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?

Rally Turkey Shakedown Times

Petter Solberg’s amazing website never fails to produce! Here are a list of shakedown times from this mornings session. Make sure you check out his website because it’s awesome!

Shakedown times;

Loeb, Citroën 2.30,8
Sordo, Citroën 2.31,1
Hirvonen, Ford 2.31,7
Henning, Ford 2.32,2
Petter, Citroën 2.32,5
Ogier, Citroën 2.32,5
Räikkönen, Citroën 2.33,1
Latvala, Ford 2.33,1
Villagra, Ford 2.33,7
Wilson, Ford 2.35,2

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.

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 100^th 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

Provisional 2011 WRC calendar

First off I should apologise for not putting up a post recently – but I’m here now and hoping to get back into the swing of things.

The FIA has this week released its provisional 2011 WRC calendar. It’s as follows…

Sweden,

Mexico,

Portugal,

Abu Dhabi,

Argentina,

Sardinia – with a mainland start,

Turkey,

Finland,

Germany,

Australia,

France,

Spain,

GB

Interestingly the Sweden is listed as the 2^nd round in the hope that Rally Monte Carlo will return as a WRC event (it is currently an IRC event). If this fails Norway is thought to step in. Ireland has also been left off the list.

The rally in Abu Dhabi would be run on specifically constructed roads. I’m in two minds about this. The Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi was impressively built (as is most things in the country) but lets face it – dull. And my main concern is that the roads will be built to suit the cars with very little obstacles and challenges. I worry that it will be a very civilised event in almost a controlled environment.

However its true Abu Dhabi is a brand in its own right and has brought a LOT to the sport when others wouldn’t or couldn’t so it makes sense that they should have a rally to call their own. I only hope they focus more on great racing then creating a polished spectacle with predictable results.