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2007 Rally Japan
*4th Rally Japan*
2007 Rally Japan; 4th Rally Japan
Round 14 of the 2007 World Rally Championship
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	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

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

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	J. Latvala
	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	J. Latvala
	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
9	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
11	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
16	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
Blue	Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple	Did not finish (Ret)
Black	Excluded (EX)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
White	Did not start (DNS)
White	Cancelled (C)
Blank	Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Manufacturers' championship

Rank	Manufacturer	Event																Total points
Rank	Manufacturer	MON	SWE	NOR	MEX	POR	ARG	ITA	GRC	FIN	GER	NZL	ESP	FRA	JPN	IRL	GBR	Total points
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