2007 Rally Japan

The 2007 Rally Japan was the 14th round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. It took place between 26 and 28 October 2007.

2007 Rally Japan 4th Rally Japan
Round 14 of the 2007 World Rally Championship ← Previous event Next event →
Rally winner Mikko Hirvonen.
Host country	Japan
Rally base	Obihiro, Hokkaidō, Japan
Dates run	October 26 – 28 2007
Stages	27 (350.19 km; 217.60 miles)
Stage surface	Gravel
Overall distance	1,575.79 km (979.15 miles)
Statistics
Crews	84 at start, 73 at finish
Overall results
Overall winner	Mikko Hirvonen BP Ford World Rally Team Ford Focus RS WRC 07

Report

Ford Mikko Hirvonen took the lead on Friday afternoon after overtaking Jari-Matti Latvala. Hirvonen then led the rally to the end. After team-mate Marcus Grönholm had already retired on Friday morning, the task was to keep Sébastien Loeb behind and thereby take points from him in the Drivers' World Championship. Hirvonen did that with success, he put the three-time world champion under pressure and fought an exciting battle for the top with him.

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.^[1]

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).

Leg	Stage	Time	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Avg. spd.	Rally leader
1 (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/h
2 (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/h
3 (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 2 Ret 104 2 Sébastien Loeb 1 2 14 1 1 1 Ret 2 3 1 2 1 1 Ret 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 24 Ret Ret 6 2 3 2 53 5 Petter Solberg 6 Ret 4 Ret 2 Ret 5 3 Ret 6 7 6 5 Ret 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 5 Ret 7 10 6 4 15 4 8 6 Ret 29 8 Jari-Matti Latvala Ret Ret 5 7 8 4 9 12 Ret 8 5 7 4 26 24 9 François Duval Ret 2 5 Ret 12 Manfred Stohl 10 7 12 6 10 8 7 8 Ret Ret 12 Ret 14 6 12 11 Jan Kopecký 8 10 8 22 Ret 7 Ret 5 Ret 7 10 Toni Gardemeister 7 6 Ret DSQ 6 7 10 13 Daniel Carlsson 5 7 6 Ret 9 14 Matthew Wilson 12 Ret 26 8 12 30 12 10 10 9 10 11 Ret 4 6 15 Gigi Galli 13 6 7 5 16 Luís Pérez Companc 15 19 DNS 28 Ret 11 11 23 Ret 5 4 Xavier Pons 25 Ret 16 6 18 Ret 9 8 36 4 18 Urmo Aava 28 15 13 14 7 12 8 18 Ret 18 3 19 Federico Villagra DNS 9 11 32 14 11 13 7 2 20 Juho Hänninen DSQ 17 11 8 Ret Ret 19 23 24 1 Mads Østberg 9 37 Ret Ret 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

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Manufacturers' championship

Rank	Manufacturer	Event																Total points
		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