Wrc Rally Argentina 2011

**Gregor-y** · 30th May 2011, 05:27

Malcolm Wilson will eat a Fiesta before he lets Petter drive one, so the answer is no one.

**René** · 30th May 2011, 06:50

Rally organisers given fine

The organisers of Rally Argentina have been fined $5,000 for an irregularity in the road book for the event.

The stewards of the event received a protest from the Ford team in relation to a junction towards the end of the El Condor stage. The junction was a traffic roundabout. On the first run at the stage, the organisers had taped one exit of the roundabout forcing the crews to take the legal route around the roundabout. The organisers then removed the tape for the second pass of the stage.

The Citroen drivers took the shorter route while the Fords took the same route as before - at a cost reckoned to be around four seconds. Ford's Mikko Hirvonen ultimately lost the rally to Citroen's Sebastien Loeb by just 2.7s.

The organisers were fined for not communicating a clear instruction under Article 2.1 of the sporting regulations.

Ford's Malcolm Wilson said: "We put this one into the clerk of the course on Saturday morning asking for clarification. We didn't get a satisfactory answer so we then put the request into the stewards to give us a clarification of the situation. We then decided to seek clarification from the stewards.

"The big thing is there's been an advantage gained by the ambiguity in the road book. And we wanted clarification for the future. Everybody knows the rallies have been [decided by] 0.2 of a second. Everybody is investing a lot of money in this championship and we want absolute clarification as to where we are on the regulations."

Wilson said he was happy with the outcome of the stewards' meeting, adding: "We're in this business to win but at the end of the day we want clarification going forward and that's the most important thing to point out.

"We made this request when we were actually leading the rally. It isn't a case we have lost out by two seconds and he gained whatever by taking this route. It's really positive in the sense that now anything that's discussed in the team managers' meeting - there's the evidence. They've been fined for not communicating transparently what was requested."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91890

**Hartusvuori** · 30th May 2011, 08:15

Originally Posted by bluuford

Dont underestimate Finnish commentators. They are even used to help FIA : http://200.58.126.155/wp-content/upl...DECISION-5.pdf

wrc.com says Hanna Lehtinen is stakeholders relations manager at North Sport One, hardly a Finnish journalist. Anyway...

This whole incident goes down to one-to-remember, at least for sorry Finns. First there is a roadbook, then an agreement, a tape, no tape, a cut, no cut, advantage, disadvantage -> fine organanizers!

**N.O.T** · 30th May 2011, 09:07

fair decision....once more the argentinian organisers did their best to ruin the event....5000 is very lenient penalty i think though.

**rage82** · 30th May 2011, 09:16

Highlights from the final day of rally Argenitina on ESPN UK here mypremium.tv at 11:00 CET

**Barreis** · 30th May 2011, 10:19

Originally Posted by Mirek

Easy to say that. Now the more difficult question. By who?

One of them must be the one who beat Loeb and that's P.Solberg. Ideal second was Sordo who's fast on tarmac and ideal driver for manufacturer crown but he's in mini squad. The other one can be Hirvonen. Ideal for second driver (he doesn't deserve seat 'cos he's a payer but anyway).

**Juha_Koo** · 30th May 2011, 10:24

Some points from the roundabout-incident:

- On SS4, there was a safety tape in the left lane.
- Before SS7 started, FIA Safety Delegate Jacek Bartos landed with the safety helicopter and removed the safety tape.
- Daniel Elena had not signed the written agreement to pass the roundabout from the right side.

Organisers fined $5000 for non-transparent communication. Citroens...nothing. Hurray.

**Barreis** · 30th May 2011, 10:25

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91890

**6789** · 30th May 2011, 11:32

Congrats to Loeb, if he doesn;t run into problems by Finland then its pretty much championship all gone again for the other guys

**TMorel** · 30th May 2011, 12:27

I'm a bit confused as to the timeline for this. Also, at the second pass, what was the running order? Weren't the Citroëns running in front of the Fords? If so, shouldn't Malcolm have had someone at the junction and indicated to their cars what the competition was doing? I just think - like getting Petter/Chris to bump Loebs car in Sweden - that the Citroën guys are a bit quicker on the ball in these iffy situations.