Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi has finished the Wales Rally GB in 12th place beating former British Champion Gwyndaf Evans and only finishing 13 minutes behind winner and world champion Sebastien Loeb.
The mulitple MotoGP champion was driving a Sobart VK Ford Focus in the rally which had to be shortened due to treacherous conditions in the Welsh hills, with many big names succumbing to the roads early on.
"I'm happy because we approached the race in the right way - we started slowly and tried to understand (the conditions)," said Rossi. "We didn't make any important mistakes, and we arrived at the end.
"Especially this morning we were fast, we fought with the faster guys, so we are so happy. We finished the rally and the car is in one piece. We enjoyed it a lot."
Results:
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WRT C4 WRC 2hours 43mins 19.6secs M
2. Jari-Matti Latvala BP Ford Abu Dhabi Focus RS WRC 08 +00mins 02.7secs M
3. Daniel Sordo Citroen Total WRT C4 WRC +01mins 10.6secs M
4. Petter Solberg Subaru WRT Impreza WRC 2008 +01mins 49.6secs M
5. Per-Gunnar Andersson Suzuki WRT SX4 WRC +03mins 54.1secs M
6. Francois Duval Stobart VK Ford Focus WRC 07 +04mins 57.8secs MT
7. Toni Gardemeister Suzuki WRT SX4 WRC +05mins 15.0secs M
8. Mikko Hirvonen BP Ford Abu Dhabi Focus RS WRC 08 05mins 28.8secs M
9. Matthew Wilson Stobart VK Ford Focus WRC 07 +08mins 03.9secs MT
10. Barry Clark Stobart VK Ford Focus WRC 07 +09mins 43.1secs A8
11. Patrick Flodin Subaru Impreza WRX STi +12mins 41.7secs P / B
12. Valentino Rossi Stobart VK Ford Focus WRC 07 +13mins 10.4secs A8
13. Andreas Aigner Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX +14mins 23.8secs P
14. Guy Wilks Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX +14mins 49.4secs P / B
15. Conrad Rautenbach PH Sport-Citroen C4 WRC +15mins 11.3secs A8
