Jordan Rally Shakedown Timings 2010
Shakedown times from Petter Solbergs website:
Loeb, Citroën 1.13,4
Petter, Citroën 1.13,5
Sordo, Citroën 1.13,5
Latvala, Ford 1.13,7
Hirvonen, Ford 1.13,8
Ogier, Citroën 1.13,9
Villagra, Ford 1.15,1
Wilson, Ford 1.15,2
Henning, Ford 1.15,3
Kimi, Citroen 1:16.2
Petter’s site is amazing check it out here… http://www.pettersolberg.com/
Rally Jordan Preview
Four long weeks they ask us to wait for Rally Jordan. Four weeks!
It wasn’t all bad though, the IRC brought a lot of excitement into my month (where Bahrain’s Formula One race couldn’t) and the Australian GP yesterday was also incredible.
I always think the same when watching IRC on Eurosport, half an hour of coverage a night never seems to be enough to do the event justice. But on the brightside it would appear more live IRC stages will be appearing on our TV screens when we get back to Europe. Thanks to Total Rally for that information.
Huge congratulations to Hänninen who owned the event even with the disadvantage (not that you’d know) of running first on the road during day 2. While I’m on an IRC roll what a complete gutter for Meeke. One stage to go but it just wasn’t to be. But I digress. This was supposed to be a Rally Jordan preview!
Last seen on the WRC calendar in 2008 this is a far cry from the gravel tracks of Mexico and the ice of Sweden. With no real features to define the route, Jordan’s stages offer a massive challenge to any brave enough to take them on.
Jordan enjoys a long history with rallying. The Middle Eastern Rally Championship has been held there almost every year since 1983 with it featuring on the WRC calendar for the first time in 2008 when it was won by Mikko Hirvonen.
Not much has changed for 2010. 21 stages will be run totalling 339.48 competitive kilometres and most of these will be driven well below sea-level – some lower than 400 metres. This not only makes the service park the lowest of the season but the Dead Sea area is also the lowest on Earth, on land at least!
So what can we expect to see this year? Well, a lack of visual points will mean many a car making an ‘off-road’ excursion due to a wrong pacenote or just pure inexperience.
It will also be a swelteringly hot event with temperatures regularly reaching 40 degrees Celsius. Expect many red and sweaty faces and the odd phased look from those struggling the most!
Day two (Friday) will feature ‘Jordan River’ the longest stage of the weekend which at 41.45km will be run as ss10/13 and judging by last year’s times it will take the crews just over 28 minutes to complete.
However it is day three which will have the most historic stage of the weekend. Whether you are religious or not you cannot deny the fascination that remains over this part of the world. Believed to be the place of Christ’s baptism the rally will come to a magnificent end after a second stage run near this area, which is held sacred to, so many.
In 2008 it was Sébastien Loeb who looked the strongest throughout until a freak head-on accident with Conrad Rautenbach put them both out of the rally. When asked recently how Loeb felt about his chances for this year’s Jordan Rally he (fantastically) replied,
It should be OK. Conrad is not taking part in the rally!
Well, how can you reply back to that? He’s obviously feeling pretty confident and thinking he’s got something to prove too.
The Ford drivers will be fighting him all the way though as they aim to recover from a terrible Rally Mexico in which their cars let them down.
It will be a tough battle of the fittest in Jordan so make sure you keep up to date with all the action this Thursday onwards on wrc.com.
Event Information
Date: April 1-3, 2010
Round: 3 of 13 FIA World Rally Championship
Based: Dead Sea, Jordan
Stage surface: Gravel
Total stage distance: 339.48kms
Number of stages: 21
Longest stage: 41.45km Jordan River (SS10/SS13)
Service Park: Dead Sea Centre, Jordan
Picture from www.eurosport.fr
Event info table from Stobart motorsport.
Picture of the Rally – Mexico 2010
I’m actually quite upset because I have spent ages trawling the internet looking for my ‘Picture of the Rally’ knowing exactly what I wanted to find but being unable to locate it!
The picture I wanted to show you was Henning Solberg running the Sport Relief mile in his crocs and socks – lets be honest the mental image alone is enough to make you chuckle!
So as I’m looking desperately for Henning’s funny footwear choice (which by the way if you do find it please, please send it my way – it would make my day!) I found this little gem.
Do I need to explain why I love it so much? I think not. Come on, it’s Seb in the most INCREDIBLE boots, gorgeous hat and sunglasses!
What’s not to love?!
Although the one thing I REALLY want to know is where can I get a patio like that from?
-edit… It seems @sackrebleu has this picture as her fave from the rally on her twitpic too! Sorry hun, I didn’t realise you’d posted it. WRC people, you need follow her on twitter for great rally musings! 🙂
Gold Medalist Amy Williams’ Interview
I missed some of the rally action over the weekend and didn’t have time yesterday to write a blog however I do have something that for you sport fans should make up for it – an interview with Olympic gold medallist Amy Williams who stormed to an impressive win in Vancouver last month. She is the UK’s first single gold medallist for 30 years! What an achievement.
Yesterday was Bath’s half marathon, one of the largest and most popular in the country. The course is run through the beautiful streets of the city in a loop that is covered twice by all 15, 000 competitors. A cold morning greeted all participants as temperatures hovered around freezing however soon enough the sun rose over the tall buildings and by the time the race got underway sweatshirts were thrown away and lining the streets (before anyone worries about chucking all those clothes away fear not, it will all be donated to charity shops.)
However, talk of the day was on the start line. Baths very own Amy Williams was waving on spectators and minutes after the race begun we at we’re lucky enough to have a chat with her.
The voice on the audio is presenter Charlie Vernon – keep an ear out for her in the future reporting from The Brits or something like that. For now though she is our entertainment correspondent.
I have to say that I thought she was very nice. It must be extremely difficult now that everyone knows her. She didn’t even have a PR person to make things easier on herself. So just wanted to say how much I appreciated her time.
-If you check my twitter page there are also some pictures from the interview. www.twitter.com/jodie_kemp
Rally Mexico – Day One
Just a quick run down as to what happened yesterday in Mexico. Firstly road position obviously played a huge part in the outcome. It was thought before the rally that Hirvonen would struggle as road cleaner and that running around 7th on the road would be the ideal place to start. This definitely seemed to be the case. Mikko Hirvonen lost masses of time to his competitors as he cleared the way for everyone behind him. In stage one road position wasn’t his only problem, he hit a rock which didn’t seem to slow him however it may well have knocked his confidence for the rest of the day – as he came to the end of the stage his bumper (as well as team-mate Latvala’s) was hanging off. The Ford seemingly not as quick as the Citroens.
Ken Blocks first stage in the Focus looked to be ok however he did hit something that caused his door to buckle. Although I have to say he is quickly becoming one of my favourite drivers because of his unwavering enthusiasm. After stage one he had this to say,
Damn that was fun! That was one funnest stages of my life: The car is incredible and this was the best stage of my life!
Petter Solberg was running in a race of his own. Somehow he managed to find a teleportation device en route and knock an astonishing 9.8 seconds off of Ogier’s time.
For me Ogier is definitely one of the big stars of the future and personally I think Sordo’s sear next year isn’t safe while Ogier is driving as well as he has been recently.
Stage two was also as dramatic and yet again Hirvonen was right down the order. Loeb faired better than Hirvonen but was still blown away buy Ogier and Solberg. In fact this was pretty much how Mikko’s day continued much to his despair.
Kimi Räikkönen lost 30 minutes stuck on stage after a fuel connection came loose and brought the car to a grinding halt. Eventually he got moving but it put an end to his competitive rally hopes.
Moving onto stage three and inevitably Henning Solberg lost part of his car – let’s be honest that’s his thing isn’t it! And he wasn’t the only Ford with problems (surprise, surprise. Just not their rally) Matt Wilson took the speed bumps with too much speed which resulted in his windscreen caracking.
Next up with the super fast Coca Cola stage. The big surprise here was that all 5 Citroens clinched the top 5 places. Räikkönen in this stage showed real potential for the rallies later in the year.
Räikkönen’s terrible day continued in the afternoon loops with a roll on SS7. Hopefully both he and Kaj are OK, however with recent back issues including surgery it will surely have caused him some discomfort. Kaj is yet to finish a rally Mexico in all his attempts!
The rest of the day’s events carried on as the morning begun. Hirvonen struggled while Petter and Ogier dominated. Although Ken Block hit a cactus which pretty much made my day!
Petter will have the worst of the road positions for day 2 as he turns road sweeper, which may give Loeb and Hirvonen the chance to catch up some. However it would seem that Petter and Ogier are defiantly the ones to watch.
The Motors TV coverage was, once again, a sham with the commentator commenting that we were in Australia instead of Mexico while all the time sounding like he was reporting from the moon. The telephone line was inaudible at times. Motor’s TV get your act together. However, their live updates here http://www.motorstv.com/car/rally/wrc/live/live-mexico-rally-day-1 are rather good!
Rally Mexico Press Conference
I hate to do this (copy and paste) however I just came back from a party and figured I’d post this and maybe analyse anything interesting tomorrow!
Present:
Jari-Matti Latvala, BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
Sébastien Ogier, Citroën Junior Team
Dani Sordo, Citroën Total World Rally Team
Ken Block, Monster World Rally Team
Welcome to the pre-event FIA press conference.
Shakedown timings for Rally Mexico
If you haven’t already seen the timings for the ‘top’ drivers (I hesitated to use that word) here they are…
1. P. SOLBERG. Citroen C4 WRC. 2:51.7
2. SORDO. Citroen C4 WRC. 2:51.8
3. OGIER. Citroen C4 WRC. 2:51.9
4. LOEB. Citroen C4 WRC. 2:52.5
5. RAIKKONEN. Citroen C4 WRC. 2:54.2
6. HIRVONEN. Ford Focus RS WRC 09. 2:55.3
7. H.SOLBERG. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 2:56.2
8. VILLAGRA. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 2:56.4
9. WILSON. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 2:59.9
10. LATVALA. Ford Focus RS WRC 09. 3:00.1
11. BLOCK. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 3:04.6
Many drivers encountered front end damage including Petter Solberg, Dani Sordo, Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala.
Hirvonen encounters Mexican Police
Reports have emerged from Mexico that Mikko Hirvonen had his car temporarily towed away today!
From what I’ve read it seems to be his recce car that caused the problem (although I can’t be sure because google translate isn’t really helping me on this one!) after he parked it in an area that it shouldn’t be. Luckily his mechanics managed to retrieve it from the police and Mikko was then able to carry on.
All in all it seems like a bit of a misunderstanding!
If you know anymore – or I have got the completely wrong end of the stick with the translations let me know!
Press conference info for Rally Mexico
The drivers attending tomorrow’s (Thursdays) press conference are as follows…
Dani Sordo
Jari-Matti Latvala
Sébastien Ogier
Ken Block
As with Kimi Räikkönen in Sweden I think we can expect the majority of questions to come Ken’s way. Hopefully h’ell have left that lightsaber thing in his hotel room…
If there are any quotes that particularly stand out for me I’ll post them here!
Rally Mexico Preview
Rally Mexico. A world away from the opening round of the 2010 WRC season. The drivers and teams will be swapping sub-zero temperatures for heat and altitude.
Sharing a border with the United States this rally first appeared on the calendar in 2004 and has become a firm favourite among the fans.
Since then it has been won by three different drivers with two competing this coming weekend (Petter Solberg and Sébastien Loeb) both of whom will be hoping for the win for different reasons.
Rally Sweden was an utter disaster for Solberg from start to finish – the exact opposite to what he was telling the media he was going to produce.
As for Loeb, he resigned himself to second place something that is pretty much unheard of from him. He’ll be determined to put everyone in their places this weekend, and having won here three times in a row previously you’d certainly tip him as favourite.
After a ceremonial start Thursday night in Guanajuato City (to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Mexican revoultion) the crews will be tackling 354.60 competitive kilometres over 22 stages many of which are at a height of over 2000m above sea level – a tall order for cars a personnel alike to overcome.
Saturday will see the Ibaarrilla stage, the longest of the weekend, totalling 29.90km – this will be run as ss10/14. A short blast through a Super Special stage will be run twice an evening. Almost all the stages are the same as 2008 with the exception of a few including one brand new one and another which will be run back to front.
But the talk of the town is the arrival of American rally superstar Ken Block who, unlike Kimi Räikkönen and his disiasterous Arctic Rally, comes off the back of an incredible 100 acre Rally America win. Block has become an internet sensation thanks to his Youtube stunt videos (brought to a mainstream British audience by Top Gear). He certainly has the pace to feature in the top 10 on a regular basis but having little experience in a WRC spec car may hold him back some – although this guy seems to relish challenges so don’t discount him quite yet!
And it’s that time of year again when Sport Relief enters our conscious and asks us to do our sporty best at raising money for charity. The Ford team will be swapping engine power for their own two feet when they charge through the streets of León on Thursday afternoon. The 1.5km Coca Cola stage will be part of the rally on Friday however it will first see the likes of Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala and Henning Solberg, as well as many other members of the team, as they run in an effort to reduce child poverty at home and around the world.
If you would like to support the team you can donate to their specifically set-up Sport Relief page here
If not, you can always donate on the night of the live show broadcast in the UK.
Selected quotes…
Ken Block
This weekend I’ll be up against the greatest rally drivers on earth and, believe me, I will be truly humbled because I am basically a novice in the WRC…I’m on a good development process to get to the top level and its going to take a while but I’m going to do my best. It’s going to an incredible experience… Success for me would be to finish the event and not embarrass myself too much!
Sébastien Loeb
Is probably the most exotic of the rally championship, with the exception of Japan. The race takes place at an average altitude of 2000m, which means we loose a little horsepower: about 20% less power from the motor. The special stages are interesting and varied. It’s a recent rally and the population are becoming more and more interested. Over there they don’t do things by halves, when they are fans of something, they are real fans! A little like Argentina.
Event Information
Date: March 4-7, 2010
Round: 2 of 13 FIA World Rally Championship
Based: León, Mexico
Stage surface: Gravel
Total stage distance: 354.60kms
Number of stages: 22
Service Park: Poliforum, León
Picture from Monster World Rally Team
Quotes from www.wrc.com and www.sebastienloeb.com
Event breakdown information from www.stobartmotorsport.com
Through Shakedown And Stage 