The 2007 Wales Rally GB (formally known as 63rd Wales Rally of Great Britain) was the 16th round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. The race was held over three days between 30 November and 2 December 2007.
Report Sébastien Loeb became world champion for the fourth time in a row. He had thus equaled Tommi Mäkinen's record. Third place at the season finale in Wales was enough for the Citroën driver. Loeb started the last world championship race of the season six points ahead of his rival Marcus Grönholm. Grönholm was able to make up two points with second place, and in the end Loeb had a four-point lead in the drivers' standings.
Rally won Grönholm teammate Mikko Hirvonen. He took the lead with four special stage best times on Friday. Hirvonen was 15.2 seconds clear of second-placed Gronholm to secure his fourth WRC win of his career.
Subaru driver Petter Solberg came fourth behind the leading trio. He was able to conclude such a season with moderate success in a reasonably forgiving manner. Fourth place and his teammate Chris Atkinson's seventh place secured Subaru third place in the Manufacturers' Championship ahead of the Stobart team. Days two and three were dominated by young M-Sport driver Jari-Matti Latvala, who had already been confirmed as a driver for Ford for next year. However, since he had lost almost ten minutes on the first day due to a broken windshield wiper, he was only able to finish tenth.
Results Pos. Driver Co-driver Car Time Difference Points WRC 1. Mikko Hirvonen Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Focus RS WRC 07 3:22:50.9 0.0 10 2. Marcus Grönholm Timo Rautiainen Ford Focus RS WRC 07 3:23:06.1 15.2 8 3. Sébastien Loeb Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 3:24:23.9 1:33.0 6 4. Petter Solberg Phil Mills Subaru Impreza WRC2007 3:25:48.2 2:57.3 5 5. Dani Sordo Marc Marti Citroën C4 WRC 3:26:05.2 3:14.3 4 6. Matthew Wilson Michael Orr Ford Focus WRC 06 3:30:23.8 7:32.9 3 7. Chris Atkinson Stéphane Prévot Subaru Impreza WRC2007 3:31:20.4 8:29.5 2 8. Manfred Stohl Ilka Minor Citroën Xsara WRC 3:31:45.5 8:54.6 1 PCWRC 1. (13.) Guy Wilks Phil Pugh Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 3:44:23.7 0.0 10 2. (14.) Juho Hänninen Mikko Markkula Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 3:44:57.9 34.2 8 3. (16.) Mark Higgins Scott Martin Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 3:46:10.2 1:46.5 6 4. (17.) Alessandro Bettega Simone Scattolin Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 3:49:47.3 5:23.6 5 5. (19.) David Higgins Ieuan Thomas Subaru Impreza WRX STi 3:51:32.8 7:09.1 4 6. (21.) Mirco Baldacci Giovanni Agnese Subaru Impreza WRX STi 3:53:12.8 8:49.1 3 7. (23.) Armindo Araújo Miguel Ramalho Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 4:00:58.9 16:35.2 2 8. (23.) Štěpán Vojtěch Michal Ernst Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 4:02:31.4 18:07.7 1
Retirements Gabriel Pozzo - retired (SS6); Michał Sołowow - retired (SS6); Claudiu David - mechanical (SS7); Conrad Rautenbach - went off the road (SS8); Andreas Mikkelsen - went off the road (SS9); Stuart Jones - crashed (SS12); Leszek Kuzaj - did not start leg 3 (SS13/14); Hayden Paddon - did not start leg 3 (SS13/14); Spyros Pavlides - mechanical (SS14); Yevgeni Vertunov - mechanical (SS14); Luís Pérez Companc - went off the road (SS14/15); Patrik Flodin - mechanical (SS6);
Special Stages All dates and times are GMT (UTC). LegStageTimeNameLengthWinnerTimeAvg. spd.Rally leader1(30 Nov) SS1 09:53 Port Talbot 1 17.41 km M. Hirvonen 9:15.2 112.9 km/h M. Hirvonen SS2 10:41 Resolfen 1 25.08 km M. Hirvonen 12:50.6 117.2 km/h SS3 11:39 Rheola 1 27.91 km M. Hirvonen 15:55.7 105.1 km/h SS4 14:10 Port Talbot 2 17.41 km M. Hirvonen 9:17.2 112 km/h SS5 14:58 Resolfen 2 25.08 km S. Loeb M. Grönholm 13:20.9 112.7 km/h SS6 16:23 Rheola 2 27.91 km J. Latvala 16:39.3 100.5 km/h2(1 Dec) SS7 09:38 Crychan 1 19.56 km J. Latvala 10:31.2 111.6 km/h SS8 10:21 Epynt 1 13.76 km J. Latvala 7:33.2 109.3 km/h SS9 10:54 Halfway 1 18.37 km J. Latvala 10:28.3 105.3 km/h SS10 14:47 Crychan 2 19.56 km J. Latvala 10:39.8 110.1 km/h SS11 15:30 Epynt 2 13.76 km J. Latvala 7:40.1 107.7 km/h SS12 16:29 Halfway 2 18.37 km J. Latvala 10:39.6 103.4 km/h SS13 19:00 Cardiff 1.10 km M. Grönholm 1:03.8 62.1 km/h3(2 Dec) SS14 07:46 Brechfa 1 28.89 km J. Latvala M. Hirvonen 16:14.2 106.8 km/h SS15 08:33 Trawscoed 1 28.24 km J. Latvala 16:39.7 101.7 km/h SS16 12:09 Brechfa 2 28.89 km J. Latvala 16:11.6 107.0 km/h SS17 12:56 Trawscoed 2 28.24 km J. Latvala 16:51.0 100.6 km/h
Final championship standings
Drivers' championship Pos Driver MON SWE NOR MEX POR ARG ITA GRC FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN IRL GBR Pts 1 Sébastien Loeb 1 2 14 1 1 1Ret 2 3 1 2 1 1Ret 1 3 116 2 Marcus Grönholm 3 1 2 2 4 2 1 1 1 4 1 3 2RetRet 2 112 3 Mikko Hirvonen 5 3 1 3 5 3 2 4 2 3 3 4 13 1 4 1 99 4 Dani Sordo 2 12 25 4 3 6 3 24RetRet 6 2 3 2 2 5 65 5 Petter Solberg 6Ret 4Ret 2Ret 5 3Ret 6 7 6 5Ret 5 4 47 6 Henning Solberg 14 4 3 9 9 5 4 5 5 13 9 10 9 3 16 15 34 7 Chris Atkinson 4 8 19 5Ret 7 10 6 4 15 4 8 6Ret 42 7 31 8 Jari-Matti LatvalaRetRet 5 7 8 4 9 12Ret 8 5 7 4 26 3 10 30 9 Manfred Stohl 10 7 12 6 10 8 7 8RetRet 12Ret 14 6Ret 8 13 10 François DuvalRet 2 5Ret 12 11 Matthew Wilson 12Ret 26 8 12 30 12 10 10 9 10 11Ret 4 7 6 11 12 Jan Kopecký 8 10 8 22Ret 7Ret 5Ret 7 12 10 Toni Gardemeister 7 6Ret DSQ 6 7 10 14 Daniel Carlsson 5 7 6Ret 9 15 Gigi Galli 13 6 7 516 Luís Pérez Companc 15 19DNS 28Ret 11 11 23Ret 5Ret 4 Xavier Pons 25Ret 16 6 18Ret 9 8 36Ret 9 418 Guy WilksRetRet 9 9 10 6 13 3 Urmo Aava 28 15 13 14 7 12 8 18Ret 18 3 20 Federico VillagraDNS 9 11 32 14 11 13 7 18 221 Juho Hänninen DSQ 17 11 8RetRet 19 23 24 1 Mads Østberg 9 37RetRet 8 11 1 Katsuhiko Taguchi 8 1 Gareth MacHale 11Ret 13Ret 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 5 18 212 2 Citroën Total World Rally Team 18 9 1 15 16 13 6 8 6 10 11 18 16 8 18 10 183 3 Subaru World Rally Team 8 2 5 4 8 2 5 9 5 5 7 4 7 2 6 8 87 4 Stobart VK M-Sport Ford 1 5 10 3 2 9 7 4 4 5 5 2 7 7 9 1 81 5 OMV Kronos 2 7 5 3 4 1 3 2 0 8 0 4 0 4 0 2 45 6 Munchi's Ford World Rally Team 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 8 0 14
External links
Results on the official site: WRC.com Results on eWRC.com Results at Jonkka's World Rally Archive