The 2007 Rally Japan was the 14th round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. It took place between 26 and 28 October 2007.
Report Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen overtook Jari-Matti Latvala to take the lead on Friday afternoon and remained in first place for the rest of the rally. His teammate Marcus Grönholm had retired earlier that day, while Hirvonen stayed ahead of Sébastien Loeb.
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.
Results 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 Marcus Grönholm - went off the road (SS4); Chris Atkinson - crashed his car (SS6); Fumio Nutahara - mechanical (SS14); Sébastien Loeb - mechanical (SS26); Armindo Araujo - excluded after post-rally technical check;
Special Stages All dates and times are JST (UTC+9). LegStageTimeNameLengthWinnerTimeAvg. spd.Rally leader1(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/h2(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/h3(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
Drivers' championship 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 2Ret 104 2 Sébastien Loeb 1 2 14 1 1 1Ret 2 3 1 2 1 1Ret 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 24RetRet 6 2 3 2 53 5 Petter Solberg 6Ret 4Ret 2Ret 5 3Ret 6 7 6 5Ret 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 5Ret 7 10 6 4 15 4 8 6Ret 29 8 Jari-Matti LatvalaRetRet 5 7 8 4 9 12Ret 8 5 7 4 26 24 9 François DuvalRet 2 5Ret 12 Manfred Stohl 10 7 12 6 10 8 7 8RetRet 12Ret 14 6 12 11 Jan Kopecký 8 10 8 22Ret 7Ret 5Ret 7 10 Toni Gardemeister 7 6Ret DSQ 6 7 10 13 Daniel Carlsson 5 7 6Ret 9 14 Matthew Wilson 12Ret 26 8 12 30 12 10 10 9 10 11Ret 4 6 15 Gigi Galli 13 6 7 5 16 Luís Pérez Companc 15 19DNS 28Ret 11 11 23Ret 5 4 Xavier Pons 25Ret 16 6 18Ret 9 8 364 18 Urmo Aava 28 15 13 14 7 12 8 18Ret 183 19 Federico VillagraDNS 9 11 32 14 11 13 7 2 20 Juho Hänninen DSQ 17 11 8RetRet 19 23 24 1 Mads Østberg 9 37RetRet 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
Manufacturers' championship Rank Manufacturer Event Totalpoints 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
External links
on the official site: WRC.com Results on eWRC.com Results at Jonkka's World Rally Archive