Citroen Junior's Sebastien Ogier sacrificed his 2nd place at the end of Day 2 and ran in front of Loeb throughout the duration of Day 3, therefore dropping to 6th overall due to an 8-minute penalty from the rally organizers (as the reigning world champion was supposed to open the roads on Saturday). With this move, Ogier cleaned the roads a little bit for Loeb, who had no problem detaching himself as rally winner.
The same exact move was pulled off by Ford, who sacrificed Mikko Hirvonen – who had crashed out a day earlier and was back in 19th place on SuperRally rules – to better clear the road for Loeb's rival in Rally Jordan, Jari-Matti Latvala. Although having 3 drivers sweeping the dust ahead of him, the Finn did not manage to get closer to Loeb in the 6 stages remaining on Saturday.
Needless to say, these tactics attracted immense criticism from both Citroen Junior boss Benoit Nogier and Loeb, and yesterday championship rival Mikko Hirvonen came out with some ideas of his own when talking about it to the media.
“We are confusing the public. Nobody really listens to the drivers, but there is a really easy solution: the first 10 or 15 drivers pick their road position. On the first rally of the season, the champion gets first pick and then after that, the leader at the end of the day gets to chose his place for the next day. It's simple,” said the Ford driver, according to Autosport.
While his proposition soon gathered pros and cons from the rally world, WRC promoter North One Sport CEO Simon Long decided to keep neutrality for the time being, although admitting the rules need to be changed as soon as possible.
“The regulations need to be looked at. As a sport it's confusing to wake up and see the guy you thought was second is now actually sixth. We need clarity to tell a consistent story from the sport. I hope the regulations can be looked at to avoid this kind of thing in the future,” said Long.
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