The first WRC victory of Mikko Hirvonen at Citroen in suspension
World Championship Rally has probably experienced one of its last weekend most unusual tests, on the occasion of the Rally of Portugal, the fourth stage of the 2012 season.
Contested over four days in the region of the Algarve, the south of the country has extreme, saw-proof firstly Sebastien Loeb commit, in a special night of the first step, an error at the very least extremely rare in its career: he understood turn left when his co-pilot had to tell him "right"! In a split second, he realized his blunder and tried to replace his Citroen in the right path but close to 100 km / h on gravel, it was a lost cause and the eightfold champion french world ended its journey barrel . The arch safety of its DS3 WRC has been damaged, it was not authorized to proceed.
Ford drivers were not, however, enjoy long. After the dry and dusty in the first step, the torrential rains falling on the region on the second day would be fatal to the hopes of Latvala and Solberg, both road coming out, a few minutes gap. Not the best way to score points is his employer! Of time, Finland's Mikko Hirvonen seized command to go conquer his first victory at the helm of a Citroen DS3 WRC. The Norwegian and Russian Novikov Ostberg (both Ford Fiesta RS WRC) completed the podium.
But one last stroke of theater occurred five hours after the arrival, the official WRC Mikko Hirvonen DECIDING exclude the results, the turbo and clutch his Citroen DS3 WRC not being compliant to the approval form the vehicle, without proves that he has an advantage. On the contrary even, it seems that the turbo had defects that prevented work 100%! Citroen has appealed the decision, so it's a few days that the decision will be made.
In North America, the IndyCar series and NASCAR were in the employed. On the road course at Barber in Alabama, 26 IndyCar drivers playing their second event of the season. Qualified in pole position, Helio Castroneves (Dallara-Chevrolet Team Penske) had a second consecutive gain, who had wins the previous weekend in St Petersburg. But it was his teammate Will Power who wins, ahead of Scott Dixon (Dallara-Honda) and Castroneves. Alex Tagliani, the Lotus engine has once again been a source of frustration, to give driver quebecois of the first round, engine inoperative!
NASCAR, competitors Sprint Cup series and Camping World Trucks evolved on the oval of Martinsville, Virginia. In the series vans, Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) has wins while in Sprint Cup victory went to Ryan Newman (Chevrolet), before AJAllmendinger (Dodge) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Chevrolet).
The next weekend, all NASCAR series are relaxes for once spring festival of Easter oblige. It will be against by the opening of the season for competitors World Championship FIA GT Cars on the Nogaro circuit in France.
