Mikko Hirvonen

Mikko Hirvonen (born 31 July 1980) is a Finnish former rally driver, and a current Rally-Raid driver, who drove in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 2006 and 2007. In 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 he finished runner-up to Sébastien Loeb. Hirvonen's co-driver was Jarmo Lehtinen from the 2003 season until his retirement in 2014, Lehtinen had replaced Miikka Anttila who co-drove with Hirvonen in the 2002 season.

Career

2002–05 Hirvonen with a Subaru Impreza WRC at the 2004 Cyprus Rally. 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.

After Richard Burns was diagnosed with brain tumor in late 2003, Hirvonen moved to take his place as 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 Hirvonen driving a Ford Focus RS WRC 06 at the 2006 Rally Japan. It was Hirvonen's showings on such events that brought him back to the attention of Ford, whose factory arm signed him 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.

2008–14

On 17 December, Hirvonen was officially named as the number one BP-Ford Abu Dhabi factory driver for the 2008 season, after Marcus Grönholm's retirement. His young compatriot Jari-Matti Latvala was named his teammate in the second factory Focus. In Sweden, he was considered as favourite, but had to settle for second being unable to keep up with his younger teammate's pace. After Rally Mexico, where he had punctures and had to change a wheel, and in Rally 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 a 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 Sordo. The stage was a disaster for Ford as Hirvonen's teammate 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 drivers' championship in Japan, but the manufacturers' title fight was still open as Ford trailed Citroën by eleven points. That changed when Hirvonen rolled his car onto its roof in stage five of the season-ending Wales Rally GB. He was bumped down to 44th as a result, but managed to recover to eighth place by the end of the rally. This result meant that Hirvonen and co-driver Lehtinen became the first WRC drivers ever to score points on every round of a season.

Hirvonen started the 2009 season with a third place behind the Citroën duo at the Rally Ireland. At the Rally Norway, which he won in 2007, he narrowly lost the win to Loeb after a tight three-day battle. He went to finish second to Loeb also in the following two rallies in Cyprus and Portugal. In Portugal, Hirvonen tied the record for the longest points finish streak in the series (22 events) with his former teammate Marcus Grönholm. In the next round in Argentina, Hirvonen was six seconds behind Loeb after 14 stages when his Focus RS WRC incurred an engine problem. His retirement saw Loeb take a 20-point lead over him in the drivers' standings.

At the Rally d'Italia Sardegna, Hirvonen and Loeb both dropped time on day one in a bid to gain a better road position. After Loeb incurred a puncture, Hirvonen found himself unable to catch teammate Latvala, who had been pushing in front from start to finish. In the following Acropolis Rally in Greece, Hirvonen took his first win of the season. With Loeb crashing out, he reduced the Frenchman's championship lead to seven points. At the following Rally Poland, Loeb crashed again, although recovered to seventh, with Hirvonen winning his second consecutive rally he moved to the top of the standings. In Finland, Hirvonen took the lead on the first proper stage and continued pulling away from Loeb to take his debut win in his home event. A few weeks later, in Australia, Mikko was again in a tight battle with Loeb, where Loeb eventually won. Unfortunately for Loeb his car was found to have rollbar irregularities, as did Dani Sordo and Sébastien Ogier. They were then given 1 minute time penalties, which handed Hirvonen the win and 10 points. Hirvonen led the 2009 Championship by a point from Sebastien Loeb, and needed a win to clinch the title, but a hard landing from a jump on the penultimate stage caused the bonnet hinge to fail, as time ticked by to get rid of the bonnet cover, the Championship was handed to Loeb.

In 2010, Hirvonen continued his partnership with Ford for the last time with the Ford Focus RS WRC before switching to the new 1.6 Ecoboost Ford Fiesta RS WRC in 2011. In 2012, Hirvonen changed his seat to a Citroën DS3 WRC to partner Sebastien Loeb in the Citroën Total World Rally Team. His first rally win for Citroën was the fourth rally of the 2012 season in Portugal to provisionally take the lead in the championship, but he was later disqualified from the event due to irregularities with the clutch and turbo in his Citroën DS3 WRC.

2013 was a disappointing year for Hirvonen, finishing on the podium just five times, collecting no wins. He ended the season with one of his biggest accidents ever in Wales. He finished the season in 4th place.

On 13 December 2013, it was confirmed Hirvonen would re-join M-Sport, formerly Ford for the 2014 season. The season was remarkably good for him, as he grabbed two podium places, and three power stage victories meant he was placed fourth in the championship, behind the dominant Volkswagen trio, Sebastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen.

On 6 November 2014, it was announced that he would retire from the sport, moments before the start of the Wales Rally GB.

2015-present

In 2015, Hirvonen began to compete in rally raid for X-Raid with a Mini Countryman, finishing third at the Baja Aragón with co-driver Michel Périn. In January 2016 he finished fourth at the 2016 Dakar Rally. In the 2016 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup, the Finn won the Hungarian Baja and finished third at the eAbu Dhabi Desert Challenge and Baja Aragón, ranking fourth in the overall standings. The driver finished 13th at the 2017 Dakar Rally.

WRC victories

No. Event Season Co-driver Car 1 19th Telstra Rally Australia 2006 Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Focus RS WRC 06 2 2nd Rally Norway 2007 3 4th Rally Japan Ford Focus RS WRC 07 4 63rd Wales Rally of Great Britain 5 26th Jordan Rally 2008 6 9th Rally of Turkey 7 5th Rally Japan Ford Focus RS WRC 08 8 56th Acropolis Rally of Greece 2009 Ford Focus RS WRC 09 9 66th Rally of Poland 10 59th Neste Oil Rally Finland 11 20th Repco Rally Australia 12 58th Rally Sweden 2010 13 59th Rally Sweden 2011 Ford Fiesta RS WRC 14 21st Rally Australia 15 9º Rally d'Italia Sardegna 2012 Citroën DS3 WRC

IRC victories No. Event Season Co-driver Car 1 78ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo 2010 Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Fiesta S2000

Career results

Complete WRC results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pos Points 2002 Mikko Hirvonen Renault Clio S1600 MON SWE FRA ESP CYP ARG GRC KEN FIN21 GER ITARet NZL AUS NC 0 Subaru Impreza WRC GBRRet 2003 Ford Motor Co Ford Focus RS WRC 02 MONRet SWE11 TURRet ARG16 GRCRet CYP6 GER13 FINRet AUS9 GBRRet 16th 3 Ford Focus RS WRC 03 NZL10 ITARet FRA10 ESP14 2004 555 Subaru WRT Subaru Impreza WRC 03 MONRet SWE9 7th 29 Subaru Impreza WRC 04 MEX5 NZL7 CYP5 GRCRet TUR6 ARG4 FINRet GER8 JPN7 GBR7 ITARet FRA10 ESP8 AUS4 2005 Mikko Hirvonen Ford Focus RS WRC 03 MON SWERet MEX NZL ITARet CYP TUR GRC5 ARG GER GBR FRA ESP3AUS 10th 14 BP Ford WRT Ford Focus RS WRC 04 FIN5 Škoda Motorsport Škoda Fabia WRC JPNRet 2006 BP Ford WRT Ford Focus RS WRC 06 MON7 SWE12 MEX14 ESP9 FRA4 ARGRet ITA2 GRC3 GER9 FIN3 JPN3 CYP3 TUR2 AUS1 NZL2 GBRRet 3rd 65 2007 BP Ford WRT Ford Focus RS WRC 06 MON5 SWE3 NOR1 MEX3 POR5 ARG3 ITA2 GRC4 3rd 99 Ford Focus RS WRC 07 FIN2 GER3 NZL3 ESP4 FRA13 JPN1 IRE4 GBR1 2008 BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT Ford Focus RS WRC 07 MON2 SWE2 MEX4 ARG5 JOR1 ITA2 GRC3 TUR1 FIN2 2nd 103 Ford Focus RS WRC 08 GER4 NZL3 ESP3 FRA2 JPN1 GBR8 2009 BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT Ford Focus RS WRC 08 IRE3 NOR2 CYP2 POR2 ARGRet 2nd 92 Ford Focus RS WRC 09 ITA2 GRE1 POL1 FIN1 AUS1 ESP3 GBR2 2010 BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT Ford Focus RS WRC 09 SWE1 MEX4 JOR20 TUR3 NZL4 POR4 BUL5 FINRet GERRet JPN6 FRA5 ESP5 GBR4 6th 126 2011 Ford Abu Dhabi WRT Ford Fiesta RS WRC SWE1 MEX2 POR4 JOR4 ITA2 ARG2 GRE3 FIN4 GER4 AUS1 FRA3 ESP2 GBRRet 2nd 214 2012 Citroën Total WRT Citroën DS3 WRC MON4 SWE2 MEX2 PORDSQ ARG2 GRE2 NZL2 FIN2 GER3 GBR5 FRA3 ITA1 ESP3 2nd 213 2013 Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroën DS3 WRC MON4 SWE17 MEX2 POR2 ARG6 GRE8 ITARet FIN4 GER3 AUS3 FRA6 ESP3 GBRRet 4th 126 2014 M-Sport WRT Ford Fiesta RS WRC MONRet SWE4 MEX8 POR2 ARG9 ITARet POL4 FIN5 GER5 AUS5 FRA5 ESP3 GBR2 4th 126

IRC results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pos Points 2010 M-Sport Ltd. Ford Fiesta S2000 MON1 BRA ARG CAN ITA BEL AZO MAD CZE ITA SCO CYP 11th 10

ERC results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pos Points 2019 MM Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5 AZO CAN LIE POL RMC CZE CYP HUN 20th 21

Dakar Rally results