The 2009 Repco Rally Australia was the 20th Rally Australia and the tenth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season. The rally consisted of 35 special stages and was won on the road by Citroën's Sébastien Loeb. However, Loeb's win was short-lived as his Citroën along with those of his teammate Dani Sordo, and Sébastien Ogier were given one-minute time penalties for irregularities with their cars' anti-rollbars. Ford's Mikko Hirvonen inherited the win, for his fourth win in succession.
Entries The final entry list included 40 crews. 10 drivers contested in the World Rally Car class and 14 contested in the Production World Rally Championship class. This was the first time in the season that Petter Solberg and co-driver Phil Mills did not compete in their privately entered Citroën Xsara WRC since Rally Ireland.
Protests The event was disrupted by environmental activists protesting against the running of the rally, claiming that the event threatened local wildlife. One week before the rally, protesters unsuccessfully filed an injunction against the event in an effort to stop it. During the rally itself, signs were placed around the route of the rally, telling the drivers and those involved in the rally to go home. The CTEK East stages, scheduled to be held on 4 September as the sixth and eleventh stages of the rally, were cancelled after rocks were thrown at the course car and the stage itself was blocked when protesters pulled a fence across the road. Early reports also emerged claiming that protesters had taken animals killed on local roads and placed them along the rally route to give the appearance that wildlife had been killed by rally cars, though these reports were later denied. Following the cancellation of the CTEK East stages, New South Wales police announced that they would prosecute those responsible as public nuisances.
Results Pos.DriverCo-driverCarTimePenaltyDifferencePoints WRC 1 Mikko Hirvonen Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Focus RS WRC 09 2:53:06.5 0.0 10 2 Sébastien Loeb Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 2:53:54.0 1:00 +47.5 8 3 Dani Sordo Marc Martí Citroën C4 WRC 2:54:11.1 1:00 +1:04.6 6 4 Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila Ford Focus RS WRC 09 2:54:58.5 +1:52.0 5 5 Sébastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia Citroën C4 WRC 2:55:29.8 1:00 +2:23.3 4 6 Matthew Wilson Scott Martin Ford Focus RS WRC 08 2:58:32.8 +5:26.3 3 7 Henning Solberg Cato Menkerud Ford Focus RS WRC 08 3:00:24.3 0:20 +7:17.8 2 8 Federico Villagra Jorge Pérez Companc Ford Focus RS WRC 08 3:00:45.9 +7:39.4 1 PWRC and class N4 1 Hayden Paddon John Kennard Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 3:08:42.6 0.0 - 2 Martin Prokop Jan Tománek Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 3:08:51.2 +8.6 10 3 Richard Mason Sara Mason Subaru Impreza WRX STi 3:09:33.4 +50.8 8 4 Cody Crocker Ben Atkinson Subaru Impreza WRX STi 3:10:26.5 +1:43.9 6 5 Armindo Araújo Miguel Ramalho Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 3:12:59.3 +4:16.7 5 6 Stewart Taylor Warwick Searle Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 3:14:30.3 +5:47.7 4 7 John Gouasdoue Scott Beckwith Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI 3:60:41.8 7:20 +21:59.2 - 8 Stephen Tonna Lorell Tonna Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V 3:60:41.8 2:00 +21:59.2 - 9 Gianluca Linari Massimo Salvucci Subaru Impreza WRX STi 3:38:52.8 +30:01.6 3
Special stages DayStageTime (AEST)NameLengthWinnerTimeRally leader 1(3-4 Sep) SS1 18:53 Tweed 1 2.55 km Sébastien Ogier 1:49.0 Sébastien Ogier SS2 19:08 Tweed 2 2.55 km Sébastien Ogier 1:46.1 SS3 7:38 Kyogle 1 7.32 km Jari-Matti Latvala 4:05.5 SS4 8:36 Repco 1 22.41 km Mikko Hirvonen 10:27.3 Jari-Matti Latvala SS5 9:24 Kyogle 2 7.32 km Dani Sordo 3:59.1 SS6 10:37 CTEK East 1 11.33 km stage cancelled SS7 11:40 Mooball 1 5.85 km Jari-Matti Latvala 4:41.7 SS8 11:58 Kidney Health 1 5.74 km Jari-Matti Latvala 4:29.4 SS9 12:16 Castrol Edge 1 6.85 km Sébastien Ogier 4:38.9 SS10 14:03 Castrol Edge East 2 6.85 km Jari-Matti Latvala 4:29.3 SS11 15:03 CTEK East 2 11.33 km stage cancelled SS12 16:06 Mooball 2 5.85 km Jari-Matti Latvala 4:36.7 SS13 16:24 Kidney Health 2 5.74 km Jari-Matti Latvala 4:26.0 SS14 18:30 Tweed 3 2.55 km Sébastien Ogier 1:48.1 SS15 18:45 Tweed 4 2.55 km Sébastien Ogier 1:46.8 2(5 Sep) SS16 7:28 Dayco 1 20.31 km Mikko Hirvonen 9:45.1 SS17 8:13 Bosch 1 18.75 km Sébastien Loeb 9:26.3 SS18 9:04 Armor All 1 8.2 km Sébastien Loeb 3:47.2 SS19 10:42 Urliup 5.24 km Mikko Hirvonen 4:25.7 SS20 13:55 Armor All 2 8.2 km Sébastien Loeb 3:42.8 SS21 14:34 CTEK West 1 8.59 km Sébastien Loeb 4:28.3 Sébastien Loeb SS22 15:27 Dayco 2 20.31 km Sébastien Loeb 9:38.3 SS23 16:12 Bosch 2 18.75 km Dani Sordo 9:30.6 Mikko Hirvonen SS24 19:15 Tweed 5 2.55 km Sébastien Ogier 1:47.4 SS25 19:30 Tweed 6 2.55 km Sébastien Ogier 1:46.2 Dani Sordo 3(6 Sep) SS26 7:14 Monroe 1 7.4 km Sébastien Loeb 3:25.8 Sébastien Loeb SS27 7:36 Castrol Edge West 1 21.52 km Dani Sordo 10:01.9 SS28 8:37 Gondwana 1 10.88 km Mikko Hirvonen 6:19.0 SS29 8:56 Upper Clarence 1 6.94 km Jari-Matti Latvala 3:14.6 SS30 9:40 CTEK West 2 8.59 km Sébastien Loeb 4:27.5 SS31 11:03 Monroe 2 7.4 km Sébastien Loeb 3:21.1 SS32 11:25 Castrol Edge West 2 21.52 km Dani Sordo 9:46.9 SS33 12:26 Gondwana 2 10.88 km Sébastien Loeb 6:09.1 SS34 12:45 Upper Clarence 2 6.94 km Jari-Matti Latvala Sébastien Ogier 3:12.2 SS35 13:27 Repco 2 22.41 km Mikko Hirvonen 10:14.4 Mikko Hirvonen
Championship standings after the event
Drivers' championship Pos Driver IRL NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRC POL FIN AUS ESP GBR Pts 1 Mikko Hirvonen 3 2 2 2 Ret 2 1 1 1 178 2 Sébastien Loeb 1 1 1 1 1 4 Ret 7 2 273 3 Dani Sordo 2 5 4 3 2 23 12 2 4 350 4 Jari-Matti Latvala 14 3 12 Ret 6 1 3 Ret 3 436 5 Henning Solberg 4 4 18 5 3 8 15 3 30 7 29 6 Petter Solberg 6 3 4 Ret 3 Ret 4 Ret 25 7 Matthew Wilson 7 7 5 Ret 5 6 14 5 8 6 23 8 Sébastien Ogier 6 10 Ret 17 7 Ret 2 Ret 6 520 9 Federico Villagra 7 7 4 Ret 4 11 815 10 Conrad Rautenbach 18 Ret 6 Ret Ret 9 5 8 Ret Ret8 11 Mads Østberg 9 6 7 7 Ret Ret 7 12 Khalid al-Qassimi 8 8 8 16 6 9 19 6 13 Evgeny Novikov 12 Ret Ret 5 16 9 Ret4 14 Chris Atkinson 54 15 Matti Rantanen 54 16 Krzysztof Hołowczyc 6 3 17 Jari Ketomaa 7 2 18 Nasser Al-Attiyah 11 16 8 10EX 1 19 Urmo Aava 10 8 29 1 20 Lambros Athanassoulas 8 1 Pos Driver IRL NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRC POL FIN AUS ESP GBR Pts
Manufacturers' championship Pos Team Event Totalpoints IRL NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRC POL FIN AUS ESP GBR 1 Citroën Total World Rally Team 18 14 16 16 18 8 4 12 13 14 133 2 BP Ford World Rally Team 8 14 10 8 3 18 18 10 16 15 120 3 Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team 8 8 6 5 10 7 5 11 4 5 69 4 Citroën Junior Team 5 2 4 0 2 5 6 5 4 4 37 5 Munchi's Ford World Rally Team 0 0 3 4 5 0 6 0 2 1 21
References
External links
Official website Event at WRC.com