Sebastien Loeb won the rally in Argentina for the eighth time in his career, where he drove the penultimate rally for the World Cup this season. Partially retired Loeb feared before the start of the rally that he might be a little too "rusty" to be able to compete with Sebastien Ogier, who managed to escape the Frenchman in the first stages. But Loeb soon began to narrow the gap, being pushed into the lead by Ogier’s fault in the seventh speed test, and an electronics problem in the eighth, which caused the Volkswagen racer to fall to third. But Ogier then gained one spot with Mikko Hirvonen’s troubles, but a flat tire finally convinced him that it was pointless to chase Loeb’s huge advantage.
The Frenchman thus won for the second time this year, and is currently the only Citroen racer to step on the top podium in the 2013 season.
Leaders Loeb and Ogier cruised to the finish line, and it was much hotter in the fight for third place, which was defended by Evgeny Novikov after the first day. But Jari-Matti Latvala was too fast for Novikova. The Finn took third place in the penultimate test, and Novikov then flew off the track and lost another 40 seconds.
Thierry Neuville was fifth, and Mikko Hirvonen had to settle for sixth place after a flat tire and major electrical problems. Mads Ostberg broke the steering column at the beginning of the rally, but continued with the rally under Rally2 rules. Andreas Mikkelsen and Dani Sordo finished the rally on the tail of the scoreboard after Friday's and Thursday's crash. Sordo was initially ranked better among the two, but fell to ninth place due to a gearbox problem on the final stage.
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 4x35m56.7s 2. Sebastien Ogier VW + 55.0s 3. Jari-Matti Latvala VW + 2m00.8s 4. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 2m36.7s 5. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford + 4m40.5. 6s 6. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 23.9m7s 11. Mads Ostberg M-Sport Ford + 02.2m8s 13. Andreas Mikkelsen VW + 22.1m9s 13. Dani Sordo Citroen + 22.3m10s 14. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 07.6mXNUMXs
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