Day one

The rally began in tricky conditions with ice and heavy rain making the roads very slippery and fog hampering the competitors' visibility. For safety reasons, the first and fourth stages held in Hafren (which had already been shortened from 19 km to 3 km) were cancelled. Stages 2 and 4 (Sweet Lamb) were slightly shortened (moving the start around 1 km into the stage due to ice) and the third and sixth stages at Myherin were dramatically shortened, using the middle 18 km of the original 35 km. The FIA regulations came in for criticism from several of the teams and champion elect Sébastien Loeb for the lack of flexibility in the tyre rules^[7] which state that only one type of tyre is allowed on the event with no modifications allowed to that tyre. Loeb also spoke out against the lack of gravel crews, which run through the stage before the start and report any bad conditions to the drivers. The year's junior world champion Sébastien Ogier surprised by winning his first stage in a World Rally Car, albeit he was among the competitors to benefit from a late starting position. On the same stage, Production World Rally Championship leader Juho Hänninen retired after his drive shaft broke, leaving Andreas Aigner to take the title if he finishes the event in the top three. On the fifth stage, last year's winner Mikko Hirvonen rolled his Ford Focus WRC and lost several minutes. The next top entrant to roll was Subaru's Chris Atkinson, who was placed sixth before retiring after a bad accident on the first corner of stage seven, the first super special stage. After day one, Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala led from Citroën's Sébastien Loeb, Suzuki's Per-Gunnar Andersson and Subaru privateer Mads Østberg.^[8]

Day two

Day two began with a long stage in Resolfen. Two of the rally's surprises ran into problems; Østberg's Impreza WRC suffered an engine problem and Ogier rolled his C4 WRC very close to the stage finish. The crews reported more icy conditions in the stages, with Latvala feeling particularly ill at ease as he was the first car on the road and therefore the first to encounter the treacherous patches of ice.^[9] Throughout the day the conditions improved enough for Latvala to manage to hold off the challenges of firstly Dani Sordo, and then Sébastien Loeb. Latvala held a 10.8 second lead going into the short Cardiff superspecial but clutch problems developed when he had to queue in heavy traffic on the approach to the stage^[10] and he lost 3.5 seconds of this advantage. In fourth position was Petter Solberg who was only twenty seconds behind third place. Per-Gunnar Andersson had slipped back to fifth place, but was still three places ahead of his more experienced teammate Toni Gardemeister. The two other points positions were held by Henning Solberg and François Duval. Mikko Hirvonen was homing in on a world championship point, ahead of top home driver Matthew Wilson who was in a slightly disappointing tenth position. Valentino Rossi was making progress after a very steady start and was now in fifteenth position - ahead of WRC regulars such as Khalid Al-Qassimi and Conrad Rautenbach.

Day three

Freezing conditions overnight meant that there was ice again on the remaining stages at Rheola and Port Talbot. This was not ideal for rally leader Latvala, who had hoped for warmer conditions overnight^[11] for a better chance of holding Loeb at bay. Loeb had been told by Citroën boss Olivier Quesnel to push for the victory as a third place for Sordo would be enough to clinch the manufacturers title.^[12] After the first loop of Sunday's stages the gap was down to 1.4 seconds and a victory for Loeb was looking inevitable. Loeb was then initially handed a ten-second time penalty for a jump start at SS18 ^[13] which meant that Latvala took a slender advantage of 2.2 seconds into the last stage. However, Loeb's pace was too strong and a further stage win meant that he won the rally by 12.7 seconds after his earlier time penalty was rescinded.^[14] Latvala finished a disappointed second but believed that the battle with Loeb would make him mentally stronger for next season.^[15] Sordo followed team instructions to drive carefully and finished third. Petter Solberg maintained his fourth place and the remaining points positions remained the same, except for a late retirement for Henning Solberg which meant that Hirvonen claimed eighth place. Wilson took the position of highest Brit position, ahead of Barry Clark. Rossi continued his progression and finished in twelfth position, earning praise from Ford team boss Malcolm Wilson.^[16]

Drivers' championship

More information Pos, Driver ...

Pos Driver MON SWE MEX ARG JOR ITA GRC TUR FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN GBR  Pts  1 Sébastien Loeb 1 Ret 1 1 10 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 122 2 Mikko Hirvonen 2 2 4 5 1 2 3 1 2 4 3 3 2 1 8 103 3 Dani Sordo 11 6 17 3 2 5 5 4 4 2 2 2 Ret DSQ 3 65 4 Jari-Matti Latvala 12 1 3 15 7 3 7 2 39 9 Ret 6 4 2 2 58 5 Chris Atkinson 3 21 2 2 3 6 Ret 13 3 6 Ret 7 6 4 Ret 50 6 Petter Solberg 5 4 12 Ret Ret 10 2 6 6 5 4 5 5 8 4 46 7 François Duval 4 3 Ret 4 3 Ret 6 25 8 Henning Solberg 9 13 5 Ret 4 7 8 5 5 7 9 11 15 Ret Ret 22 9 Gigi Galli 6 3 Ret 7 8 4 Ret Ret Ret Ret Inj Inj Inj Inj Inj 17 10 Matthew Wilson 10 Ret 6 Ret 5 12 6 7 9 12 17 9 8 7 9 15 11 Urmo Aava 18 Ret 8 4 Ret 16 8 5 35 7 13 12 Per-Gunnar Andersson 8 Ret Ret 24 Ret 9 11 Ret Ret 15 6 32 17 5 5 12 13 Toni Gardemeister Ret 7 Ret Ret Ret Ret 9 Ret 8 10 7 13 13 6 7 10 14 Federico Villagra 7 6 6 14 13 9 Ret 8 12 9 9 15 Conrad Rautenbach Ret 16 16 4 26 13 10 8 10 10 Ret Ret 14 Ret 15 6 16 Andreas Mikkelsen 5 Ret 19 12 11 8 11 5 17 Jean-Marie Cuoq 7 2 Matti Rantanen 7 19 Juho Hänninen 8 21 13 14 29 24 10 Ret 1 Sébastien Ogier 8 11 22 36 19 Ret 20 26 Andreas Aigner 31 8 14 11 Ret Ret 13 Pos Driver MON SWE MEX ARG JOR ITA GRC TUR FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN 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)

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Manufacturers' championship

More information Rank, Team ...

Rank	Team	Event															Total points
		MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	JOR	ITA	GRC	TUR	FIN	GER	NZL	ESP	FRA	JPN	GBR
1	Citroën Total World Rally Team	11	4	10	16	9	14	15	11	15	18	18	18	10	6	16	191
2	BP Ford World Rally Team	8	18	11	7	13	14	10	18	9	7	6	11	14	18	9	173
3	Subaru World Rally Team	10	6	9	8	6	3	8	3	9	7	5	6	7	6	5	98
4	Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team	8	8	3	3	7	5	3	4	4	6	0	4	7	2	3	67
5	Suzuki World Rally Team	2	3	0	1	0	1	3	0	2	1	7	0	1	7	6	34
6	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team	0	0	6	4	4	2	0	3	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	22

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