The 2007 Rally Japan was the 14th round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. It took place between 26 and 28 October 2007.

2007 Rally Japan
4th Rally Japan
Round 14 of the 2007 World Rally Championship
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Rally winner Mikko Hirvonen.
Host country Japan
Rally baseObihiro, Hokkaidō, Japan
Dates runOctober 26 – 28 2007
Stages27 (350.19 km; 217.60 miles)
Stage surfaceGravel
Overall distance1,575.79 km (979.15 miles)
Statistics
Crews84 at start, 73 at finish
Overall results
Overall winnerFinland Mikko Hirvonen
United Kingdom BP Ford World Rally Team
Ford Focus RS WRC 07

Report edit

Ford Mikko Hirvonen took the lead on Friday afternoon after overtaking Jari-Matti Latvala. Hirvonen then led the rally to the end. After team-mate Marcus Grönholm had already retired on Friday morning, the task was to keep Sébastien Loeb behind and thereby take points from him in the Drivers' World Championship. Hirvonen did that with success, he put the three-time world champion under pressure and fought an exciting battle for the top with him.

The situation changed on Saturday afternoon. Loeb was also eliminated after his co-driver Daniel Elena misread a pace note. Third-placed Latvala, who had led the rally at the start, also had to retire after an accident. Both later started again under the Rallye 2 regulations. So Hirvonen had a new pursuer Daniel Sordo. However, Hirvonen's lead was already large enough for him to control the rally. In the end, Hirvonen had a 37.4 second lead over Sordo. Loeb won four special stages on Sunday, after which he finally had to retire due to oil pressure problems.[1]

Results edit

Pos. Driver Co-driver Car Time Difference Points
WRC
1.   Mikko Hirvonen   Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Focus RS WRC 07 3:23:57.6 0.0 10
2.   Daniel Sordo   Marc Marti Citroën C4 WRC 3:24:35.0 37.4 8
3.   Henning Solberg   Cato Menkerud Ford Focus RS WRC 06 3:28:31.3 4:33.7 6
4.   Matthew Wilson   Michael Orr Ford Focus RS WRC 06 3:30:35.5 6:37.9 5
5.   Luís Pérez Companc   Jose Maria Volta Ford Focus RS WRC 06 3:30:38.0 6:40.4 4
6.   Manfred Stohl   Ilka Minor Citroën Xsara WRC 3:31:01.9 7:04.3 3
7.   Federico Villagra   José Luis Díaz Ford Focus RS WRC 06 3:35:12.9 11:15.3 2
8.   Katsuhiko Taguchi   Mark Stacey Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 3:44:37.7 20:40.1 1
PWRC
1. (9.)   Gabriel Pozzo   Daniel Stillo Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 3:45:50.6 0.0 10
2. (11.)   Leszek Kuzaj   Craig Parry Subaru Impreza WRX STI 3:48:30.7 2:40.1 8
3. (12.)   Takuma Kamada   Naoki Kase Subaru Impreza WRX STI 3:48:39.0 2:48.4 6
4. (17.)   Yevgeni Vertunov   Georgi Troshkin Subaru Impreza WRX STI 3:50:41.7 4:51.1 5
5. (19.)   Mark Higgins   Scott Martin Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 3:51:23.3 5:32.7 4
6. (21.)   Patrik Flodin   Maria Andersson Subaru Impreza WRX STI 3:58:39.6 12:49.0 3
7. (23.)   Juho Hänninen   Mikko Markkula Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 4:03:12.4 17:21.8 2
8. (10.)   Yoshio Ikemachi   Sadatoshi Ando Subaru Impreza WRX STI 4:03:48.7 17:58.1 1

Retirements edit

Special Stages edit

All dates and times are JST (UTC+9).

Leg Stage Time Name Length Winner Time Avg. spd. Rally leader
1
(26 Oct)
SS1 07:33 Pawse Kamuy reverse 1 9.03 km   J. Latvala 4:48.9 112.5 km/h   J. Latvala
SS2 08:13 Cup Kamuy 1 13.95 km   M. Grönholm 8:29.7 98.5 km/h
SS3 08:36 Kimun Kamuy 1 26.03 km   S. Loeb 13:56.0 112.1 km/h   M. Grönholm
SS4 09:29 Rikubetsu 1 2.73 km   D. Sordo 2:05.4 78.4 km/h   J. Latvala
SS5 13:35 Pawse Kamuy reverse 2 9.03 km   J. Latvala 4:39.1 116.5 km/h
SS6 14:15 Cup Kamuy 13.95 km   M. Hirvonen 8:09.0 102.7 km/h   M. Hirvonen
SS7 14:38 Kimun Kamuy 2 26.03 km   M. Hirvonen 13:26.7 116.2 km/h
SS8 15:31 Rikubetsu 2 2.73 km   D. Sordo 2:04.2 79.1 km/h
SS9 17:44 Obihiro 1 1.35 km   A. Araujo 1:18.5 61.9 km/h
SS10 17:54 Obihiro 2 1.35 km   X. Pons 1:16.8 63.3 km/h
2
(27 Oct)
SS11 07:13 Rikubetsu 3 2.73 km   S. Loeb 2:06.8 77.5 km/h
SS12 07:44 Puray 1 34.96 km   M. Hirvonen 19:28.3 107.7 km/h
SS13 08:23 Niueo 1 20.75 km   D. Sordo 12:31.3 99.4 km/h
SS14 09:01 Sipirkakim 1 22.43 km   P. Solberg 12:13.1 110.1 km/h
SS15 13:44 Rikubetsu 4 2.73 km   P. Solberg 2:05.6 78.2 km/h
SS16 14:15 Puray 2 34.96 km   P. Solberg 19:01.0 110.3 km/h
SS17 14:54 Niueo 2 20.75 km   D. Sordo 12:17.5 101.3 km/h
SS18 15:47 Sipirkakim Short 4.67 km   P. Solberg 2:42.4 103.5 km/h
SS19 17:57 Obihiro 3 1.35 km   F. Villagra 1:21.4 59.7 km/h
SS20 18:07 Obihiro 4 1.35 km   F. Villagra 1:22.0 59.3 km/h
3
(28 Oct)
SS21 07:06 Rera Kamuy 1 8.76 km   S. Loeb 5:10.1 101.7 km/h
SS22 07:29 Panke Nikorpet 1 17.04 km   D. Sordo 9:35.0 106.7 km/h
SS23 08:09 Penke 1 22.19 km   S. Loeb 13:23.8 99.4 km/h
SS24 11:35 Rera Kamuy 2 8.76 km   S. Loeb 5:02.5 104.3 km/h
SS25 11:58 Panke Nikorpet 2 17.04 km   S. Loeb 9:17.9 110.0 km/h
SS26 12:38 Penke 2 22.19 km   D. Sordo 13:05.4 101.7 km/h
SS27 14:33 Obihiro 5 1.35 km   F. Villagra 1:23.6 58.1 km/h

Championship standings after the event edit

Drivers' championship edit

Pos Driver MON
 
SWE
 
NOR
 
MEX
 
POR
 
ARG
 
ITA
 
GRC
 
FIN
 
GER
 
NZL
 
ESP
 
FRA
 
JPN
 
IRL
 
GBR
 
 Pts 
1   Marcus Grönholm 3 1 2 2 4 2 1 1 1 4 1 3 2 Ret 104
2   Sébastien Loeb 1 2 14 1 1 1 Ret 2 3 1 2 1 1 Ret 100
3   Mikko Hirvonen 5 3 1 3 5 3 2 4 2 3 3 4 13 1 84
4   Dani Sordo 2 12 25 4 3 6 3 24 Ret Ret 6 2 3 2 53
5   Petter Solberg 6 Ret 4 Ret 2 Ret 5 3 Ret 6 7 6 5 Ret 38
6   Henning Solberg 14 4 3 9 9 5 4 5 5 14 9 10 9 3 34
7   Chris Atkinson 4 8 19 5 Ret 7 10 6 4 15 4 8 6 Ret 29
8   Jari-Matti Latvala Ret Ret 5 7 8 4 9 12 Ret 8 5 7 4 26 24
9   François Duval Ret 2 5 Ret 12
  Manfred Stohl 10 7 12 6 10 8 7 8 Ret Ret 12 Ret 14 6 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 6
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 4
18   Urmo Aava 28 15 13 14 7 12 8 18 Ret 18 3
19   Federico Villagra DNS 9 11 32 14 11 13 7 2
20   Juho Hänninen DSQ 17 11 8 Ret Ret 19 23 24 1
  Mads Østberg 9 37 Ret Ret 8 1
  Katsuhiko Taguchi 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 edit

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 - - 189
2 Citroën Total World Rally Team 18 9 1 15 16 13 6 8 6 10 11 18 16 8 - - 155
3 Subaru World Rally Team 8 2 5 4 8 2 5 9 5 5 7 4 7 2 - - 73
4 Stobart VK M-Sport Ford 1 5 10 3 2 9 7 4 4 5 5 2 7 7 - - 71
5 OMV Kronos 2 7 5 3 4 1 3 2 0 8 0 4 0 4 - - 43
6 Munchi's Ford World Rally Team 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 8 - - 14

References edit

  1. ^ "Hirvonen cruises to Rally Japan win". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2 February 2022.

External links edit