Rally Review: WRC Monte Carlo.

So after nearly four months away, your British rally correspondent is back and ready to take you through the 2013 WRC season.

Now so much seems to have changed from last year. Loeb has gone part time, Ford doesn't exist anymore but sort of does in a weird way, VW are now in and the drivers have seemingly moved about more then the hokey cokey.

But hopefully we can both learn and catch up together.

So last weekend was the start of the WRC season with Monte Carlo being our first host and with this being one of Loeb's four 2013 drives, can Loeb win his seventh Monte Carlo rally?

Day One. 

Loeb is the first out on day one and with wintry conditions expected, most of the top ten have opted for the studded winter tyres. The main problem with the winter tyres is that for most of day one was  it was dry tarmac, meaning everyone has to take care not to wreck their tyres for the later stages.
One of the first people to suffer with this tyre issue was Sebastian Loeb, meaning that Sebastien Ogier took full advantage and won the first stage for VW on their debut in the sport.

Stage two saw Loeb take control and storm through the field to overtake Ogier on the leader board by 6.7 seconds.

Stage three saw the fight between old team mates Loeb and Ogier intensify but with black ice all over the stage it made conditions tricky for all the drivers. Luckily for all the drivers the stage ends with cake or should I say tart. Tarte du pommes are served to all the drivers after stage three in a tradition spanning 40 years and after a tough stage who doesn't like a sweet treat.



Sadly for stage four. Thierry Neuville managed to again achieve the dubious honour of never finishing day one of the Monte Carlo rally. Sadly for Neuville he clipped the corner and broke his suspension and he was again out of Monte.

So after day one. Loeb leads quite comfortably over Ogier but the battle for 3rd, 4th and 5th is starting to hot up.

1. Loeb 1:39:49
2. Ogier + 1:20:3
3. Hirvonen + 1:46:7
4. Sordo + 2:01:2
5. Latvala + 2:32:2

Day Two.

More dry/snowy conditions for the start of day two. During Ogier's run on stage five we start to see conditions worsen as the snow starts to drive down but even with this setback Ogier is still five seconds quicker the Loeb. Stage five also sees the start of Hirvonen's up and down phase, by this I mean that one minute his confidence is up and by the next stage it's down. But throughout all this he is still super consistent over the stages.
Novikov manages to regain his composure after a slight off down a snow bank, but even this doesn't stop the speedy Russian and Novikov even manages to gain a place in the process.

The start of stage six and seven takes a slightly off turn for the mostly on form Ogier after he spins on track, luckily he gets back to business pretty quickly and doesn't lose too much time.
Sadly for Dani Sordo he hasn't got the best track record on snow and ice but he is still managing to keep up with the leaders for 3rd place.
The new rivalry on stage six and seven is with Jari Matti Latvala and Eugeny Novikov, finally on day two we start to see some of the Latvala of old. With a huge amount of confidence and taking a huge amount of risks Latvala is finally storming on his 2013 campaign. However the winner of stage six and seven was Novikov who took both stages wins and is looking very much in contention for some big points.



Stage eight was a more icy affair after the earlier stage run had took off all the loose snow. Hirvonen and Novikov continued to battle it out for 4th and 5th place but it was Hirvonen who struggled to find a good rhythm with the added problem of chonic understeer, whilst Novikov took the safe approach and chose to conserve his tyres.



At the end of day two both Loeb and Ogier had drama free days and with Loeb being fantastic and consistent as usual. He ends day two on still on top of the leader board. With Novikov taking full advantage of Hirvonen's problems and leaps into fourth place.

1. Loeb 3:16:29
2. Ogier + 1:35
3. Sordo + 2:38
4. Novikov + 2:53
5. Hirvonen + 3:22
6. Latvala + 3:43

Day Three. 

Stage eleven started off with Loeb taking no risks as he attempts win number seven at Monte Carlo. Ogier sadly at this point seemed pretty content to sit behind Loeb and go for 2nd place. Ogier finished stage eleven 90 seconds off Loeb's time.
Sordo had more of a trickier time when he nudged a snow bank and spun off, luckily he managed to get back on track and keep hold of third place. Novikov was aggressive in taking time off Sordo whilst he had his problems and shaved another seven seconds off Sordo. Latvala seemed a lot more content in the car after making a few tweaks to the VW, he also gained a place due to privateer Brain Bouffier having a huge off which caused him to lose nearly two minutes.



Stage twelve saw Sordo struggle with poor grip and now with the added pressure from Novikov taking time away from him. Sadly the pressure did indeed get to Sordo with another spin on day three, he was lucky to be going at such a slow speed at the time or he would of easily been out of the rally. All the trouble for Sordo saw Novikov take over third place now 8.6 seconds up on the Spainard. Stage twelve however really belonged to Mads Ostberg who stormed ahead to take his first stage win on 2013.

Stage thirteen saw the toughest stage Sisteron, but considering this. The stage took place without much incident.

Loeb still leads. With Ogier still holding on the second place. Latvala is finally showing signs of improvement after moving into the top five and Novikov takes full advantage of Sordo's problems to move up into the last podium position.

1. Loeb 4:16:41
2. Ogier + 1:47
3. Novikov + 3:19
4. Sordo + 3:21
5. Latvala + 4:04

Day Four. 

Stage fourteen threw up a huge amount of problems for many drivers, with conditions being extremely poor. Loeb himself even deemed the stage to be 'completely undriveable'.
Novikov then proved Loeb's point when he lost control and banged into two walls, leaving the car far too damaged to continue. Novikov's exit was Sordo's gain after he sees himself back in third place.
Hirvonen's run was also compromised after marshalls waved for him to slow down after an accident. Turns out that Latvala had also got himself into trouble and he too joined Novikov on the sidelines.
Then in a case of the 'threes' Juho Hanninen who had been relatively quiet for most of the rally, joined Latvala and Novikov after braking his suspension with the wall. The main person who benefited from all this chaos was Ostberg who now jumped three places to sneak into the top five.



Stage sixteen is a rerun of stage fourteen. The same stage that took out Latvala, Novikov and Hanninen. So the rerun in the dark was expected to be even more tricky. Most of the drivers opted to play safe and not to rush and take risks. Sadly for Ostberg that didn't happen, after slipping on some black ice he managed to make contact with the wall, luckily he did manage to limp back to service but not before losing fifth place to Bouffier.

Sadly for Ostberg, service would all be vain after crowd congestion and bad weather made the running the two stages impossible and for safety reasons would be cancelled. So Loeb wins in Monte Carlo for the seventh time.

So here is the final standings for Monte Carlo.

1. Loeb 5:18:57
2. Ogier + 1:39
3. Sordo + 3:49
4. Hirvonen + 5:26
5. Bouffier + 8:13
6. Ostberg +12:03



With Sweden next on the cards and Loeb back for that event. Who knows what the snow and ice will bring.
See you again in three weeks.

And remember you can also follow me on twitter @squiffany

Rally Review: FIA ERC Jänner rally

Rally Review: FIA ERC Jänner rally

New year, new championship, more action

by Martijn Kösters

The good thing about rallying is that it always starts early in the year compared to other forms of motorsport which hibernate till around March. We were used to the Rally Monte Carlo blasting into our living rooms in the third weekend of January. But the new-style European Rally Championship takes rallying to just after dessert of your Christmas dinner. Not that anyone has a problem with that.

The Jänner Rally delivered what it had promised, tricky, slippery conditions which constantly changed and made the right tyre choice absolutely vital. Rain, snow, ice, mud, gravel and dry stages, it was all thrown at the drivers.

The first loop immediately provided interesting conditions, stage 1 was run in wet conditions, suitable for wider rain tyres. But the weather changed quickly, with stage two partly icy and three full on ice, which would have required narrow or even studded tyres. Jan Kopecký suffered from a wrong tyre choice. On the wider rain tyre he was fastest on SS1, 15^th on SS2 and 14^th on SS3, but still lead somehow, as drivers on studded tyres were very slow on the opening stage. Raimund Baumschlager of Austria proved to be a tough competitor for Kopecký, as he excelled on snow and ice. Yet his excellence on the slippy stuff could not make up the time he lost on the rainy first stage.

The re-run of the morning loop later on Saturday took place in different conditions again. The cold and wet conditions of the morning stages gave way to what was described by Kopecký as a gravel rally. No ice or snow meant that drivers were free to cut corners, throwing mud and gravel on the narrow tarmac roads.

Bryan Bouffier obviously had some time to make up, starting the second set of stages in 6^th he went on for two fastest times and one second place, cutting his 40 seconds gap to the leader in half. At the top of the table Jan Kopecký battled for the lead with Baumschlager and countryman Vaclav Pech. Despite the top-5 only covered by 22 seconds after six stages, little changes were made at the top.

And just as everyone got used to “gravel” conditions, the heavens opened and the rally was run under full wet conditions, asking for another major setup change. Bouffier and Kopecký were both well set up for the conditions, sharing fastest times between them. Baumschlager made a short gamble for studs but that did not pay out. At the end of day one Kopecký and Bouffier built out some sort of a lead over the rest. The Frenchman trailed Kopecký by 20 seconds, with Baumschlager a further 18 down the road. Vaclav Pech was in fourth but well down after going off the road. Francois Delecour was also behind the leading trio after suffering a 1 minute penalty for being early in time control at stage 6.

The first leg of day two was by far not as interesting as the day before, despite Bouffier eating away Kopecký's lead not much happened as differences on the stages were small but differences in the standings were big. On top of that most drivers were well used to the wet roads, providing little surprises in stage times. Kopecký put Bouffier back to were he was by a fast SS14, restoring the 20 second lead he had prior to day two. But just as you thought everything settled down and the rally was in Kopecký's hands there is a puncture. For Kopecký, who dropped down to third, 30 seconds behind Bouffier with just three stages and in total 58 kilometers to go.

What followed was a very exciting finale, as if out of a movie. On Stage 16 out of 18 Kopecký gains just 4.7 seconds, not bad considering the stage was only 8km long. Kopecký claimed everything was possible, and he would give it all despite having no spare wheel left. The rally ended spectacularly with the 25km Bad Zell stage run twice, with service in between. On the first run Kopecký gave it his best in the pouring rain, gaining 14.4s cutting the gap to 10.6 seconds. Bouffier after the stage: 'Jan knows how to disconnect and go crazy. He was so quick, too quick.'

One stage remained, the gap a good 10 seconds, the distance 25 kilometers. Could he? Yes. Would he? Well.

Conditions were worse on the final stage, as seen in stage times which were a good 10 to 15 seconds slower. Bouffier was first to cross the line, with a 13:53.1 he was a good 11 seconds slower. Kopecký now had a time to beat: 13:42.4, 15 seconds slower than his first blast on this stage. No reason for Kopecký to hold back, he crossed the line in...13....42.......0, winning the inaugural rally of 2013 by just half a second.

What a way to start the year.

FIA ERC Jänner Rally:
1 Jan Kopecký
2 Bryan Bouffier
3 Raimund Baumschlager
4 Václav Pech
5 Beppo Harrach (Prod. Cup winner)
6 Kajetan Kajetanowicz (PC)
7 Francois Delecour
8 Jaroslav Orsak (PC)