27/10/09

Hirvonen: 'My challenge is to beat Loeb before he retires'

Mikko Hirvonen has vowed to return 'stronger and better' when the 2010 World Rally Championship kicks off next February, and has renewed his determination to break Sebastien Loeb's record of six consecutive WRC drivers' titles.

Hirvonen's dream of a maiden FIA World Rally Championship title ended in disappointment at the weekend when the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team driver missed the drivers' crown by just one point after finishing second in the Rally of Great Britain.

A freak incident with the bonnet of his Focus RS World Rally Car on the penultimate stage ended his challenge following one of the most exciting title races in recent years. After more than 4040km of flat out driving across the globe, the 2009 title fight came down to Sunday's final 79.84km of competition. Starting the final day 30.2sec behind Loeb in their head-to-head showdown, Hirvonen threw caution to the wind in his attempt to overhaul the Frenchman and claim the title.

The 29-year-old edged closer to Loeb by winning the opening Port Talbot special stage and then gave himself a real chance by slashing more than 11sec from Loeb's advantage in the Rheola test. With just a repeat pass through those two stages remaining, the deficit was down to only 18.2sec. Hirvonen was again quicker than his rival through the early sections of the 17.41km Port Talbot test, before his chances evaporated shortly before the midpoint, when a heavy landing after a jump damaged his car's front end, and led to his bonnet flipping up shortly afterwards.

"We were just a bit unlucky with that, but I don’t know even without that if I could have caught him," said Hirvonen. "Just after the jump the bonnet pin came off and soon after on one really fast downhill straight the bonnet hinges broke - because it was still attached by the other pin the bonnet blocked my view completely. I couldn’t see anything so I had to stop and take it off so I could continue. I'm frustrated to lose by so little, but happy I was able to fight for the title with a six-time world champion until one stage from the end of the season."

Hirvonen acknowledged that Loeb's stunning performance through Special Stages eight and nine on Saturday had been the turning point in the rally and had knocked his confidence.

"After the first two stages on Sunday I thought I could do it, but the time I lost on Saturday morning cost me in the end," he explained. "Maybe in the end I wasn’t having the same rhythm and attack throughout the rally. When I saw the splits on those stages [SS8 and SS9] I just couldn’t believe how much time I was losing and you start to think that maybe there is something wrong with the car.

"I couldn’t believe I was losing so much with my driving. I thought there was something but the boys checked the car and it was fine. It must be that those few stages just weren’t for me, and that’s where I lost the fight," he added.

Reflecting on his year, Hirvonen said he was proud of his fight back from a position of being 20 points behind Loeb after the first five events. "It has been a great season, and an incredible turnaround to my season," he said. "I never thought it would go right to the end and okay, at the start of the season I thought we were experienced enough to fight for it, but it didn’t start well. Sebastien was winning all the rallies and then after Argentina I gave up. But then things went wrong for him and he made small mistakes and had problems so it gave us a chance to come back for the fight. So that was good and for sure it was a really exciting end for the season. But once again he was just a bit faster.

"I scored 11 podiums in 12 rounds, but I needed more wins. My challenge is to beat Loeb before he retires. I've learned a lot this year and I will come back stronger and better next year," he added.

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