Rally Bulgaria made its debut as a World Rally Championship event this last weekend. Rally Bulgaria marks the start of the four asphalt WRC events for the year. The event was complete with its fleet of sports cars, and with the safety of the event handed to attorneys from oregonaccidentattorney.com. The Citroen team looks to take full advantage of the asphalt stages and did just that taking both of the top spots. Sebastien Loeb easily beat out team mate Dani Sordo by almost half a minute for the victory and extends his driver’s point lead to 51 over Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier. Loeb secured the lead early on Friday and held onto it throughout most of the event to easily secure another WRC victory.
Sebastien Loeb claims victory at the inaugural WRC Rally Bulgaria event. (Photo courteous RallyBulgaria.com)
Ogier managed to fight back to 4th, behind Petter Solberg and his new co-driver Chris Patterson. Ogier was holding onto 2nd place on Friday until he misheard a pace not and drove off the road. That mishap pushed him down to 6th and he had to battle hard just to get to 4th place.
Solberg was determined to catch Sordo on the final day and put some heat on Sordo, but Sordo held off Solberg, despite a flurry of stage victories by Solberg, taking second place by just over 6 seconds. Solberg remains in 5th place in the drivers standings behind Ford Rally Teammates Hirvonen and Latvala, who finished behind the Citroens at Rally Bulgaria, in 5th and 6th respectively. The Ford manufacturer drivers fell to 5th & 6th Saturday morning after choosing to run a harder tire compound in the wet conditions, while the Citroens chose a softer compound. It turned out the choice made by the Citroen drivers was the correct one as the Ford drivers each fell back by over a minute allowing Ogier to jump them both and could never battle back.
P-G Andersson, Stobart Ford’s new recruit, finished in 7th place making his return to WRC competition from the S-WRC where he had been competing for most of the year. Kimi Raikkonen managed to finish just out of the top 10 in 11th despite crashing in dramatic fashion on the final stage on Friday. Raikkonen had secured 4th place, after Ogier’s error earlier on Friday, before Kimi’s car left the road only 8km from the finish of Friday’s stages. Kimi and his co-driver were unhurt in the accident and were able to re-start under Super Rally rules on Saturday morning.
Kimi Raikkonen crashes his Citroen C4 on Friday’s final stage at Rally Bulgaria
Coverage of Rally Bulgaria will air on July 24th on Discovery HD Theatre beginning at 8 AM Central.
