings.

Rally won Grönholm teammate Mikko Hirvonen. He took the lead with four special stage best times on Friday. Hirvonen was 15.2 seconds clear of second-placed Gronholm to secure his fourth WRC win of his career.

Subaru driver Petter Solberg came fourth behind the leading trio. He was able to conclude such a season with moderate success in a reasonably forgiving manner. Fourth place and his teammate Chris Atkinson's seventh place secured Subaru third place in the Manufacturers' Championship ahead of the Stobart team. Days two and three were dominated by young M-Sport driver Jari-Matti Latvala, who had already been confirmed as a driver for Ford for next year. However, since he had lost almost ten minutes on the first day due to a broken windshield wiper, he was only able to finish tenth.

Results

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Difference	Points
WRC
1.	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC 07	3:22:50.9	0.0	10
2.	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC 07	3:23:06.1	15.2	8
3.	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3:24:23.9	1:33.0	6
4.	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC2007	3:25:48.2	2:57.3	5
5.	Dani Sordo	Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	3:26:05.2	3:14.3	4
6.	Matthew Wilson	Michael Orr	Ford Focus WRC 06	3:30:23.8	7:32.9	3
7.	Chris Atkinson	Stéphane Prévot	Subaru Impreza WRC2007	3:31:20.4	8:29.5	2
8.	Manfred Stohl	Ilka Minor	Citroën Xsara WRC	3:31:45.5	8:54.6	1
PCWRC
1. (13.)	Guy Wilks	Phil Pugh	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:44:23.7	0.0	10
2. (14.)	Juho Hänninen	Mikko Markkula	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:44:57.9	34.2	8
3. (16.)	Mark Higgins	Scott Martin	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:46:10.2	1:46.5	6
4. (17.)	Alessandro Bettega	Simone Scattolin	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	3:49:47.3	5:23.6	5
5. (19.)	David Higgins	Ieuan Thomas	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:51:32.8	7:09.1	4
6. (21.)	Mirco Baldacci	Giovanni Agnese	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:53:12.8	8:49.1	3
7. (23.)	Armindo Araújo	Miguel Ramalho	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	4:00:58.9	16:35.2	2
8. (23.)	Štěpán Vojtěch	Michal Ernst	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9	4:02:31.4	18:07.7	1

Retirements

• Gabriel Pozzo - retired (SS6);
• Michał Sołowow - retired (SS6);
• Claudiu David - mechanical (SS7);
• Conrad Rautenbach - went off the road (SS8);
• Andreas Mikkelsen - went off the road (SS9);
• Stuart Jones - crashed (SS12);
• Leszek Kuzaj - did not start leg 3 (SS13/14);
• Hayden Paddon - did not start leg 3 (SS13/14);
• Spyros Pavlides - mechanical (SS14);
• Yevgeni Vertunov - mechanical (SS14);
• Luís Pérez Companc - went off the road (SS14/15);
• Patrik Flodin - mechanical (SS6);

Special Stages

All dates and times are GMT (UTC).

Leg	Stage	Time	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Avg. spd.	Rally leader
1 (30 Nov)	SS1	09:53	Port Talbot 1	17.41 km	M. Hirvonen	9:15.2	112.9 km/h	M. Hirvonen
	SS2	10:41	Resolfen 1	25.08 km	M. Hirvonen	12:50.6	117.2 km/h
	SS3	11:39	Rheola 1	27.91 km	M. Hirvonen	15:55.7	105.1 km/h
	SS4	14:10	Port Talbot 2	17.41 km	M. Hirvonen	9:17.2	112 km/h
	SS5	14:58	Resolfen 2	25.08 km	S. Loeb M. Grönholm	13:20.9	112.7 km/h
	SS6	16:23	Rheola 2	27.91 km	J. Latvala	16:39.3	100.5 km/h
2 (1 Dec)	SS7	09:38	Crychan 1	19.56 km	J. Latvala	10:31.2	111.6 km/h
	SS8	10:21	Epynt 1	13.76 km	J. Latvala	7:33.2	109.3 km/h
	SS9	10:54	Halfway 1	18.37 km	J. Latvala	10:28.3	105.3 km/h
	SS10	14:47	Crychan 2	19.56 km	J. Latvala	10:39.8	110.1 km/h
	SS11	15:30	Epynt 2	13.76 km	J. Latvala	7:40.1	107.7 km/h
	SS12	16:29	Halfway 2	18.37 km	J. Latvala	10:39.6	103.4 km/h
	SS13	19:00	Cardiff	1.10 km	M. Grönholm	1:03.8	62.1 km/h
3 (2 Dec)	SS14	07:46	Brechfa 1	28.89 km	J. Latvala M. Hirvonen	16:14.2	106.8 km/h
	SS15	08:33	Trawscoed 1	28.24 km	J. Latvala	16:39.7	101.7 km/h
	SS16	12:09	Brechfa 2	28.89 km	J. Latvala	16:11.6	107.0 km/h
	SS17	12:56	Trawscoed 2	28.24 km	J. Latvala	16:51.0	100.6 km/h

Final championship standings

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 3 116 2 Marcus Grönholm 3 1 2 2 4 2 1 1 1 4 1 3 2 Ret Ret 2 112 3 Mikko Hirvonen 5 3 1 3 5 3 2 4 2 3 3 4 13 1 4 1 99 4 Dani Sordo 2 12 25 4 3 6 3 24 Ret Ret 6 2 3 2 2 5 65 5 Petter Solberg 6 Ret 4 Ret 2 Ret 5 3 Ret 6 7 6 5 Ret 5 4 47 6 Henning Solberg 14 4 3 9 9 5 4 5 5 13 9 10 9 3 16 15 34 7 Chris Atkinson 4 8 19 5 Ret 7 10 6 4 15 4 8 6 Ret 42 7 31 8 Jari-Matti Latvala Ret Ret 5 7 8 4 9 12 Ret 8 5 7 4 26 3 10 30 9 Manfred Stohl 10 7 12 6 10 8 7 8 Ret Ret 12 Ret 14 6 Ret 8 13 10 François Duval Ret 2 5 Ret 12 11 Matthew Wilson 12 Ret 26 8 12 30 12 10 10 9 10 11 Ret 4 7 6 11 12 Jan Kopecký 8 10 8 22 Ret 7 Ret 5 Ret 7 12 10 Toni Gardemeister 7 6 Ret DSQ 6 7 10 14 Daniel Carlsson 5 7 6 Ret 9 15 Gigi Galli 13 6 7 5 16 Luís Pérez Companc 15 19 DNS 28 Ret 11 11 23 Ret 5 Ret 4 Xavier Pons 25 Ret 16 6 18 Ret 9 8 36 Ret 9 4 18 Guy Wilks Ret Ret 9 9 10 6 13 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 18 2 21 Juho Hänninen DSQ 17 11 8 Ret Ret 19 23 24 1 Mads Østberg 9 37 Ret Ret 8 11 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	18	212
2	Citroën Total World Rally Team	18	9	1	15	16	13	6	8	6	10	11	18	16	8	18	10	183
3	Subaru World Rally Team	8	2	5	4	8	2	5	9	5	5	7	4	7	2	6	8	87
4	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford	1	5	10	3	2	9	7	4	4	5	5	2	7	7	9	1	81
5	OMV Kronos	2	7	5	3	4	1	3	2	0	8	0	4	0	4	0	2	45
6	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team		0		0		0	0	1	5		0	0		8		0	14

External links

• Results on the official site: WRC.com
• Results on eWRC.com
• Results at Jonkka's World Rally Archive