Hirvonen wins Rally Norway; Grönholm takes lead in race for drivers' title

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Finland's Mikko Hirvonen, 26, maintained his pace throughout the inaugural Rally Norway WRC event and claimed his second-ever World Rally Championship victory. In the end Hirvonen beat his compatriot and Ford teammate Marcus Grönholm by nine seconds.
      Hirvonen's first WRC win came in Australia last year.
      "This was my first 'real' victory and I hold it in higher esteem than my win from Australia", Hirvonen commented after the race, referring to the fact that both Grönholm and the French World Champion Sebastien Loeb (Citroën) were present in the Norwegian race. "I was in the lead from the beginning and kept the other guys at bay by sheer driving."
      "Already on Friday I decided to give it all I've got and to see where that will take me, to see if the car will stay on the road."
     
Grönholm's second place finish earned him the lead in the drivers' WRC table. He has 24 points to the 20 of Hirvonen.
      Norwegian Henning Solberg delighted the home crowd by steering his Ford across the finish line in the third fastest time, 3 minutes and 44.6 seconds behind Mikko Hirvonen.
      Yet another Finnish Ford pilot, Jari-Matti Latvala, managed to produce his second best WRC result to date by coming in fifth.
      The current World Champion Loeb's fate was to finish outside the points in Norway after crashing out twice on Saturday. He is currently third in the overall rankings, with 18 points.
      After the snow and ice of Sweden and Norway, the drivers will now have to adjust somewhat, since the next race in the championship will be held in Mexico from March 9th to 11th.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Grönholm takes his fifth career win in Rally of Sweden (12.2.2007)

Links:
  WRC

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