Kubica flies, Kopecky scores

Kubica flies, Kopecký scores
by Martijn Kösters


Not just any odd comeback from Kubica, he came back with style, quite some style. Winning a tourist trophy is another thing than winning in the ERC I said before, apparently Robert didn't get that message.

Although sunny weather is what you would expect from the Canary Islands, the rally was off to a wet start with rainon SS1 and foggy conditions on the second stage. Kubica wasn't halted by these conditions, with Breen "as blind as a bat" on stage two after forgetting his glasses. No major drama in the early stages of the rally, but Kubica lead by 37 seconds after just 45 kilometers of stages aided by the soft compound tyres whilst others drove on hard ones. After the first leg of three stages it was Kubica, Kopecky, Breen, Monzon and Ancian in the top 5.

Kubica continued his streak of best stage times on the next trio of stages, building on his lead continuously. Conditions did improve, but full attack was not an ideal option on damp stages. Behind the pole, Craig Breen challenged Kopecky by cutting his lead to 10.3s after stage 5. Luis Monzon dropped over 40 seconds to Jeremi Ancian on stage 5 after a puncture struck the Spaniard, handing over fourth place as a result.

The final two stages also went to Kubica, completing a clean sweep on friday of 8 stage bests. Behind him Kopecky felt the need to respond to Craig Breen's charge. Though not without risk: "We had a big moment on a long left-hander when we were braking too late and sliding 40 metres completely off the line". At the end of dayone Kubica lead Kopecky by 1m06. Breen in third 44 seconds behind the Czech. Ancian and Monzon in fourth and fifth well clear of eachother. Aigner lead production class in p6 overall.

A sign of change on day two, with Kubica not winning the first stage of the day. Kopecky gained 1.1 second on the rally leader, and was still unlikely to win the rally. Major drama arose on the following stage, when Kubica had a big shunt and terminally damaged his suspension. He was out, and Kopecky lead. Ancian was also forced to retire, running out of spare tyres and barely making the stage finish meant he couldn't continue. After ss10/14 it was Kopecky leading Breen by 1m17, with Monzon a further 1,5 minute back in 3rd. Andreas Aigner, Bonnefis and Leandri made up the top six, with Antxustegi and Robert Consani lurking at Leandri's sixth place.

Final loop of the rally saw people consolidating their podium spots at the front. Consani dropped time after a puncture on ss12 was out of the battle for sixth place, though was promoted up to seventh when Leandri ran into trouble on the penultimate stage. That joy was shortlived however, as another puncture cost him 7th and even 8th place. 

Final result saw Kopecky taking the win, comfortably ahead of Breen. Local hero Luis Monzon must have been joyed with a podium spot in third. Aigner, Bonnefis and Antxustegi made 4th 5th and 6th whilst Puskadi and Leandri completed the top 8. Kopecky leads Breen in the championship by 18 points.

ERC Preview: Stars touch down on the Canary Islands, not just for sunlight

ERC Preview: Stars touch down on the Canary Islands, not just for sunlight
by Martijn Kösters
As star studded the European Rally Championship opener was in Austria, as bleak its field was in the following Ventspils Rally in Latvia. Given, Jari Ketomaa, Craig Breen and Francois Delecour were interesting headliners in the Baltic but it did not match the likes of Kopecký, Hänninen and even Blomqvist in Austria.

Back to current times, and we have Kopecký, Breen and Oliviera on our entry list. Add to this Robert Kubica in a brand-new Citroën DS3, János Puskadi driving a Fabia S2000, Jean Leandri driving for the returning Sainteloc team, Luis Monzon in a MINI, Jeremi Ancian with backing from the Peugeot Rally Academy and we get a quite interesting fight for the points.

The rally in total encompasses a hefty 246km of timed stages packed into less than 30 hours, which means any mistake will have very costly repercussions and consistency is absolutely vital. Action starts early on the Friday with eight stages spread around the clock from before eight in the morning to half past six in the early evening with stages reaching from between 13 to 26 kilometres. Note the one hour time difference with Central Europe. Two runs of the Moya, Artenara and Tejeda stages in the morning and early afternoon with Aguimes (26km) and Ingenio completing day one in the late afternoon. After both three-stage loops there is a service of 30 minutes. Day two consists of two runs on the trio of Maspalomas, San Bartolome and Vallesco stages. As stages are equal last-minute attacks are to be expected when differences stay close at the front.

Now who to tip for the win? Kopecký has won twice in three attempts at the Canarias so far, but only just held off Bouffier in Austria in his ageing Peugeot 207. The Canary Islands being far from wintery Austria and conditions likely to be more equal this weekend, it is time for the Czech to show he's up for the job.

Yet that is exactly what Craig Breen will be thinking too. With less experience he may be, but he has certainly got the pace. Outscoring Francois Delecour in similar Peugeot material must have given him a boost, but missing out the win also would have made him more eager to go for glory. Will he keep it together?

Then there are the outsiders, Robert Kubica, Daniel Oliviera, Local Luis Monzon, Janos Puskadi, Jeremi Ancian. They all make their debut in the new-style European Rally Championship, and some of them showed great things before. Who knows what happens if either Breen or Kopecký get into trouble?

Rally Islas Canarias starts Friday morning, coverage on twitter.com/RallyandCross

Rally review: WRC Mexico

So after two rounds on snow and ice, rally is back in the much more warmer climate of Mexico. With its dusty rocky surface, it's going to be an interesting and challenging rally for all concerned.
And with no Loeb this time round the challenge is on to take the Frenchman's crown.

Day One. 

In qualifying it was Hirvonen who posted the fastest time. Meaning he got first pick of the road order. With Mexico being so dusty Hirvonen decided to go 13th and last out of the WRC starters.

Stage one and two were through the old streets of Mexico. With its tight turns and array of tunnels these two stages are visually exciting and usually full of incident. This year though was a clean run by all. With Ogier just taking the lead. But only just.

1. Ogier 3:19.5
2. Ostberg +0.3
3. Neuville +0.6
4. Hirvonen +1.1
5. Sordo +1.4

Day Two

Stage three started in earnest on Friday morning. Kosciuskzo was the early road sweeper in his mini. Rally Mexico also saw the return of Chris Atkinson. But Atkinson knows that he has picked a tough rally to start on. And it shows, when early on into the stage he hits a rock and now has major repairs to carry out in next service. Another person who had a bad stage three was the unluckiest man in the world Jari Matti Latvala who like Atkinson also hits a rock less then 1km into the stage, which breaks his wishbone and puts him straight out of Rally Mexico. Then in a major curse of three's. Eugene Novikov then loses a whole eight minutes due to an electrical problem.



Stage four and five causes a lot of frustration for Mads Ostberg and Novikov. Ostberg encounters a hole in the car floor, leaving him with visibility problems on the dusty Mexican roads. Then Novikov spends most of his drive constantly reporting to service about the state of his car from earlier. Novikov eventually decides to park the car. Thierry Neuville carries on from his earlier stages and puts in a cracking performance. Rally Mexico also brings back the return of Ken Block, after we last saw him in WRC last August and time has taken nothing away from him. He is putting on a great show stopper for the crowds. Ostberg after all his problems manages to take 6.7 seconds out of Sebastien Ogier's time.

1. Ostberg 27:3.9
2. Ogier +1.4
3. Hirvonen +8.9

Stage six is a 30km trek through some of Mexico's tough terrain. It also throws up an interesting crash with the car of Carlos Garcia Vessman crashing into the protective netting around one of the corners but when he tried to reverse out. He slipped past the netting and rolled into a 10 foot drop. Luckily he and co-driver is all okay. Stage six also sees Ostberg dropping 13 seconds to Ogier who now takes the lead of Mexico.

1. Ogier 1:00:4.2
2. Ostberg +12.9
3. Hirvonen +18.2

Stage eight and nine sees the return of Atkinson after his early morning woes. After he managed to get his battered power steering fixed. Neuville also impresses with a 2nd fastest stage time. Which sees Hirvonen start to play catch up with Neuville's time. Ostberg wins stage nine but Ogier still has the lead of the rally by 18 seconds.

 

Stage ten and eleven shows off some of the other WRC cars, with Martin Prokop doing well to hold on to 9th place. We also see the charge of Al-Attiyah who is desperately trying to break into the top five. Dani Sordo (Who we haven't seen much of in the race till now) is doing a fine job and is trying to wring everything that he can out of the Citroen but he's still struggling to catch up to Neuville. Ogier takes a little knock but only suffers a bit of cosmetic body damage and even with Ostberg taking four stage wins today. Ogier still leads.

Ogier also wins the short stages of twelve and thirteen.

1. Ogier 1:57:46.7
2. Ostberg +33.0
3. Hirvonen +42.0
4. Neuville + 1:07.1
5. Sordo + 2:40.1
6. Al-Attiyah +3:24.5
7. Block +4:46.5
8. Guerra +6:03.4
9. Prokop +6:25.4
10. Atkinson +7:15.1

Day Three. 

Stage fourteen starts of interestingly for Atkinson who suffers from the same problem as Ostberg when he develops a hole in his car floor causing him all sorts of vision problems. Al-Attiyah has a spin but manages to regain his composure and doesn't lose much time. Same can't be said for Sordo who suffers a slow puncture and has to drive carefully till he can change it. Hirvonen finally manages to take some time out of Neuville, a good 17 seconds or so. Ostberg woes strike after his clutch starts to fail. Ogier starts to absorb the details of Ostberg's problem and extends his lead.



After a break between stages, Ostberg's car can't be fixed and is out of Rally Mexico for the time being. This is the 3rd rally for Mads where he has suffered with technical problems which have hampered his drives.

Hirvonen suffers a slow puncture in stage eighteen just a 1km into the stage. Ogier at this point just needs to cruise to Victory.

1. Ogier 3:38:42.2
2. Hirvonen +2:52.4
3. Neuville +2:59.9
4. Sordo +4:45.2
5. Al-Attiyah +5:33.9

Day Four. 

Under rally rules Ostberg can restart the rally but is only really in contention for points in the power stage.

Stage twenty one is the longest stage of the whole rally at 54km and it can be a car breaker, which is what happened to the mini of Kosciuszko which gave up the ghost 40km into the stage. Atkinson though fairs a bit better, whilst trying to take time off Block. Block had to respond to Atkinson's advances but ended up 36 seconds slower the Aussie. Neuville and Hirvonen both tried to shed weight from the car in a bid to gain advantage over each other. Neuville though almost didn't make it to the end of the race when he fell into a ditch. Luckily he managed to get the car out but he lost 21 seconds in the process. So Hirvonen got his get out jail free card. Hirvonen took the stage win.

1. Ogier 4:14:17.8
2. Hirvonen +3:15.2
3. Neuville +3:44.4

Between the stages Ogier had a small problem with the sensor for the throttle but he managed to fix it before the last two stages.

Stage twenty two was the power stage. Ogier left his rivals for dust taking the full three points on offer. Ostberg managed to get some consolation out of rally Mexico and took home two points. Unlucky Latvala managed 3rd and a single point.

Stage twenty three saw the cars go head to head on track. But Ogier with sixteen stage wins is victorious and wins rally Mexico.

Rally Mexico results. 
1. Ogier 4:30:27.0
2. Hirvonen +3:28.9
3. Neuville +4:23.8
4. Sordo +6:06.7
5. Al-Attiyah +8:34.0
6. Atkinson +11:28.0
7. Block +11:48.3
8. Guerra +12:49.8
9. Prokop +14:29.0
10. Novikov +17:15.3

Drivers standings. 
1. Ogier 74pts
2. Loeb 43pts
3. Hirvonen 30pts
4. Sordo 27pts
5. Ostberg 26pts

Manufacturers standings. 
1. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi 87pts
2. VW 81pts
3. Qatar M-sport 37pts
4. Qatar 35pts
5. Abu Dhabi Citroen Total 23pts.

So is Ogier turning into the Loeb of Rally? Two wins out of three puts him in good stead for Portugal in a months time. But can anyone stop him?

With technical issues hampering everyone can we see a nationality other then the French run away with it?

We will find out more in a month's time in Portugal.

Until then you can follow me on Twitter @squiffany

New champion this year, but that doesn't mean he won't be French

New champion this year, but that doesn't mean he won't be French
by Martijn Kösters

Okay a bold statement here, 'Sebastien Ogier will be 2013 World Rally Champion'. I am convinced and you may remind me of this quote by the end of the year. But from what I have seen in the first three rallies of the year there is no way (apart from him succumbing to some injury) that anyone is going to beat him this year. He simply has got it all going for him.

First, there is the Volkswagen World Rally Team. New name for this year, but we all know they didn't come completely out of the blue. Skoda (one of VW's daughter brands) have been running S2000 cars with quite some success over the past years, not only were they fast but they were reliable too. So VW has the know-how of putting a decent engine in a more than decent car. Telltale signs were visible last year, when 'test drivers' Ogier, Andreas Mikkelsen and Kevin Abbring scoring regular WRC points in a S2000 car.

Second, the man himself. Without discrediting any of his former rivals, Ogier has been the toughest competitor Sebastien Loeb faced during his career. Perhaps he was helped by the outstanding Citroen C4 WRC of that time, but beating Loeb is quite the achievement. Facing other rivals Loeb always seemed in control, but when Ogier challenged Loeb's supremacy in 2011 by winning 5 out of 13 rallies, it made the 9-time Champion feel uneasy.

Not to play down Ogier's skill and talent, but his competitors are just not up to the job of catching him. Hirvonen finished three and a half minutes down on Ogier in last weekend's Rally Mexico, winning only two stages. Mads Ostberg has the potential to be quicker, and won four stages in Mexico. But gremlins in his Ford machinery prevented him from winning either of three rallies this season, and he now trails Ogier by 46 points. Dani Sordo had solid runs in Monaco and Mexico, but neither he can squeeze enough out of his Citroën to challenge Ogier.

Almost nobody seems to catch this guy, Loeb did beat Ogier in Monaco by a decent margin of 1m40, only to lose out to Ogier by 40s in Sweden a few weeks later. The margin to other drivers is close to or over two minutes most of the time.

Seems like the French supremacy in the WRC continues.