Latvala wins Rally GB as Ford claims podium clean sweep

Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team’s Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila won Wales Rally GB as Fiesta RS World Rally Cars powered to a 1-2-3 finish on the final round of the FIA World Rally Championship.  The Finns claimed their fifth world rally victory, and their first since July last year, as the Fiesta RS WRC took eight of the top nine places in the demanding four-day event.

Latvala won by 3min 42.9sec after winning 11 of the 23 speed tests in the muddy Welsh forests, leading home Mads Østberg / Jonas Andersson and Henning Solberg / Ilka Minor from the privately-entered M-Sport Stobart Ford squad.

Wales Rally GB

The championship came down to the final round but in the end neither of the contenders finished. Mikko Hirvonen (Fiesta WRC) retired on day 2 with a damaged engine after cooking it when he split the radiator in the first run through Dyfnant. Sebastien Loeb (DS3 WRC) had the title in the bag as was then free to battle with Jari-Matti Latvala (Fiesta WRC) for the rally. In the end it came to nought as Latvala was leading when Loeb collided with a spectator car on a road section. Mads Ostberg (Fiesta WRC) finished almost 4 minutes back in second place with Henning Solberg (Fiesta WRC) a similar margin back in 3rd.

Dani Sordo, Henning Solberg & Ott Tanak to star in the first Rally Show at Cornbury Park

MINI WRC Team driver Dani Sordo has joined the line-up for The Rally Show at Cornbury Park this weekend. Just one week after its debut at Rally Italy, the Spaniard will demonstrate the brand new MINI John Cooper Works WRC, which was designed and built by Prodrive in Banbury. The eyes of the motorsport world will be on Cornbury Park’s 1.1-mile special Sstage as the MINI WRC makes its first appearance in the UK.

The Rally Show – a firm fixture on the motorsport calendar – is being held for the first time in Oxfordshire. Visitors will see an array of classic and modern rally cars on show, including the new M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC, currently flying high in the World Rally Championship. It will be driven by World Rally star Henning Solberg (on Saturday 14 May) and newcomer Ott Tanak (on Sunday 15 May). S2000 driver Tanak impressed at Rally Italy last week, finishing seventh in a field of 18 World Rally Cars.

Stars continue to line-up for Chatsworth…

With just three day to go, stars past and present are still adding their names to the very impressive list of attendees at the 2010 Rally Show at Chatsworth this coming weekend (5/6th June).

HENNING SOLBERG, brother of 2003 World Rally Champion Petter and a regular on WRC events himself, will be helping JARI-MATTI LATVALA with the driving duties over the two days of the Rally Show. They will be sharing the BP Ford Abu Dhabi Ford Focus WRC 09 which M-Sport are sending down from their base at Dovenby in Cumbria.