So I was truly honoured when Martijn asked me to write a review for the Wales rally GB.
Now being British. This means I get to start by writing about my home race. Winner.
Now being British also means I get British coverage of the Rally, which sadly now is pretty dire. Ten years ago the WRC used to be on prime time terrestrial TV, then it fell in to the clutches of cable TV and then even more further into almost obscurity by being on to a specialist motors TV channel. Now don't get me wrong Motors TV which covers the WRC do a pretty good job with the limited resources they have. It just means that I'm doing a review based on just ninety minutes of coverage.
But I aim to do my best for you readers of Rally and Cross and hopefully this won't be the last you see of me on the blog.
So we head into round ten with Sebastien Loeb fifty four points ahead of Mikko Hirvonen but with Wales rally GB usually being Ford territory. It will be interesting to see if Citroen can do anything about it.
What will also be interesting is how the weather will affect play. Especially because the UK is notoriously rainy and wet and I personally can testify to this.
And of course it was raining for start of day one.
After Stage One, Ford took the rains. (Take the pun if you will) and it was Petter Solberg who took charge over Mads Ostberg and Jari-Matti Latvala.
Stage Two and Three saw a change of the guard. With Loeb starting to play catch up to a race that he doesn't even need to win. Solberg after a cracking Stage One still kept his foot in the door and seemed confident in Wales. Though Stage Two and Three didn't seem to be fun times for everyone. As Ott Tanak can testify when power steering started to fail on him.
SS3 saw Latvala take the lead of the rally and declare that this was his favourite stage.
It seems that Latvala is finally starting to enjoy himself after a dire few months.
Stage Five saw Loeb start to lose time to the Ford's meanwhile team mate Hirvonen had a case of the Jenson Button's and started to complain about a lack of grip. A gripe that would continue for most of the rally.
The last stage of day one bought one of only a few hairy moments throughout the whole rally. With Solberg almost falling off the road, even though the track was starting to dry off.
Latvala started to put consistency together to bring the Ford home and keep the lead of the rally at the end of day one.
1. Latvala 1:25:05
2. Solberg +12.1
3. Loeb +21.3
4. Ostberg + 32.6
5. Hirvonen +53.8
Day Two of the rally started off a bit like my eyesight. Foggy. Though for Thierry Neuville the start of Day Two ended up more soggy then foggy, when water started coming into the car. Even at one point ending up on the pace notes. Hirvonen was still massively frustrated with his lack of traction and grip, which still hadn't been sorted from the previous day. The start of Day Two was great for Ostberg though who took his first stage win on Stage Seven, his first stage win for three years.
The second half of Day Two was finally clear of fog and also for once stayed dry. Stage Eleven and Twelve saw Loeb attempt to catch Solberg. Loeb trying to take every point out of anyone he can, but sadly for Loeb Solberg responded to Loeb's advances and held on to second place at the end of Day Two.
1. Latvala 2:18:05
2. Solberg +24.5
3. Loeb +30.9
4. Ostberg +49.9
5. Hirvonen +1.22
Day Three saw the start of the battle for the minor placings with Evgeny Novikov and Ott Tanak. Tanak started to make a charge on Novikov but then sadly made a mistake, never truly recovered and ended up losing out on a chance at sixth place.
Talking of struggling. Ostberg started Day Three with a continuing mis-fire problem, which meant he struggled going fast uphill. Sadly this isn't good in Wales as it is pretty hilly.
In Stage Fifteen and Sixteen we started to see Loeb take charge to try and take second place away from Solberg. Sadly Solberg started to crumble and slowly started to lose small increments of time which led to Loeb taking Second place away from him.
The second half of Day Three saw Ostberg still struggling with his mis-fire from earlier in the day, but he still kept up the pace to safely secure a great fourth place in Wales. Loeb managed to keep hold on to his position and retain second place.
So we see Latvala strike an impressive performance to win the Wales rally GB. Not only with style but also with bags of confidence.
I literally can't wait to see what the next three rounds will hold.
So the Wales rally GB Top Ten ended like this.
1. Jari-Matti Latvala 3:03:40
2. Sebastien Loeb +27.8
3. Petter Solberg +28.7
4. Mads Ostberg +1.10
5. Mikko Hirvonen +1.29
6. Evgeny Novikov +3.37
7. Thierry Neuville +4.11
8. Matthew Wilson +6.00
9. Martin Prokop +6.58
10. Nasser Al Attiyah +9.32
Hope you enjoyed my review of the Wales rally GB.
If you like Formula One as well then you can also read my blog here.
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