Rally d’Italia Sardegna review

Rally d’Italia Sardegna was always going to be special.

Not only was it to be the round of this years World Rally Championship in which we saw the highly anticipated return of Mini, with Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke at the helm, but it was also the weekend that Volkswagen officially announced that they will join the WRC in 2013 – much to the delight of rally fans around the world.

But the real action was on the stages and there was only word to describe it: carnage.

Despite running first on the road for all three days of the rally, and therefore effectively cleaning the road, it was Sébastien Loeb who dominated this weekend and stamped his authority over the rest of the field; eventually finishing 11.2 seconds ahead of second placed Mikko Hirvonen. Although Loeb admitted having to push hard and take a lot of risks during day two, he still finished with very few noticeable mistakes.

Team mate Sébastien Ogier made a steady start to the rally apparently finding it difficult to get into the rhythm of the tight and twisty Italian roads. Some bizarre slowing tactics at the end of day one dropped him down to 4th overall leading into day two and throughout the rest of the rally he battled hard with Hirvonen and Solberg. However he made a mistake (and hit a rock) during SS17 and he finished the rally in 4th.

Mikko Hirvonen took second place in the overall standings after a relatively tidy rally. One small moment during SS6 and a puncture in SS7 ensured he could never realistically challenge Loeb, however a power stage win on top of his second position gave him the best points score he could hope for.

Fellow factory Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala was the first of the front runners to suffer misfortune. An incorrectly called pace note from co-driver Miikka Anttila led Latvala to roll his Fiesta on the opening stage. And by stage two the extensive suspension damage had taken it’s toll and Latvala was forced to retire for the day.
However upon restarting he tallied up a total of 7 stage wins and came 2nd in the Power Stage to secure him 2 much needed points.

Turbo problems and a puncture for Petter Solberg still wasn’t enough to keep him off of the podium. However his brother Henning had a somewhat more disastrous rally.

The older Solberg brother hasn’t had the easiest of runs this year and as he crossed the line to complete SS3 his Fiesta caught alight leading him and Ilka Minor to make a hasty exit from the car. SS5 delivered him a broken drive shaft while SS7 brought an end to his rally.

Fellow Stobart team mates fared no better. P.G Andersson hit a rock on the opening day and suffered a broken steering arm while Østberg and Wilson both had issues with their brakes.

Mini’s first event was full of mixed results. Kris Meeke had two very costly problems in the form of a sticking throttle leading to an off on day one. And after restarting on day two a water leak lead him to pull up in SS10. He did manage some impressive stage times – a promising prospect for the other 5 rounds in which they will contest.
Sordo also experienced throttle problems however he battled hard and brought the car home in an incredible 6th position.

The final top 10 results are as follows:

1. Loeb 3:45:40.9
2. Hirvonen +11.2
3. Solberg +23.8
4. Ogier +1:31.5
5. Østberg +2:42.6
6. Sordo +3:27.6
7. Tanäk +7:10.9
8. Hänninen +7:37.6
9. Wilson +8:00.4
10. Prokop +11:28.2

The support championships led to equally exciting racing.

In the SWRC Ott Tanäk lead the event from the first stage and continued to dominate over the rest of the field. Although Juho Hänninen pushed him hard all the way it wasn’t enough to unsteady Tanäk. The Estonian driver leads the championship by 2 points over Karl Kruuda.

Hänninen and Al-Attiyah rounded off the podium positions although both experienced a myriad of problems. Hänninen with a puncture and brake issues while Al-Attiyah spun, had a puncture and caught fire. Both cars also experienced following in the dust of another car.

Martin Prokop had started the rally looking promising however an unfortunate three fires and a penalty dropped him well down the order. Prokop did well to recover to 4th position.

Gassner, Kruuda and Turán rounded off the finishers but it was not without their issues. Gassner broke his rear differential but was able to continue unlike Kruuda (clutch failure) and Turán (broken exhaust) who both had to restart during day two. The point finishing positions somewhat making the pill less bitter to swallow.

There were three non-finishers this weekend: Sousa who suffered alternator problems in his Ford Fiesta, Brynildsen had to retire with an engine failure and Llovera who rolled his car early on in the event.

The next round of the SWRC will be in Greece.

The SWRC results are as follows:

1. Tanäk 3:52:51.8
2. Hänninen +26.7
3. Prokop +4:17.3
4. Al Attiyah +5:22.9
5. Gassner +13:31.6
6. Kruuda +29:53.8
7. Turán +42:18.8

Egon Kaur has won the second round of the WRC Academy after an incredibly action-filled event.

Amazingly only 8 crews survived to the end and for many it was one stage in particular that caught them out.
SS4 caused problems for a total of 9 crews who all unfortunately managed to run into a large rock which no-one had factored into their pace-notes. Extensive sump damage for the majority of them brought their overall rally to an end, however after quick repair work overnight three of the stricken crews were able to continue.

Ward and Niinemäe both rolled on the opening day while a broken steering arm for Černý brought his day to an early end. Upon restarting day two he eventually finished 4th.

Alistair Fisher suffered from engine problems during SS1 and Brendan Reeves had an oil cooler issue. Reeves was able to restart day two, and although he could feel his engine giving up on him as the day drew to an end ,he still finished 5th overall.

Eventual rally winner Kaur had a disastrous start to his rally when he went the wrong way at a junction and spent 4 minutes digging his car out. Although this loss was huge Kaur was definitely the benefactor of everybody else’s misfortune, once again showing that taking risks isn’t always the way to win a rally.

Day two was just as drastic for many of the crews. It was SS10 that caused problems this time for Karyakin, Taylor and Brunello – all three suffered damage to their Fiestas after heavy landings over a jump, each driver with cars beyond repair.

Rounding off the podium finishers was Baldoni and Åhlin in 2nd and 3rd respectively, both also had their problems. Baldoni hit a rock early on in the rally while Åhlin was plagued with damaged steering on the opening morning.

The WRC Academy is really living up to expectations of being a truly exciting and unmissable support championship.

The final results are as follows:

1. Kaur 3:29:39.4
2. Baldoni +1:42.1
3. Åhlin +2:42.3
4. Černý +16:42.9
5. Reeves +17:23.1
6. Crugnola +17:33.9
7. Breen +20:54.2
8. Niinemäe +32:05.2

WRC Academy: Rally Portugal

While Rally de Portugal has given the rallying world the opportunity to watch the Ford Fiesta and the Citroen DS3 World Rally cars go head to head properly without the extreme circumstances of snow and high altitude to deal with, it has also marked the inaugural round of the WRC Academy.

Featuring 18 young drivers (so far, others may join before the next rally), including 6 Pirelli Star Drivers, the Academy is a one mark series held over 6 WRC events this year; Portugal, Sardinia, Finland, Germany, France and Great Britain.

The chosen car for the series is the M-Sport prepared Ford Fiesta R2 and it is forbidden to make any modifications to the car. Although good news for the drivers in the sense that they all have a level playing field in which to prove themselves.

Differing from other championships running this weekend the Academy lasted only two days and awarded points not only for the top 10 finishers but also one point for every stage win. The driver with the most points come the end of the season wins a 500,000 Euro prize scholarship to use towards launching their 2012 career within the WRC.

To ensure that every driver gets as much experience from the Academy a variety of workshops and driver briefings will be held throughout the year. These aim to cover everything from health and fitness to dealing with the media. Guests will also be invited to talk to the drivers – the honour in Portugal went to Ken Block who gave some words of wisdom to the drivers before he made his way home after a nasty accident in shakedown.

While the Academy is a great way to encourage young drivers to the sport there is another aspect that has made this weekend different from most. As part of a brand FIA incentive to encourage more women to get into motorsport (in all areas) one girl from each country the Academy visits get the chance to work alongside the support championship’s communications officer Katie Traxton. This weekend aspiring rally driver Daniela Rodrigues has been in the service park learning all about the championship and blogging about her experiences – they can be read here on the official WRC website. http://www.wrc.com/fanzone/blogs/

I have a vested interest in this Women & Motorsport Commission incentive because, as an aspiring communications officer myself, I have luckily been chosen as the girl to head along to Rally GB – needless to say I have been reading Ni’s blogs and Facebook updates with great interest.

The Academy started on Thursday night with a quick dash through the streets of Lisbon, almost 300km’s away from the Algarve base, with the huge crowds lining the way – 10 people deep in places, a sign of just how popular rallying is in Portugal. Spaniard Jaray Lemes clinched the first point up for grabs and led by 0.6 seconds going into the Friday’s stages.

As Friday morning got underway Irishman Craig Breen set the pace with 4 consecutive stage wins leaving him with an overall lead of 48.4 seconds going into the final day. Egon Kaur and Alastair Fisher picked up wins in the final two stages of the day. Overnight they sat 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Brendan Reeves had the unenviable experience of being the first of the Academy drivers to suffer a set back. As has plagued many a driver in the other championships running this weekend, a puncture in SS3 left him 4 minutes off the place. However after setting some strong times throughout the day he managed to claw his way back up to 11th.

Thankfully all 18 cars returned to mid-day service however the afternoon loop was a lot more destructive for the crews. Calle Ward suffered engine problems during SS5 and stopped on the stage and both Lemes and Andrea Crugnola were affected by driveshaft problems in SS6 – all three retired for the day. As did Argentinean Matteo Baldoni whose car was sidelined with broken suspension.

Molly Taylor was a late casualty as she rolled her Fiesta R2 on the final stage of the day, luckily she was able to continue and was lying 13th overnight – unfortunately for Jose Suarez after his roll in this stage, he could not continue.

Heading into the final day and Craig Breen had a huge lead to defend. A fastest time on SS9 meant he extended his lead to 56 seconds however bad luck was to hit him after a consistent day one – his car left the road during SS10. The crew were reported to the OK however the car was stuck and unable to be recovered for him to continue. The only saving grace being the 5 points he picked up earlier for his fastest stage times, so all was not lost. He’ll be hoping the next round fares better for him.

Fisher inherited the lead and took a stage win amidst Breen’s problems. However similar circumstances struck him in SS12 when he rolled apparently due to ‘spectators having caused him to take his eyes off the road.’ The young Brit was able to complete the stage but lost over 5 minutes in the process.

Other casualties in the morning’s loop were Jan Cerny (broken driveshaft), Suarez and Lemes(rear suspension failure) who were all unable to continue. The day had begun with 17 of the 18 Fiesta’s taking to the stages (Ward was unable to SupeRally) however by mid-day only 13 remained.

After Fisher’s misfortune Egon Kaur inherited the rally lead and put in two fastest stages times on SS11 and SS12 missing out on the hatrick as solid second place runner Victor Henriksson set the bench mark for SS13. A steady rally from Christian Riedemann put him on the final podium position.

Frederik Ahlin had been lying in 4th position before his retirement on SS12 and both Sergey Karyakin and, the youngest driver in the championship, Miko-Ove Niinemae also retired on the last stage of the rally.

18 drivers started in Portugal and only 10 finished. All drivers will use Sunday for extensive debriefing and analysis.

The final standings were:

1. E.KAUR 3:30:13.8 25 points
2. V. HENRIKSSON 3:30:30.2 18 points
3. C. REIDEMANN 3:33:45.0 15 points
4. B. REEVES 3:34:57.2 12 points
5. A. FISHER 3:36:09.4 10 points
6. M. BALDONI 3:36:55.2 8 points
7. A. CRUGNOLA 3:42:39.8 6 points
8. M. TAYLOR 3:43:05.7 4 points
9. M. BRUNELLO 3:51:43.2 2 points
10. T. VAN DR MAREL 4:11:05.6 1 points

Stages winners points:

Y. Lemes 1 point
G. Breen 5 points
A. Fisher 2 points
E. Kaur 3 points
F. Ahlin 1 points
V. Henriksson 1 point

Academy standings:

1. E. Kaur 28
2. V. Henriksson 19
3. C. Reidemann 15
4. B. Reeves 12
5. A. Fisher 12
6. M. Baldoni 8
7. A. Crugnola 6
8. C. Breen 5
9. M. Taylor 4
10. M. Brunello 2
11. T. Van dr Marel 1
12. Y. Lemes 1
13. F. Ahlin 1

Loeb dominates Deutschland

Sébastien Loeb has emphatically secured his eighth successive Rally Deutschland victory.

Based in the German town of Trier, the rally featured some of the toughest challenges the crews will face this year including the monster 48km Panzerplatter stage and the infamous hinkelsteins lining the route.

Loeb charged ahead on Friday winning 4 out of 6 stages as 2003 champion Petter Solberg fell by the wayside with punctures in the first and final stages of the day, leaving him with it all to do on Saturdays run through.

Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen was the first of the front-runners to encounter problems on Saturday as his Focus suffered transmission failure during stage 13. He was unable to restart leaving him wondering where it has all gone wrong this year.

Francois Duval was looking to make an impression on the WRC world this weekend after two years away from the sport however his rally also ended prematurely when his Stobart Ford Focus landed heavily upside down on the hinkelsteins – both crew members went to hospital for checks and co-driver Denis Giraudet was subsequently found to have broken his ribs.

As day 3 dawned the battle for 6^th position was hotting up with Stobart’s Matthew Wilson and former Formula One champion Kimi Räikkönen trading places throughout the weekend – the young Brit came out in front. But it was Räikkönen who provided the biggest shock of the weekend as he clinched his first WRC stage win in only his third tarmac rally.

Fellow rookie, Monster World Rally teams, Ken Block wasn’t quite so lucky when his Ford ground to a halt on a road section – alternator failure ensured Block yet again fails to score points.

However, it was Loeb who supremely finished with 52 seconds in hand over his closest rival – Citroen teammate Dani Sordo.
As we’ve seen previously this year Citroen locked-out the podium again with Sordo and Sébastien Ogier taking second and third respectively.

Loeb’s maximum score of 25 points means he could tie up his record breaking seventh world title in his hometown, when the World Rally Championship moves to France in October.

The next round of the WRC will be held in Japan and run 10^th-12^th September.

Rally d`Italia Sardegna

Wow. I can’t find any other words to sum up that round of the IRC. Just wow!

It didn’t seem to get much of a build up on the Internet considering it is the first rally since the Monte to have live stages broadcast on Eurosport, however if you missed it you missed an incredibly action-packed rally.

Rally d`Italia Sardegna took its first prisoners on the opening stage of Saturday. Ogier, coming off the back of that incredible first WRC win, ran wide while sweeping the road which resulted in a puncture. After a quick change and restart, mechanical problems hit him next. Pulled up on the side of the road the rally was over for him.

He wasn’t the only one to suffer though, everybody was complaining about how slippery the stage was. P G Andersson had a puncture and Magalhaes had brake problems. Although, they made it through relatively unscathed in comparison to Guy Wilks who, after a steady season so far, crashed mid stage resulting in a hospital visit for the Brit. He had mentioned immediately after the crash he had a pain in his lower back and x-rays showed two fractured vertebrae.

My Nan at the moment is suffering with the exact same back break however she didn’t get checked out straight away so she’s having a tough time healing. So knowing how bad this injury can get if it’s not sorted straight away, Guy was lucky in that sense that he went straight to hospital. Wishing him a speedy recovery – it’s never nice to see sporting stars injured.

Guy wasn’t the only to crash in the opening stage, Mikkelsen also rolled his Fiesta and apparently the M-Sport crew were looking for a chain saw to retrieve the car! Luckily for them them it didn’t seem too damaged as it was back out again today under SupeRally regs.

Many a car continued to cross the first stages’ finish line with punctures and/or damage to the car.

The rest of the day continued in a similar fashion – lots of broken cars! Cetinkaya stopped on stage (only to return today like Mikkelsen) and Wittmann rolled his car. Just on a personal note here, I love Franz Wittmann. How nice is it to have someone that happy in a car? All he says in interviews is how much fun he’s having and it kind of reminds me of Ken Block in the WRC. Shame that Wittmann can’t seem to keep his car on the road! Gutted for him.

Moving onto day two and with a relatively sedated ss8/9 it was ss10, which took its toll on Kris Meeke. Caught live on the Eurosport coverage Meeke ran wide and fell down a small embankment landing on the Peugeots right side. Both driver and co-driver were thankfully OK (we wouldn’t want another Brit to go down!) the car however wasn’t. Meeke’s rotten luck this year continues.

All the while Hänninen had been making great progress and was keeping Italian driver Andreucci behind him, the local driver having a brilliant rally in his own right.
The other Skoda of Kopecký was also having a steady rally and was closing in fast on Andreucci.

As the final stage got underway Hänninen had to make sure he kept the car on the road if he wanted the overall win, which was what he did brilliantly. Andreucci took the stage win meaning Kopecký had no chance of moving to the second step of the podium although he gave it his best shot and finished only 2.6 seconds behind the Italian.

However the deserving winner was Hänninen who kept his cool all weekend and kept the car on stage when others couldn’t. He finished 35.6 seconds in front.

One thing about this weekend struck me though, the live coverage was brilliant – OK Charlton Kirby says ‘yes’ too often, but it was amazing to watch some stages live all the same. And from the amount of people on twitter who also commented that they enjoyed watching it live makes you wonder… how long until the WRC follows suit?

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! 🙂

Rally Sweden day one in a nutshell!

I could write a blog about today’s goings on in the opening round of the 2010 World Rally Championship in Sweden however you’ve probably read it all already through the WRC website and other sources. And to be honest me putting up the same information in new words would only bored you to tears.

So I’m going to put a few little nuggets of information on here that I found interesting – I hope you do to.

First off I probably should give a mention to Hirvonen who now leads the rally with Loeb 8.4 seconds behind and Sordo a further 3.8 behind him. A great drive from all the top three drivers who seemed to be the only ones to pass through the stages with next to no drama.

Now, I don’t know how many of you watched the Dave WRC preview on Sunday but there was a rather good feature with Petter Solberg in which he explained how to drive in the snow and use snowbanks to your advantage. It really was a great feature although I get the feeling he didn’t listen to his own words. Last night during Karlstad Super Special he expertly put the car in a snowbank. OK, so it didn’t cost him masses and masses of time but I did love the irony.

Kimi should also have paid attention to Petter’s advice because he too found himself in a snow bank in ss6 – unfortunately for him it did cost him masses of time. Over 20 minutes in fact. According to Kaj Lindström their windscreen misted up and they slid into a ditch.

But this is beside the point. What struck me most about his driving today was that in ss7 he set a time that was faster than Matt Wilson’s and Petter Solbergs. Now I know many people will say, ‘but Matt and Petter had crashes and their cars were damaged.’ – to the people who will say this… Räikkönen also crashed and most probably damaged his car too.
So all in all I think that shows promise.

The final thing I found interesting was in the S-WRC. That little Fiesta I love so much (my reasoning can be seen in a previous post) seems to have a small issue with its back window. Two separate cars apparently lost their rear windscreens – one of which was driven by Prokop.
I really do have a slight bias towards this car and I hope this is merely a strange co-incidence.

So that was day one in a ridiculously small nutshell. I know a lot of people will have had their first WRC experience today (we all know the interest a certain Finn has brought to the sport) so I hope you enjoyed it! Believe me, you will now be hooked.

Image from http://www.wrc.com