2006 Rally Australia Explained

2006 Rally Australia
Native Name:19th Telstra Rally Australia
Round:14
Championship:2006 World Rally Championship
Previous Round:2006 Rally of Turkey
Next Round:2006 Rally New Zealand
Startdate:26 October
Enddate:29 2006
Stages:26
Surface:Gravel
Driver1: Mikko Hirvonen
Team1: BP Ford World Rally Team
Teamsstart:56
Teamsfinish:45

The 2006 Telstra Rally Australia was the fourteenth round of the 2006 World Rally Championship season. It took place between 26 and 29 October 2006.

Report

Ford's Mikko Hirvonen won the rally, taking his first victory of his career. His teammate Marcus Grönholm was only the Fifth to mathematically give the world championship to Sébastien Loeb, who was out of this race due to injury. Grönholm hit a rock, resulting in him losing eleven minutes and falling to 55th place. In order to maintain his chances for the championship, Grönholm had to rise to at least third place, but he was only able to collect four points, so Loeb, who witnessed the rally from home, celebrated the championship with two more races left.

Results

Pos.DriverCo-driverCarTimeDifferencePoints
WRC
1 Mikko Hirvonen Jarmo LehtinenFord Focus RS WRC 063:15:11.80.010
2 Petter Solberg Cato MenkerudSubaru Impreza WRC 063:15:48.937.18
3 Manfred Stohl Ilka MinorPeugeot 307 WRC3:19:10.43:58.66
4 Xavier Pons Carlos Del BarrioCitroën Xsara WRC3:19:57.24:45.45
5 Marcus Grönholm Timo RautiainenFord Focus RS WRC 063:27:35.612:23.84
6 Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka AnttilaSubaru Impreza WRX STi3:32:21.017:09.23
7 Mirco Baldacci Giovanni AgneseMitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX3:32:54.717:42.92
8 Dean Herridge William HayesSubaru Impreza WRX STi3:33:33.818:22.01
PWRC
1. Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka AnttilaSubaru Impreza WRX STi3:32:21.00.010
2. Mirco Baldacci Giovanni AgneseMitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX3:32:54.733.78
3. Dean Herridge William HayesSubaru Impreza WRX STi3:33:33.81:12.86
4. Aki Teiskonen Miika TeiskonenSubaru Impreza WRX STi3:42:31.110:10.15
5. Sergey Uspenskiy Dmitriy YeremeyevSubaru Impreza WRX STi3:47:00.514:39.54
6. Stefano Marrini Tiziana SandroniMitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX3:51:18.518:57.53
7. Toshi Arai Daniel BarrittMitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX4:00:12.627:51.62

Special Stages

All dates and times are AWST (UTC+8).

DayStageTimeNameLength (km)WinnerTimeRally leader
1
(26/27 Oct)
SS119:12Perth City Super 12.00 Marcus Grönholm1:21.1align=left rowspan=2 Marcus Grönholm
SS219:21Perth City Super 22.00 Marcus Grönholm1:20.7
SS309:23Murray North 115.92 Chris Atkinson8:55.4align=left rowspan=3 Chris Atkinson
SS409:56Murray South 120.12 Chris Atkinson11:34.9
SS510:36Holyoake3.13 Chris Atkinson1:53.4
SS611:49Murray North 215.92 Petter Solberg8:50.0 Mikko Hirvonen
SS712:22Murray South 220.12 Petter Solberg11:31.1align=left rowspan=2 Petter Solberg
SS816:32Beraking 122.84 Marcus Grönholm13:05.7
SS917:18Flynns 118.78 Marcus Grönholm11:07.2align=left rowspan=18 Mikko Hirvonen
SS1019:25Perth City Super 32.00 Marcus Grönholm1:22.6
SS1119:34Perth City Super 42.00 Xavier Pons1:22.2
2
(28 Oct)
SS1209:20Bannister North 117.70 Mikko Hirvonen8:34.7
SS1309:52Bannister Central 117.85 Mikko Hirvonen9:20.8
SS14 10:36Bannister Loop3.61 Marcus Grönholm1:57.5
SS1511:55Bannister North 217.70 Marcus Grönholm8:30.5
SS1612:27Bannister Central 217.85 Mikko Hirvonen9:15.0
SS1716:32Beraking 222.84 Petter Solberg12:34.5
SS1817:18Flynns 218.78 Marcus Grönholm10:48.1
SS1919:25Perth City Super 52.00 Marcus Grönholm1:21.8
SS2019:34Perth City Super 62.00 Marcus Grönholm1:21.5
3
(29 Oct)
SS2107:03Atkins 14.42 Petter Solberg3:06.1
SS2207:33Helena North 129.93 Mikko Hirvonen17:06.0
SS2308:14Helena South 117.30 Mikko Hirvonen8:57.8
SS2411:03Atkins 24.42 Petter Solberg3:01.3
SS2511:33Helena North 229.93 Petter Solberg16:59.1
SS2612:14Helena South 217.30 Petter Solberg8:55.9

External links