Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia win Rally Jordan: 2011 World Rally Championship
The latest round of the 2011 World Rally Championship (WRC), Rally Jordan, wrapped up at the Dead Sea Resort on April 16. France’s Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia managed to clinch the win for Citroen after a nail-biting finish in the end. Finland’s
Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila finished two-tenths of a second later. Reigning World Champion Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena, both from France, had to settle for the third place.
The Jordan Rally is considered to be one of the most challenging course in the WRC series. However, the Citroen Total World Rally Team driver, Ogier, had no problem performing in the 14 punishing gravel special stages on the last day.
The Citroen team entered the second day of the race half a second behind the Finnish Latvala and Anttila. With 115 kilometres of special stage, a heated battle was on among Ogier, Latvala and Loeb for the podium. Loeb began to slow down over the last few
loops of the challenging final stage. However, the fastest time during the Power Stage allowed Ogier to beat Latvala by a margin of 0.2 seconds. The former world champion, Loeb, eventually finished in third place.
“[It was] just an incredible day. I had to push like h**l. It is an amazing feeling,” said an ecstatic Ogier after claiming a second successive championship win. “I had to ‘clean’ the road on the first loop this morning and to win like this is amazing. To
win the Power Stage as well and get the extra points is a perfect weekend for me.”
While talking to the media after finishing in runner-up position, Latvala said, “I pushed really hard and went wide and made a couple of little mistakes in the last stage.”
The race delivered a heavy dose of excitement and thrill, capping the event with a nail-biting finish. The Jordan Rally was a real success and the credit goes to the organisers who had spent the last week in constant tension and frustration.
Due to the middle-east unrest, the organisers of Rally Jordan decided to take caution and instead of sending their convoy from Europe to Jordan through Syria, they decided to use the sea. Unfortunately, this alternative contributed to the worries of the
organisers as the Boat equipment failed twice. Later, the stormy seas became a real hindrance when the Boat tried to dock.
In order to make up for the delay that was being caused by the delayed arrival of convoy, the organisers allowed the teams to set out in trucks on Tuesday to get a battle understanding of the course and conditions and map it. The preliminary preparations
were completed even before the WCW crew reached Jordan.
Facing all the hardships and challenges, the convoy finally reached the desert of Jordan Valley on Wednesday night. Within a matter of hours, a small WRC race infrastructure, team tents, etc. were set-up and the race was finally ready to begin.
After the latest round of the 2011 WRC, France’s Loeb sits on top of the leaderboard with 74 points. Sitting in second place is Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen from Finland with 72 points. The recent success at Jordan put Ogier in third place with 69 points. Latvala
sits in fourth with 66 points.
The next round of the WRC will take place in Sardinia, Italy, from May 5-8.
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