Ford team confirms Hirvonen won’t restart

Sebastien Loeb cannot be caught in the race for this year’s World Rally Championship after Mikko Hirvonen’s factory Ford team confirmed that Mikko Hirvonen would not restart on the third day of Wales Rally GB.

Hirvonen began the season finale trailing Loeb by eight points and needed to beat his French rival this weekend to stand any chance of clinching his first world crown.

Shortly after overtaking Loeb for the lead on Friday morning, Hirvonen’s hopes were left in tatters when he damaged the radiator of his Ford Fiesta RS WRC spinning into a tree stump buried in an earth bank on the first Dyfnant stage.

While Hirvonen conceded his chances were over after he failed to return to midday service in Builth Wells, his Ford mechanics attempted to carry out repairs to his damaged car in an effort to enable his restart on day three.

However, Ford team chief Malcolm Wilson has confirmed that Hirvonen will go no further on the challenging gravel event.

“The engine is too badly damaged following a spin on stage seven which resulted in the radiator being damaged and subsequent driving with no coolant due to hole in the radiator,” said Wilson.

Hirvonen’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala, currently 1.1s behind Loeb in the scrap for glory in Wales, said: “There were big hopes for the rally and we really hoped Mikko could get the victory and the championship. He’s done a good season but the results are not showing that.”

Loeb’s title triumph, his eighth in as many years, will be confirmed when he reaches the finish of Wales Rally GB in Cardiff on Sunday afternoon.