It may sound obvious, but one of the key advantages seasoned campaigners have in the World Rally Championship is experience. Not just of competing at the highest levels, but of the rallies themselves.
But every now and then the playing field is leveled. When a new rally is added to the calendar, it presents the young hotshots with an opportunity to pounce.
Back in 2007, Marcus Grönholm was the recognized expert on snow and ice (five Rally Sweden wins from his previous eight attempts would do that) and very clearly seen as Ford’s team leader as it looked to dethrone Citroën and Sébastien Loeb.
Mikko Hirvonen had scored a breakthrough win at the previous year’s Rally Australia, but Loeb was out of action thanks to his mountain bike accident and team-mate Grönholm faltered by going off on the first morning.
What Hirvonen had never done is led and won a rally from the front by undeniably being better than the rest.
That was until Rally Norway 2007.
A new addition to the calendar held just one week after Sweden, Grönholm was expected to pick up where he left off in Karlstad where he defeated Loeb’s C4 WRC by almost a minute. Hirvonen’s fellow Focus was 1m41.5s down the road in third.
Yet it was the younger of the two Finns who grabbed the lead with a stunning opening stage effort on Norway’s narrower, twister roads, 11.2s up on what Grönholm managed, and he never looked back.
Soaking up the pressure from his two-time world champion stablemate, Hirvonen was flawless to record a 9.5s victory over Grönholm.
“Leading since stage one, really fighting against Marcus and Sébastien and coming to the finish as the winner, fantastic rally – absolutely fantastic,” he beamed.
It was a huge performance from Hirvonen at the time – not just for his own career but for Ford’s reassurance, with Grönholm later to announce his retirement at the end of the season.
This week’s Rally Latvia is a very different affair to Rally Norway – the stages are much faster and there won’t be any snow in the middle of July! But could we see another less-experienced driver grab the opportunity a fresh rally presents just as Hirvonen did 17 years ago?
