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Mikko Hirvonen
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Mikko Hirvonen (born July 31, 1980) is a Finnish rally driver currently driving for the BP Ford World Rally Team in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 2006 and 2007. His co-driver has been Jarmo Lehtinen since the 2003 season.
onen won the under 2000 cc Group a Finnish Rally Championship in 2002. As one of the World Rally Championship's younger competitors he made his debut full-time in a third Ford World Rally Team entry in the 2003 season, scoring one points finish for sixth place at the Cyprus Rally.
Hirvonen moved to be a team-mate to 2003 world champion Petter Solberg in 2004 for the Subaru World Rally Team.
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Encyclopedia
Mikko Hirvonen (born July 31, 1980) is a Finnish rally driver currently driving for the BP Ford World Rally Team in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 2006 and 2007. His co-driver has been Jarmo Lehtinen since the 2003 season.
Career
2002-05
Hirvonen won the under 2000 cc Group a Finnish Rally Championship in 2002. As one of the World Rally Championship's younger competitors he made his debut full-time in a third Ford World Rally Team entry in the 2003 season, scoring one points finish for sixth place at the Cyprus Rally.
Hirvonen moved to be a team-mate to 2003 world champion Petter Solberg in 2004 for the Subaru World Rally Team. He scored points in ten rallies, but his best event result was only fourth, at the Rally Argentina and at the season-ending Rally Australia. These performances were not enough to secure a seat for the 2005 season. Hirvonen then campaigned a two-year-old Ford Focus RS WRC 03 and led one rally during the course of the year, and scored a career-best third place finish at the Rally Catalunya as a privateer.
2006-07
It was Hirvonen's showings on such events that brought him back to the attention of Ford, whose factory arm retained his services for the 2006 season. Hirvonen drove the new Ford Focus RS WRC 06 partnered with Marcus Grönholm. Hirvonen took his first World Rally Championship win at the Rally Australia, and placed second at the Rally d'Italia Sardegna, the Rally of Turkey and the Rally New Zealand. By finishing on the podium for six rallies in a row, he secured a third place overall in the drivers' world championship.
In the 2007 season, Hirvonen started with a fifth place at the 75ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo and a third place at the 56th Uddeholm Swedish Rally. He took his second WRC victory in Norway and later also won the 2007 Rally Japan and the season-ending 2007 Wales Rally GB. He finished third in the driver's championship, 17 points behind Sébastien Loeb. With Grönholm, Hirvonen secured the manufacturers' title for Ford for the second year in running.
2008
On December 17, Hirvonen was officially announced number one BP-Ford factory driver for the 2008 season, after Marcus Grönholm's retirement. His young compatriot Jari-Matti Latvala was named Hirvonen's teammate in the second factory Focus. Hirvonen started the season with a second place at the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally, which was Hirvonens and BP-Ford Team's target. In Sweden he was considered favourite, but had to settle for second being unable to keep up with his younger teammate's pace. After disappointing rallies in Mexico, where he had punctures and had to change a wheel, and in Argentina, where he retired from the lead and then re-joined under SupeRally rules to take fifth place, Hirvonen took his first win of the season at the inaugural Jordan Rally.
Hirvonen took his second victory of the season in Turkey. Despite being the favourite to win at his home event, the Rally Finland, he could not match the pace of his title rival Loeb and finished close second. In New Zealand, Hirvonen was leading when he had a puncture and a spin on the penultimate stage, dropping him to third behind the Citroën drivers Loeb and Dani Sordo. The stage was a disaster for Ford as Hirvonen's team-mate Latvala and Stobart M-Sport Ford driver François Duval both crashed out from second and fifth place, respectively. Hirvonen then dropped eight points behind Loeb in the drivers' championship with only four more rallies to go.
Loeb soon secured his number one spot in the driver's championship at Japan, but there was still the manufacturers cup at hand. That quickly changed when Hirvonen rolled his car onto its roof in stage 5 of the Wales rally . He was bumped down to 44th and climbed to 8th place by the end of the rally. The end of this WRC season saw Hirvonen and co-driver Lehtinen become the first drivers ever to score points on every round of the WRC .
WRC victories
Complete WRC results
External links
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