Latvala and Ford are driving down the invincible Loeb!
After his overwhelming victory in the Rally Monte Carlo last month, Sebastien Loeb appeared more than ever favorite of Rally Sweden, the second stage of the World Rally Championship, presented last weekend.
But on a surface (snow and ice) that the Nordic drivers mastered perfectly, Loeb knew that nothing was won in advance as much as his new teammate at Citroen, the Finn Mikko Hirvonen, fully intended to show that it can be anything other than a nice second driver in the shadow of the octuple world champion. The real threat, however, came Loeb is the official Ford Motorsport team. And no Petter Solberg but Jari-Matti Latvala, the least known of the four contenders under 2012, but definitely not the least talented.
Out drive Monte Carlo, Latvala knew he had absolutely complete this test lest his title chances be compromised. But he was not content to finish with his Ford Fiesta RS WRC he put pressure on Sebastien Loeb of the first stage, forcing the French to push hard to not be too remote in the late stage. And while many expected that a young Latvala make a mistake at this frantic pace is Loeb who left barrel. Gone, he finished the sixth rally while Jari-Matti Latvala, who never ceded under the pressure of Loeb and Hirvonen during the last timed stages, finally won with 16 seconds ahead of Hirvonen.
Mads Ostberg the Norwegian (Ford) finished third, ahead of Petter Solberg. Championship, Loeb keeps the forefront, with a slender lead over Hirvonen, Latvala and Solberg while round off the "Top 4". The next event will be held from March 9 to 11, under the Mexican sun.
If the rally was the only discipline to submit an event last weekend globally, NASCAR is that we will hear a lot from this week as the famous Daytona 500 is coming.
The 500 mile race as such will be Sunday, February 26 and will mark the official start of course the Sprint Cup season, but this week, several drivers series support storming the tri-oval for Florida free practice and qualifying. The next weekend, the famous "Shootout", a race of short duration for the prestige (and a lot of money for scholarships arrival!) Between the best drivers in the discipline will be to schedule in addition to the 'ARCA Series race and qualifying for the first row of the starting grid of "500". To order other rows, this will take the form of two qualifying races later in the course of next week. It's a bit complicated as procedure, but this is also the NASCAR!
