The Finn was the fastest man in Rally Australia and takes his second victory in the championship 2011. Second place is for the teammate Latvala at +14.7 sec who slow to give maximum points to his teammate. Third place is for the Citroen driver Solberg at +44.8. Forth place is for M. Wilson at +8:45.2, fifth is K. AL Qassimi at + +12:33.3, sixth is H. Paddon at +17:29.3. Sebastien Loeb takes 1 point with the tenth place at +30:02.9 while Ogier is out of the points at eleventh place.

The Power Stage was won by Sebastien Loeb followed by Latvala at +1.2 sec and third is Petter Solberg at +1.3 seconds.

Latvala pushes very strong during the first stage of Day 2 of WRC Rally Australia 2011. The Finn finished the day 2 first ahead the teammate Mikko Hirvonen at +22.7.

Latvala will clean the road during the last day but he said:

I’m not worried about running first; I just need to keep the car on the road.

Third is the privateer Citroen driver Petter Solberg at +59.5 sec.

Wilson is forth at ++5:53.7, fifth is K. AL Qassimi at + +9:24.4, sixth is H. Paddon at +13:29.2. The Citroen drivers starting the super rally are 11^th for Sebastien Ogier and 16^th for Sebastien Loeb.

WRC Rally Australia 2011 Day 1 from RallyPulse.com on Vimeo.

Sebastien Ogier: The conditions have been so difficult and it has been very easy to make a mistake.
We hit something too hard for the car, we hit a tree and we destroy our radiator and we had to stop.
The stage was tricky with no grip with the hard-compound tyre. There was no pressure on me but I knew I had to take time in the afternoon because tomorrow there will be cleaning. But mistakes can quickly happen.
I just touched the rear of the car on a small bank, I did a spin but during this spin we hit the tree. It was not such a big mistake but it was easy to make a mistake because the conditions were so difficult.

Petter Solberg: I’ve never driven in conditions like this before, it has been unbelievable.
Mikko Hirvonen: The conditions were hell and I’m just happy to be here tonight. This was one of the most difficult days I have had in my career.

Khalid Al Qassimi: I really had to adapt and drive very safely with plenty of caution.

The both Citroen drivers are out of the race. Sebastien Loeb rolled on stage 4 while the teammate Sebastien Ogier crash on stage 6. By this way the current leader is Mikko Hirvonen followed by his teammate Latvala at +5.4 seconds and third is the privateer driver Peter Solberg at +33.8. Evgeny Novikov the younger Russian star is closer to Peter at +44.1 seconds by the current leader while fifth is Henning Solberg. It is big chance for Ford to catch up the French drivers.

The stages are too slippery due too the rain during the rally.

Sebastien Loeb probably will restart tomorrow by super rally.

Rally drivers comments:

Hirvonen: It was so unbelievably slippery and when you brake it is like ice. I went off the road but it was into a field so there was nothing to hit.

Latvala: I had few moments and a couple of times I was hitting the banks to keep on the road. It was extremely difficult, even dangerous in some places.

Round 10 of the World Rally Championsiop Rally Australia start with wins for Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier. After the first two stages for the day 1 the current leader is S.Ogier followed by S. Loeb at +0.6 sec. Third and forth place is for the manufactures drivers of Ford Jari-Matti Latvala at +2.8 sec and Mikko Hirvonen at +5.9 sec. Fifth the Norwegian privateer Peter Solberg at +7.0 and sixth is his brother Henning at +9.8 sec. For tomorrow there are 8 stages of all 26 stages in Rally Australia 2011. The stage Coffs that was used today twice will be using all 6 times during the day 1, 2 and 3. Comments during the first night stages: Sebastien Ogier: It was a good start but the real start is tomorrow. It was quite slippery and not easy to find the right rhythm. The car is good so I'm happy. Sebastien Loeb: It was okay. I done quite a good stage, which is very specific compared to the rest of the rally. But it was really slippery, particularly on hard gravel tyres. Latvala: I was a bit stressed by how [the grip] was going to be, in a couple of places it was slippery on the braking but generally better than expected. I will go to bed with a smile.