Hirvonen has been involved in rallying since 1998, but first demonstrated his abilities in 2002 behind the wheel of a mono-drive racing car, taking first place in the Finnish Formula 2. The same year in Italy, Mikko competed for the Subaru Cup and even took the lead in the series, but unfortunately lost the title in the last stage of the race.

After an unremarkable debut in Monte Carlo, Hirvonen spent the rest of the season flat, without much achievement. This precipitated his move to the Subaru team, with which he spent 2004, a year as quiet as the previous one. In 2005, the driver had to return to racing as a privateer, and by moving into his familiar 2003 Ford, Mikko was finally able to make a good impression, topping the standings at the Acropolis Rally. That performance put him back in the Ford factory team, and a third-place finish at the Spanish Rally guaranteed him a co-driver spot for 2006.

Facts

Hirvonen gave a lot of support to Markus Grönholm and together they were able to achieve a Ford victory in the constructors’ cup. At the same time Mikko got his first WRC win in Australia. In 2007 he had even better results, coming first in Norway, Japan and Great Britain, finishing in the top three ten times all season, as well as giving BP Ford its second team title.

At the end of the year, he finished third in the individual ranking, and in 2008, he replaced Markus Grönholm as the team’s main driver. Mikko Hirvonen is the first driver to achieve this status at such an early age. But he has rightfully taken the spot and had his most successful season to date.
Together with Jari-Matti Latvala, the team’s co-driver, Hirvonen scored three wins and was up against Sébastien Loeb himself until the penultimate stage of the competition.

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Some facts

In fact, after the New Zealand absolute triumph of Rowanperry in the final two stages of the WRC-2022 (in Catalonia and Japan), only two questions remained open in the major league – will Toyota retain its leadership in the team standings and who exactly will become the second or third winners of the championship in the absolute standings? The Spanish round put an end to the team confrontation – the Toyotas won the second victory in a row and finally buried all the hopes of rivals from Hyundai Motorsport to somehow “reach” the fight to the final in Japan… It should be noted that in this rapid October counteroffensive of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, a decisive role was played by Sébastien Ogier, who decided to take part in the final three stages – the multiple world champion finally replaced Esapekka Lappi, won the second position in New Zealand and the victory in Catalonia, thanks to which for two stages brought to the team’s treasury 51 points! In fact, the Frenchman saved the Japanese-Finnish team, which in August-September began to rapidly “collapse” due to the failures of Kalle Rovanperi (Belgium, Greece) and Elfin Evans (during the performances in Greece, New Zealand, Catalonia, the Welshman managed to score only 8 points). What did this spectacular Toyota counteroffensive on the New Zealand and Catalan tracks performed by Rowanperry and Ogier look like in numbers?

Sébastien Augier played a crucial role

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Such successes have come relatively recently. Until 1996, all the attention of the manufacturer was focused on off-road rally-raids, where the car ZX Rally Raid was performing, and Citroen had no serious success in rallying at the highest level. However, by the mid-90s it seriously returned to classic rallying. In the early years, the team worked on the ZX hatchback, on which the master of asphalt racing, Jesus Puras, became champion of Spain. In 1998, however, it was decided to work on the Xsara. This work began in 1999, and its result was the Xsara WRC.

His full-fledged world rally debut was in 2001 at the Rally Catalunya. The start was impressive: Jesus Puras and Philippe Bugalski went first and second before dropping out for technical reasons. Bugalski was sixth in the gravel stage in Greece, but the Xsara showed its true strength on asphalt – Puras led in Sanremo and won in France. Meanwhile, young Frenchman Sébastien Loeb became champion in the Super 1600 classification at the wheel of a Citroen Saxo. He later joined the main team and finished second in Sanremo.

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