Rally Review: WRC Acropolis Rally - Bumpy ride just doesn't do it justice

Rally Review: WRC Acropolis Rally
Bumpy ride just doesn't do it justice
by Martijn Kösters
Rough terrain was expected, and explored during the recces, but few would have seen such battlefield coming up. Let alone in Stage one were Sebastien Ogier AND Mikko Hirvonen AND Mads Ostberg encountered severe trouble.

Indeed SS1 caused quite a stirr right at the start of the rally, Hirvonen had major steering issues which would delay the steering response and lost six minutes while Ostberg nursed a damaged wheel home. Ogier promptly retired for the day with fuel pressure problems and would be back on Saturday. Novikov was lucky to escape unharmed after his fully commited run, he went fastest ahead of Sordo and Latvala. Stage two provided little to no drama thankfully, so Novikov lead Sordo and Latvala after day one whilst Robert Kubica lead the WRC2 field ahead of Protsarov and Al Kuwari.

Day two saw the majority of the stages of this rally. Whilst Novikov and Latvala matched eachother's times on stage 3 it was Latvala leading after the fourth stage: Novikov had suffered a puncture and was thrown back a good four minutes into eighth.
After four stages: 1 Latvala, 2 Sordo+15.6, 3 Neuville+43.5, 4 Mikkelsen+1.23, 5 Al-Attiyah+2.09, 7 Ostberg, 11 Hirvonen, 19 Ogier
WRC2: 1 Kubica, 2 Protsarov+1.21, 3 Al-Kuwari+1.28, 4 Aksa+2.12

Throughout the afternoon Latvala slowly increased his lead on Sordo, who drove more cautiously, to a minute by the end of the day. Behind the two Andreas Mikkelsen suffered a massive brake failure in SS5, completing the stage without any but the handbrake. Novikov had a similar problem after an earlier impact and Ostberg suffered another broken wheel, this time the allignment was far from correct.

Stage 8 saw evgeni Novikov recover from his earlier damage to take another stage win. Ogier reported onboard cameras falling off from all the shaking and battering the car took whilst Ostberg came across the finish with another puncture.
After 8 stages: 1 Latvala, 2 Sordo+44.7, 3 Neuville+1.32, 4 Al-Attiyah+3.25, 5 Mikkelsen+3.34, 7 Ostberg, 8 Hirvonen, 11 Ogier
WRC2: 1 Kubica, 2 Al Kuwari+2.04, 3 Protsarov+2.08, 4 Aksa+3.42

The final day of the Acropolis Rally was not focussed on the battle up front, since there wasn't any really. Damage limitation seemed the main priority although Nasser Al-Attiyah and Andreas Mikkelsen did compete for a respectable fourth place though, with the difference being less than 20 seconds throughout most of the rally. Hirvonen and Ogier too seemed to be stuck in 8^th and 10^th respectively, with the driver in front being nearly two minutes away.

Mikkelsen passed Al-Attiyah on stage 12 out of 14, despite the gap being only 1.9s Al-Attiyah adopted a sensible approach and vowed not to push anymore. Yet despite sensibility all around the Rally paddock there were three extra points to be awarded in the final stage. Many drivers reported tweaking their setups after SS12 (also Power Stage 14). Sordo, Al-Attiyah, Ostberg and Prokop were not to be seduced by any extra points, finishing was their main goal and they therefore didn't put in a fast time. Andreas Mikkelsen snatched away a point from Latvala who swiftly but safely made it to the Finish. Novikov got hold of two extra points but the main treat went to the championship leader: Sebastien Ogier.

WRC Greece final: 1 Latvala, 2 Sordo+1.50, 3 Neuville+2.14, 4 Mikkelsen+3.55, 5 Al-Attiyah+4.12, 6 Ostberg, 7 Hirvonen, 8 Prokop, 9 Novikov, 10 Ogier, 11 Kubica
WRC2: 1 Kubica, 2 Protsarov, 3 Al-Kuwari, 4 Tamrazov, 5 Al Ketbi, 6 Fuchs.

Rally Review WRC Argentina: Loeb is in Argentina, so Loeb wins in Argentina

Rally Review WRC Argentina: Loeb is in Argentina, so Loeb wins in Argentina

By Martijn Kösters

Another one of those statistics unlikely to be broken, the amount of wins in the Rally of Argentina by Sebastien Loeb. Eight, eight WRC victories in a row in Argentina. It will take at least till 2022 before someone can break that record, unless Tommi Makinen comes back and wins another six.

But the action. Rally got underway with a short street stage on Thursday, with Ogier taking the early lead of 1.9s over Sordo and 2.2 over Loeb. Latvala, Mikkelsen and Hirvonen followed. Day two saw much longer stages and much more gravel. Two stages were run twice, Santa Catalina and Ascochinga. In the morning loop it was Ogier who held on to his lead despite the slippy and foggy conditions. Loeb meanwhile struggled with understeer and was not happy with his rhytm. More severe issues for Neuville and Ostberg, who both had poorly or non-functioning wipers. Dani Sordo, who was running 7th after two stages, rolled his car on the third stage, dropping a heap of time and out of the points. He did complete the stage but without power steering. Due to Sordo’s crash, Ogier got held up since Dani was blocking the road, yet Ogier still managed to be third fastest after SS3.

Second run of day two saw Ogier extend his lead on Hirvonen and later Loeb to 16.5 seconds, with both Citroën drivers close to one-another. Meanwhile Mads Ostberg became the First retirement when a steering arm broke during SS4. After SS4 it was Ogier from Loeb (12.5) from Hirvonen (16) from Latvala (27.5), Mikkelsen (1.20), Novikov (1.23).

SS5 threw more tricky conditions at the drivers, namely drizzle and fog. Both Citroën drivers weren’t happy with the circumstances, Hirvonen having troubles with a misty windscreen and Loeb with false weather info. Latvala struggled with a faulty handbrake.

Day three then, 2x2 stages plus a city super special. First stages were drive non a muddier surface then before after some overnight rain, yet this didn’t bother any of the Sebs who went fastest, the younger one edging out the older by 1.4s. Ostberg rejoined the rally again under rally2 rules. Stage 7 saw Ogier making a rare mistake in foggy conditions. Combined with some water pools on the road conditions were very tricky. Eventually it turned out Ogier went straight at a corner and needed to reverse his way out, costing him 40 seconds.

After SS7: Loeb, Hirvonen (8.9), Ogier (26.3), Latvala (44.8), Novikov (1.55), Mikkelsen (2.34)

The second run saw puncture emerge for the First time in the rally, this time it was Hirvonen’s and Ogier’s turn. Loeb increased his lead to 30 seconds whil Hirvonen and Ogier swap places. Mikkelsen thought he had a puncture, but lateron the damage seemed to be rather to the suspension than to the rubber and Andreas had to retire for the day.
The final major stage of the day sees Hirvonen encounter even more problems, an electrical glitch means the car’s master switch turns the car off completely at random intervals. Unlike a road car restarting costs more effort and more time. He drops six minutes and into sixth place. Latvala was also iun trouble on stage 9, a puncture added two minutes to what was a good run. Problems for the two finns meant that Novikov was promoted to a podium spot and Neuville found himself in 5th.
After day three: Loeb, Ogier (39.8), Novikov (2.43), Latvala (2.51), Neuville (3.32), Hirvonen (6.43)

The Final day of the rally still has some potential in it, Novikov and Latvala being very close to eachother and the battle for the lead still not over should see interesting action. Latvala and Novikov went flat out on the First stage of the day, yet the Finn only gained 0.9s in the battle for third. Also Loeb took another 15 seconds on Ogier, who admitted he treated the final day as a recce, looking after the car in the rough terrain. No need to push anyway since Loeb is no championship contender. Second stage this Saturday saw Latvala quickest again, taking 3.9 out of Novikov  with the gap now being 3.4 seconds. Part reason for this is Novikov having run the stage in Road Mode unintentionally. Further down Prokop, Sordo and Mikkelsen are within 8 seconds of 8th place. Another stage win for Latvala on SS13, and this time with a reward: 3rd place. Latvala drove Unlimited and uninformed as he didn’t have splits in the car. Further down in the battle for 8th Sordo and Mikkelsen both moved up a place on behalf of Prokop who is now 10th by 18 seconds.

The Power stage was 16km long this time and only could go to one man: Jari-Matti Latvala, who completed all four stages on Saturday fastest. Ogier and Hirvonen took the remaining PS points and Mikkelsen passed Sordo by two tenths for 8th place.
Final: Loeb, Ogier(2), Latvala(3), Novikov, Neuville, Hirvonen(1), Ostberg, Mikkelsen, Sordo, Prokop
Points: Ogier 122, Loeb 68, Hirvonen 57, Latvala 49, Ostberg 38, Neuville 35, Sordo 29, Novikov 27, Prokop 21, Al-Attiyah 20

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.

Rally Review: WRC Rally Spain

Rally Review: WRC Rally Spain

by Martijn Kösters

The 2012 WRC Season rapped up in Spain. It will be the final rally for the Ford Factory team and the Mini WRT run by Prodrive, as well as the final rally for the Production WRC (PWRC), WRC Academy and SWRC in their current form. Moreover the Rally of Spain was the last rally for Sebastien Loeb's full campaign, as from next year on he will be driving only his favourite events and no longer challenge for the title. Jari-Matti Latvala drove his last stages for Ford, as he joins VW next year.

The fact that many drivers/manufacturers were going to leave or move somewhere else provided an excellent recipe for a thrilling rally. Helped by changing conditions their was no dominating team throughout the weekend, and the win wasn't decided until the final stage.


Stage two put the field upside down when a downpour during the stage meant that the drivers who ran first found themselves in the best road conditions. These were not the Citroëns, nor the Fords or even the Minis. Both Tanak and Ostberg topped the table after the second stage, setting an equal pace of 15.54.5. Mikko Hirvonen followed 17.5s down, Loeb lost 25s, Latvala 33. More drama on the stage included Solberg and Neuville, who slid off the road and retired. Ostberg and Tanak proved not to be a one-hit wonder after matching the Citroëns pace on stage 3, where Latvala was over-cautious and lost more time even when weather improved.

Stages were still slippery on Friday afternoon, something which caught Tanak and Hirvonen who did not dare to take as much risk as Loeb did, who was fastest by 5 seconds. Where Hirvonen and Tanak dropped to 4^th and 5^th, Loeb closed the gap to leader Ostberg to 27.2 seconds at the end of day 1. Latvala was third on 47s.


Saturday started with Loeb and Latvala hunting on Ostberg, who dropped back after a wrong tyre choice on SS8. “We had some information that the stage was 50 per cent dry, we put some hard tyres on, but for sure it was not. We went off quite early and lost 40s or something.” Ostberg dropped to third, a couple of seconds ahead of Hirvonen. Further down Novikov nursed braking problems, but still made it up to 9^th, allbeit 12 minutes down on the leader.

The afternoon saw a great comeback by Dani Sordo who set two fastest stage times after a great repair by his team. Ostberg had setup problems as his soft setup was less and less suitable for the drying stages, he would find himself in fifth by the end of the day. Latvala couldn't quite match Loeb's up front, for similar reasons as Ostberg, increasing the gap to 27s by the end of day two. Only happy Ford driver was Ott Tanak, who might be in for a podium as he happily kept up with Hirvonen.

A small mistake cost Ott Tanak dearly as he slipped down to 5^th after a spin on Stage 14, but was lucky to still be in the rally: “We went off, it was quite a big crash and I’m surprised the car is still running. We lost at least 10 seconds, it was quite a big accident.” Sordo must have been content with the morning pace of his Mini, setting three fastest times in three stages. Further down WRC Debutee Hans Weijs couldn't complete his debut with a points finish. He ran in sixth but retired with suspension damage.

Latvala started one final charge on sunday's second loop. Taking 4.9 seconds out of Loeb on SS16 he closed the gap to 19.8 with two stages to go. Tanak crashed, granting fifth place to Jarkko Nikara who experienced an excellent WRC debut with Mini. Dani Sordo could not save his weekend by winning the Power Stage, as a fully committed Latvala took another 10.7 seconds out of Loeb's lead and gained three extra points. Yet with only 4 competitive kilometers left it was unlikely any major position changes would take place. Loeb would eventually win the rally by 7 seconds over Latvala, as Hirvonen kept Ostberg at bay for 3^rd. Nikara and Atkinson ended another solid weekend for Mini in 5^th and 7^th, while Craig Breen took the SWRC title by finishing 6^th overall.

Final World Rally Championship Standings:

1 Sebastien Loeb 270pts

2 Mikko Hirvonen 213pts

3 Jari-Matti Latvala 154pts

4 Mads Ostberg 149pts

5 Petter Solberg 124pts

6 Evgeni Novikov 88pts

7 Thierry Neuville 53pts

8 Ott Tanak 52pts

9 Martin Prokop 46pts

10 Sebastien Ogier 41pts


The World Rally Championship starts its 2013 season in the second weekend of January with the Rally Monte Carlo WITH Sebastien Loeb competing.

WRC France: Home boy, home win

WRC France: Home boy, home win

by Martijn Kösters

Loeb did what many of his fans hoped for, ending his last full-time season with his ninth, consecutive title in front of a home crowd. With the final stage of the rally through his hometown of Haguenau, it must have been like a lap of honour for Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena, the most succesful rally duo in history. Loeb replied: “When it’s finished, it’s an incredible moment. In Haguenau, my hometown, it was really a relief and the feeling was incredible!”

It wasn't an easy cruise through familiar surroundings for Loeb at all. Despite what you would expect from a tarmace rally the grip was scarce throughout the whole weekend. With rain and aquaplaining being the main hazards early in the rally, grip did not improve much on the last day. The straights had dried out, but corners were now full of mud after extensive corner-cutting by the crews.

After a short street stage on Thursday, Loeb quickly took the lead on the longer stages on Friday. Conditions were damp, but manageable on dry tyres. Loeb profited from the right tactic to take two soft spare tyres with him, allowing him to adjust to grip conditions, where Petter Solberg did not get the feeling for his Fiesta and was off the pace. At the end of the day all major drivers were still in the rally, with Loeb topping the sheets 13 seconds ahead of Latvala, who leads from Hirvonen.

Day two saw action on the first stage of the day, when Petter Solberg parked his car into a pole, and would be out for that day. His retirement promoted Thierry Neuville up to fourth, closely followed by Dani Sordo in the Mini. Jari-Matti Latvala meanwhile got caught out by a wet patch which still cost him 18 seconds on Loeb. Further behind Neuville, Sordo and Ostberg scrambled for fourth place, with no driver getting the upper hand yet. Behind them Evgeni Novikov found more and more pace throughout Saturday. At the end of Saturday, little had changed apart from Solberg's retirement. Loeb increased his lead to about half a minute with six shorter stages to go. Hirvonen held on to third despite a severe cold.

Would Sunday be a victory run for Sebastien Loeb? It seemed more and more like it on Saturday night, as Latvala almost accepted his second place: “I’m thinking more about preserving second than trying to win, which will be almost impossible unless Loeb makes a mistake. My car is fast enough to win the rally, but it’s the driver that has to improve.”

It certainly would not be overly easy for Loeb to take this victory, as rain struck the early stages on Sunday, Neuville profited with his second scratch of the rally as top drivers controlled their positions rather than attacked. Ostberg was the driver who seemed to struggle most with the rain, dropping from fourth to sixth: “It didn’t feel good at all, I was just too careful with a lot of standing water in the road. I have to take risks to fight for fourth but I didn’t take any risks.”. Ostberg would be handed fifth place as Dani Sordo retired without any power steering, the team decided driving without would be to dangerous.

Second loop of the day brought some excitement with an earlier than normal power stage, which saw none of the top-drivers take additional points. Ostberg came third, taking one point extra whilst Neuville and Tanak went for victory, with the Estonian eventually rewarded three points. Thierry Neuville then went on to win two more stages, but all the attention turned to Sebastien Loeb, who took win number 75, and championship number 9 of his impressive career.

His retirement cost Petter Solberg his third place in the championship, being passed by Latvala and Ostberg who finished second and fifth. Mikko Hirvonen celebrated his 8^th podium of the year by coming third while Neuville had his best weekend of the year with a fourth place. Tanak, Novikov, Atkinson, Prokop and Chardonnet complete the top ten.

WRC Rally France Preview - Can Loeb clinch title #9 at home?

WRC Rally France Preview - Can Loeb clinch title #9 at home?


by Martijn Kösters



Just three rounds remain in the 2012 World Rally Championship, and the title chase could all be over on sunday. Only Mikko Hirvonen can beat Sebastien Loeb to the title, but even that will not only come down to him. Loeb goes into his home event with a 61 point lead. With the notion that a maximum of 56 points remain in the championship after the French round (2x 25 for a win, 2x 3 for Power Stage Win), a win for Hirvonen would not neccesarily mean that he could still take the title, as Loeb can comfortably finish second, win the power stage and take yet another title.

The odds are very much against Mikko Hirvonen, not only does he challenge the one man who has been reigning the WRC since 2004. He also takes on Loeb at home turf, who was born in the Alsace region. One factor might give Hirvonen some hope, Loeb did not win here last year due to an engine failure.

Action starts this afternoon (Thursday) with a small stage in Strasbourg, with real stages being driven throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. In total the rally consists of 22 tarmac stages with a combined length of 404 kilometers. Friday will see two equal loops of three stages: Hohlandsbourg(28km), Vallee de Munster(22) and Soltzeren(20), with the Mulhouse stage as added extra to the Friday.


Saturday starts a bit earlier around 8.30 CET with the Massif des Grands Crus-Ungersberg stage of 18km, followed directly by the longest stage of the rally Pays d'Ormont (43.45km). Pays de la Haute Bruche (24) and Klevener (11) complete the loop of four stages, which will be run twice.

The Sunday sees perhaps a different style to which we are used to. Six stages, all be it shorter than the rest, will be run without Service half way through. At 9.23 CET the Vignoble de Cleebourg (17) kicks off, followed by Bischweiler (8) and Sebastien Loeb's home town stage: Hagenau (6). These three stages will be run twice, but without a service.

WRC: Wales rally GB review.

So hello Rally and Cross readers. In case you don't know me I'm Tiff and I usually write about Formula One. But I do have a secret passion for the WRC.
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.
You can also follow me on twitter @squiffany