2008 Rally Argentina 28º Rally Argentina |
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Round 4 of the 2008 World Rally Championship
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Sébastien Loeb driving his Citroën C4 WRC.
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Host country | Argentina | ||
Rally base | Córdoba, Argentina | ||
Dates run | March 28 – 30 2008 | ||
Stages | 21 (352.07 km; 218.77 mi) | ||
Stage surface | Gravel | ||
Overall distance | 1,619.45 km (1,006.28 mi) | ||
Results | |||
Overall winner |
Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team |
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Crews | 56 at start, 31 at finish |
The 2008 Rally Argentina, officially 28º Rally Argentina, is the fourth round of 2008 World Rally Championship season; it is a second gravel round of the championship and also the second round of the Production World Rally Championship. The event began with a ceremonial start on Thursday, March 27 in Córdoba and ended after a Super Special Stage and ten minutes service "E" in Villa Carlos Paz.
Some stages of the rally, especially the ones from final day, similarly to those seen on the Mexican event, are held in the mountainous area of the country, thus drivers climb up to 2100 meters above sea levels. The event, however, is more varied and some competitive kilometers lead through vast Argentinian plains.
The rally began in rainy and muddy conditions. Mikko Hirvonen was the first on the road as the championship leader and managed to open up a 48-second gap to Jari-Matti Latvala and a 50-second gap to Sébastien Loeb. However, the BP Ford drivers soon dropped out of contention. On the second stage, Latvala spun off and lost about nine minutes, and on the fifth stage, Hirvonen and Stobart VK M-Sport Ford's Henning Solberg damaged their cars while hitting rocks and retired from the rally. Loeb managed to open up a comfortable gap to Subaru's Chris Atkinson and Petter Solberg. Other drivers in the points after day one were Gigi Galli, Dani Sordo, Federico Villagra, Matthew Wilson and Latvala.