Sun July 18, 2004

 Carlos Sainz Claims Win Number 26 Carlos Sainz has re-claimed the crown as the world's best rally driver of all time after leading Citroën 1-2 in this weekend's Rally of Argentina (16-18 July 2004) which has also strengthened his team mate Sebastian Loeb's grip on the 2004 World Drivers' Champio...

NEWS JUST IN

 Makes title battle @ 01:28 PM - provisional, unofficial standings after Argentina: 1st Citroen 98points // 2nd Ford 71 // 3rd Subaru 64 // 4th Peugeot 51 // 5th Mitsubishi 14

 Drivers title battle @ 01:27 PM - provisional, unofficial standings after Argentina: 1st Loeb 61points // 2nd Solberg 44 // 3rd Märtin 34 // 4th Sainz 34 // 5th Grönholm 32 // 6th Duval 29 // 7th Hirvonen 18 // 8th Rovanperä 14 // 9th Tuohino 12 // 10th Carlsson 6

 RA end - El Condor, El Matador @ 01:25 PM - El Condor: a true classic, in strong contrast to the other Argentina stages many tight hairpins into mountains so high that engines can hardly breathe, average speeds as low as 70km/h, stage winner Rovanperä. El Matador: most successful rally driver of all time, 1182 career points, and now with 26 victories a new record. Unofficial, provisional positions at finish: 1. Sainz 4:23:11.0 2. Loeb +1:32.5 3. Duval +4:23.5 4. Hirvonen +8:27.7 5. Rovanperä +9:59.9 6. Perez Companc +16:24.7 7. Panizzi +17:39.0 8. Pozzo +:. 9. Warmbold +:. 10. Sola +:. With Pozzo being non-FIA-seeded and therefore starting behind the PWRC, results from 8th place are delayed.

 RA SS25 - Now the classics @ 01:23 PM - The Rally Argentina classics "Mina Clavero" & "El Condor" have become a victim of service layout rules in recent years. This year they are back for a fitting final to the event. Harri Rovanperä was well in command in mina Clavero. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS25: 1. Sainz 4:08:56.3 2. Loeb +1:33.5 3. Duval +4:09.1 4. Hirvonen +8:28.6 5. Rovanperä +10:08.3 6. Perez Companc +15:20.8 7. Panizzi +17:30.7 8. Pozzo +:. 9. Sola +:. 10. Warmbold +:. With Pozzo being non-FIA-seeded and therefore starting behind the PWRC, results from 8th place are delayed.

 RA SS24 - All settled @ 08:41 AM - Hirvonen wins his first stage since joining Subaru (he became a WRC stage winner already at ford last season). Warmbold passes Paasonen for thelast top10 spot. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS24: 1. Sainz 3:48:48.1 2. Loeb +1:30.1 3. Duval +3:57.6 4. Hirvonen +8:34.4 5. Rovanperä +10:26.6 6. Perez Companc +14:39.0 7. Panizzi +17:28.2 8. Pozzo +:. 9. Sola +:. 10. Warmbold +:. With Pozzo being non-FIA-seeded and therefore starting behind the PWRC, results from 8th place are delayed.

 RA SS23 - Stage win for Rovanperä @ 08:40 AM - If there is a Citroen team order, it now looks more like "Make sure both cars finish", since now Loeb's time was quite slow. Flash-back on previous stage lower top10: It appears group N driver Galli has retired from 9th place overall. Panizzi has passed Pozzo for 7th. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS23: 1. Sainz 3:35:09.5 2. Loeb +1:26.4 3. Duval +3:56.2 4. Hirvonen +8:40.4 5. Rovanperä +10:27.0 6. Perez Companc +14:13.8 7. Panizzi +17:18.2 8. Pozzo +:. 9. Sola +:. 10. Paasonen +:. With Pozzo being non-FIA-seeded and therefore starting behind the PWRC, results from 8th place are delayed.

 RA SS22 - Will Sainz take it? @ 08:20 AM - Loeb wins stage, Sainz nearly 13s down on this stage. With the few works entries left and the big gaps, the only question of the day is: Will Citroen issue team orders for Loeb's drivers title bid? Unofficial, provisional positions after SS22: 1. Sainz 3:29:14.4 2. Loeb +1:23.4 3. Duval +3:52.3 4. Hirvonen +8:39.5 5. Rovanperä +10:29.9 6. Perez Companc +14:02.1 7. Pozzo +:. 8. Panizzi +:. 9. Galli +:. 10. Sola +:. With Pozzo being non-FIA-seeded and therefore starting behind the PWRC, results from 7th place are delayed.

 Carlos close to record 26 wins @ 03:03 AM - If Sainz wins the Rally of Argentina it will be his 26th time on the top of the podium and he will become the driver with the highest number of event wins leaping above Colin McRae. But, there's five tough stages to go including the 40 kms of Mina Clavero and El Condor.

 Carlos five stages from victory @ 02:59 AM - Overall positions at the end of the second leg (after SS21) ... 1. SAINZ 3:18:53.4 ... 2. LOEB +1:36.2 ... 3. DUVAL +3:55.7 ... 4. HIRVONEN +8:46.4 ... 5. ROVANPERÄ +10:37.0 ... 6. COMPANC +13:45.4 ... 7. POZZO +16:52.9 ... 8. PANIZZI +17:13.3 ... 9. SOLÁ +18:04.4 ... 10. GALLI +18:56.3

Sat July 17, 2004

 Cosquin catches out Marcus Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm crashed out from leading the Rally of Argentina after relentless pressure from Carlos Sainz finally told on the Finn on the 19kms run through Cosquin - Villa Allende. The gap to the Spaniard was just 8.4 seconds overnight, and whilst Gronholm had eak...

NEWS JUST IN

 Positions after SS19 @ 03:55 PM - After Cosquin - Villa Allende ... Marcus Gronholm crashes out ... Carlos leads ... 1. SAINZ 3:14:20.3 ... 2. LOEB +1:37.1 ... 3. DUVAL +3:57.1 ... 4. HIRVONEN +8:44.3 ... 5. ROVANPERÄ +10:39.6 ... 6. COMPANC +13:31.3 ... 7. POZZO +16:25.1 ... 8. PANIZZI +17:08.0 ... 9. GALLI +17:37.7 ... 10. SOLÁ +17:43.8

Fri July 16, 2004

NEWS JUST IN

 RA SS10 - Grönholm's stage @ 04:04 PM - But Sainz is still breathing down his neck. Solberg has not started the stage. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS10: 1. Grönholm 1:56:24.7 2. Sainz +5.2 3. Loeb +33.2 4. Duval +2:46.1 5. Sohlberg +4:32.9 6. Hirvonen +7:44.7 7. Perez Companc +8:22.9 8. Rovanperä +9:58.5 9. Warmbold +10:10.6 10. Ligato +10:19.1

 RA SS9 - Now Subarus in trouble! @ 03:39 PM - What an action packed day. The short Villa Giardino - La Falde stage hits again (Märtin crashed here earlier). Both Subarus lose masses of time, Solberg with an engine problem, Rovanperä still has steering problems, Panizzi has problems with engine and gearbox. Meanwhile the amazing Grönholm vs Sainz show carries on. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS9: 1. Grönholm 1:49:05.5 2. Sainz +1.4 3. Loeb +27.9 4. Duval +2:35.9 5. Sohlberg +4:13.5 6. Hirvonen +7:35.6 7. Perez Companc +7:52.9 8. Solberg +8:24.9 9. Rovanperä +8:37.8 10. Warmbold +9:37.1

 RA SS8 - Sainz takes lead @ 02:32 PM - Sainz takes lead in an amazing battle with Grönholm, both of them open a gap to Loeb and Solberg fast. Rovanperä struggles on with his steering problem. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS8: 1. Sainz 1:37:21.3 2. Grönholm +3.8 3. Loeb +28.2 4. Solberg +37.9 5. Duval +2:14.7 6. Hirvonen +2:43.4 7. Sohlberg +3:44.3 8. Panizzi +4:22.4 9. Rovanperä +6:01.2 10. Perez Companc +7:05.4

 RA SS7 - Amazing Bosse & Carlos @ 01:45 PM - Amazing stage time by Grönholm only to have his closest challenger Sainz to follow by 1.4s. The pair of them have been over 10s quicker than the rest of the World on this 20km stage. However the other Peugeot of Rovanperä hit steering problems and lost over a minute. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS7: 1. Grönholm 1:18:37.1 2. Sainz +3.0 3. Loeb +18.2 4. Solberg +25.1 5. Duval +1:44.0 6. Rovanperä +2:10.1 7. Hirvonen +2:23.1 8. Panizzi +2:39.4 9. Sohlberg +3:12.3 10. Perez Companc +6:04.8

 RA SS6 - Gaps reduced @ 10:30 AM - The top4 positions stayed the same but the gaps have been reduced. Flashback to SS5: Märtin's roll was a biggy, Märtin is taken to hospital for precautionary checks, Park is reported to be OK bar some bruises. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS6: 1. Grönholm 1:00:31.5 2. Sainz +1.0 3. Loeb +2.1 4. Solberg +10.8 5. Rovanperä +22.8 6. Duval +1:24.1 7. Hirvonen +1:51.1 8. Panizzi +2:01.8 9. Sohlberg +2:19.5 10. Perez Companc +4:50.7

 RA SS5 - Havoc stage @ 09:47 AM - Only 16km, but the short stages are often made of only tricky bits. Märtin appears to have rolled out of the rally and Solberg lost around half a minute and the lead with a yet unidentified problem. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS5: 1. Grönholm 53:17.1 2. Sainz +2.9 3. Loeb +5.9 4. Solberg +11.1 5. Rovanperä +22.1 6. Duval +1:15.3 7. Panizzi +1:44.8 8. Hirvonen +1:51.1 9. Sohlberg +1:58.5 10. Perez Companc +4:07.7

 RA SS4 - Solberg again fastest @ 09:02 AM - ... but only just, at 28.83km this is the longest stage of the day and the top4 are seperated by less than 3 seconds on this stage. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS4: 1. Solberg 41:18.8 2. Märtin +12.1 3. Grönholm +12.2 4. Sainz +17.6 5. Loeb +22.6 6. Rovanperä +30.1 7. Hirvonen +57.9 8. Duval +1:06.5 9. Panizzi +1:31.3 10. Sohlberg +1:47.4

 RA SS3 - Solberg flies in first stage @ 08:21 AM - Steady start to the first proper stage for everybody, except Solberg, who is 9s faster than anybody. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS3: 1. Solberg 22:37.1 2. Märtin +9.1 3. Grönholm +10.6 4. Loeb +14.1 5. Rovanperä +15.3 6. Sainz +16.1 7. Hirvonen +35.0 8. Duval +47.2 9. Panizzi +52.6 10. Sohlberg +1:04.8

Thu July 15, 2004

 Perfect Position - Argentina Preview Citroen will start the Rally of Argentina this weekend (14-18 July 2004) ideally positioned to strengthen its grip on the World Rally Championship. With Sébastien Loeb leading the drivers' championship having collected 28 points from a maximum of 30 in the last three rounds an...

NEWS JUST IN

 Results after SS2 @ 09:43 PM - Unofficial, positions after SS2: 1. Solberg 0:04:20.5 2. Martin +0.2 3. Gronholm +0.4 4. Sainz +1.3 5. Loeb +2.3 6. Rovanperä +3.7 7. Duval +3.7 8. Hirvonen +4.7

Wed July 14, 2004

 Scooby Argentina Preview The Subaru World Rally Team will enter two cars in Argentina, which will be driven by Petter Solberg (co-driven by Phil Mills) and Mikko Hirvonen (co-driven by Jarmo Lehtinen). Petter has competed in Argentina four times and has scored points on each occasion. He finished second ...

 Ford passionate in the Argentine pampas Ford BP Rallye Sport will aim to match the high level of fervour displayed by the passionate Latin fans as it strives to extend its strong record in south America on the Rally Argentina (15 - 18 July) next week. The FIA World Rally Championship reaches its midpoint in the pampas...

 Citroen Team Interview - Pre Argentina

 A Passionate Land Awaits Mitsubishi After three rough gravel rallies hosted around the Mediterranean, the FIA World Rally Championship now takes the Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports team to Argentina for the only round to be hosted on the South American continent. Rally Argentina (July 15-18), the eighth round of the...

Tue July 6, 2004

 Argentina start order