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 Portugal

So after 4 weeks away, the WRC championship is back and we are in Europe. This time Portugal takes its turn and with its dusty roads and high attrition it's going to be interesting to see how the cars fare up.
Also Portugal brings a new driver in WRC2 but any Formula One fan will know straight away who it is. After his huge accident in 2011 Robert Kubica is back and hoping to gain plenty of experience on the rally circuit.
So let's go with round four.



Day One. 

In qualifying Dani Sordo took charge and won to gain the first pick for the start of the race. He chose 13th so that cars ahead of him could clean the dusty road ahead.

Stage One was about tyre choices. With Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala on a mixture of the hards and softs. Mads Ostberg was on the hards and Sebastien Ogier the only driver to pick full softs.
The hards are more durable but the softs are quicker for a short period of time but degrade rapidly.
But these tyres will have to last for all the day's action.
Ogier made the softs pay off for now by posting the fastest stage time but Ostberg on the hards was only 4 seconds behind.

Stage two shows Ostberg's aggression to be the fastest but he makes a small mistake and hits a hill. Luckily the car is all okay. Ogier knows by picking the softs from earlier that his tyres will deteriorate quickly and he loses 3.9 seconds to Ostberg. Dani Sordo keeps up a fine form and finishes the stage 2nd quickest and stays third overall.

1. Ostberg 23:23.1
2. Ogier +3.9
3. Sordo +10.3
4. Hivonen +16.5
5. Latvala +16.8

Stage three is memorable for all the wrong reasons for Mads Ostberg after a stella run throughout the morning, right near the end of stage three confusion over a pace note leaves Mads clipping a corner and rolling the car 3/4 times leaving it the wrong way up. Luckily Mads and his co-driver Jonas are all okay. Ostberg though is out for now. Meaning that Ogier retakes the lead of the rally.



Stage four and five shows the roller coaster that the back of the field have to deal with. Martin Prokop is holding steady in 10th, while Andreas Mikkelsen is struggling with the lack of power steering. Meanwhile Sordo is trying to close up on Ogier,  however Ogier is still sitting pretty at the top of the table even with the soft tyres.

1. Ogier 49:33.0
2. Sordo +4.4
3. Latvala +11.4
4. Hirvonen +16.2
5. Neuville + 30.7

Day Two. 

Ostberg returns under rally rules.

Stage six starts with Thierry Neuville running into trouble. Clipping his left rear tyre on the wall, crushes his suspension and he too is out of the rally. Also out of the rally is Dani Sordo after an off. Latvala is over driving the car in a bid to keep his third place over Hirvonen, who is wild and wide at times. All the trouble in the midfield keeps the pressure off Ogier helping him retain the top spot.

Stage seven sees the Evgeny Novikov struggling with getting the best out of the car. He has been slightly underwhelming in this rally but is keeping good pace. Latvala is showing his confidence as he's half a second slower the Hirvonen but seems to have raised his game. Ogier as usual is speedy but consistent.



Stage eight sees Kosciuszko benefiting from the early runners retiring helping the mini climb slowly up the table. Ogier is the quickest through the stage.

1. Ogier 1:43:25.8
2. Latvala +14.1
3. Hirvonen +37.2
4. Novikov +2:51.6
5. Al-Attiyah +4:36.7

Stage nine sees Latvala losing ground to Ogier after running on used rubber.

Stage ten and eleven sees Prokop cruelly lose his 6th place position due to a broken drive shaft. He loses two minutes overall. Hirvonen is struggling to catch up to the VW's and we see the VW of Latvala lose time to his time mate Ogier.
Ogier however is still on fine form and take his fourth stage win in a row.

1. Ogier 2:36:55.1
2. Latvala +34.8
3. Hirvonen +1:08.5
4. Novikov +4:23.9
5. Al-Attiyah +6:19.2

Day Three

Stage twelve sees Al-Attiyah on course for his second top five finish even though the conditions are tough. Low light and excess dust is making it tricky for everyone. Ogier gets off to a slow start on the start line and loses half minute overall. To top off the VW's bad stage woes. Latvala has no traction and is only on two wheel drive. A big sign of a drive shaft problem.

Stage thirteen sees Hirvonen take 2nd place due to Latvala's drive shift problem. Ogier too is having a few niggles car wise but nothing close to what Latvala has, the clutch seemingly to blame. Meanwhile both Prokop and Ostberg are bouncing back after their earlier car problems. Prokop gaining two places while Ostberg gains a massive forty five places since his off in day one.



Service sees work begin on the two VW's to repair both the cars problems.

Stage fourteen sees Koscuiszko improving but a hole in the floor makes driving difficult. He manages to hold on to 12th place. Latvala meanwhile is now back up to speed after his repairs and is second fastest in the stage.

Stage fifteen is the power stage so extra points are on offer for the top three finishers. Hirvonen struggles in the stage but keeps on to an overall 2nd place. Ogier however capitalises on a fantastic weekend to take not only the three points from the stage but also the win overall. Ostberg gains two badly needed points after a bad weekend. Latvala takes the last point on the power stage.

1. Ogier 3pts
2. Ostberg 2pts
3. Latvala 1pt

Rally Portugal results
1. Ogier 4:07:38.7
2. Hirvonen +58.2
3. Latvala +4:04.5
4. Novikov +5:27.7
5. Al-Attiyah +7:43.5
6. Mikkelsen +9:39.8
7. Prokop +15:04.2
8. Ostberg +15:43.6
9. Al-Gassimi +15:56.9
10. Lappi +16:21.0



Drivers standings
1. Ogier 102pts
2. Hirvonen 48pts
3. Loeb 43pts
4. Ostberg 32pts
5. Latvala 31pts

Manufacturers standings
1. VW 121pts
2. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi 107pts
3. Qatar M-sport 53pts
4. Qatar 36pts
5. Abu Dhabi Citroen Total 27pts

So Ogier takes an hat trick of victories but with Loeb back in Argentina. Who knows what could happen. All I know is that I will see you again in a few weeks time for more rally review.

In the meantime you can follow me on Twitter @squiffany

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.