Official WRC thread

Here's the Monte coverage if anyone want's to watch it...

http://videos.eurosport.com/irc/rally-monte-carlo-day-1_vid165122/irc-player.shtml

EDIT: Actually, it is Carlton Kirby, but it was never mention until 20ish mins into the video. I thought it was Haven. Sorry for the mistake. I would prefer Carlton Kirby over Simon Hill for the WRC coverage though. But they have nothing on Martin Haven and Paul King.
 
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Just watched the Mexico rally, it was great.

I do have a dilemma, when I'm watching the ESPN torrents: If I watch the Power Stage I find out the final rally results, but if I watch the highlight show I find out the Power Stage results. What does everybody watch first, highlights or power stage?

I don't think the whole day 3 is just a power stage, correct me if I'm wrong on this issue.
 
from what ive seen on the first two rounds, the last two-thirds of the day 3 show is devoted to the power stage.

So what i've done is watch the day3 show up until the point Paul King says 'coming up next, the power stage', then watch the power stage show :)

PS, pfrocker, regarding your sig, does that actually happen?? :eek:
 
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ok good idea, thanks.

And yep it happen frequently when they were starting to show on BBC America.
Another one John Oliver did was, "The British accent is ridiculous, so if you turn on your closed captioning... we understand." :lol:

They don't do them anymore.
 
WOW! Crazy ending was crazy! :blink: :clap: :woot:

Sebastien Ogier beat Jari-Matti Latvala by 0.2 seconds to win Rally Jordan, the closest finish in WRC history. It eclipsed the previous record set when Marcus Gronholm beat Sebastien Loeb by 0.3 seconds in New Zealand, 2007.

http://www.wrc.com/news/wrc-wrap-ogier-wins-jordan-rally-by-a-nose/?fid=14550

Petter crashed out :-( It's not his year at all, it seems (once again). Kimi drove really well, but I'm gutted for Latvala (I'm starting to really like him)...so so close! :cry:
 
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The finish was awesome, and thanks to the Power Stage concept on live television as well. I also had the pleasure of watching that finish in New Zealand live on TV, it's really edge of the seat stuff to watch those guys rage their way through the stages at absolutely full tilt and really not knowing how it will turn out until the clock stops on the finish line.

By the way, the power stage results were also rather close... Ogier won that as well, by a massive gap of 0.04 seconds over Hirvonen, and top four were in seven tenths. Not bad on a proper 10+ km stage, that...

In was gutted for JM, though... He drove a fantastic day yesterday, clawing back over half a minute over Ogier and even on that last stage he ad lost almost four seconds to Ogier in the first split and yet almost caught that up by the finish line.

Great work by Ogier, and also thumbs up for not slowing down for better road position.
 
Indeed, keeping the foot down at the end of day one was a really brave move by Ogier. I was more than half-expecting it to backfire on him, but well done to him for showing that outright speed can still beat tactical games! :)
 
VW Confirms WRC Plans

Autosport said:
Volkswagen has ended months of speculation by confirming its participation in the World Rally Championship at a press conference in Sardinia this afternoon.

As expected, Volkswagen will base its first ever World Rally Car on the Polo, with the car competing for the first time in 2013. The car was revealed at a packed harbourside launch in Olbia.

Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg (member of the board of management of Volkswagen brand) said: "In the past, we celebrated our sporting success in the desert, in 2009 first manufacturer to win [Dakar]with diesel engine.

"But to the future, we have invited you to entry into the World Rally Championship in 2013. The Polo WRC will compete for the first time in 2013 and we look forward to competing again WRC competitors Citroen, Mini and Ford."

There was no news on drivers at the launch.

Hackenberg continued: "There is almost 20 months between now and our first competition and we will find the drivers who can be in contention for first place.

"Now we must prepare for the task ahead. There is a lot to be done. We look forward to racing on four continents."
 
Great to see them joining the sport. I think it's the first time ever the VW brand will be involved in top class motorsport with factory backing since their brief time in WRC with the Mk.II Golf GTI in late eighties.

The big question is, who is going to drive for them. Petter Solberg has been linked to VW for a while now since he's pretty much the best driver available. Nasser Al-Attiyah could be in, he has strong links with VW Motorsport through their Dakar programme. Personally I would love to see Juho H?nninen get a chance with VW, he took the IRC title for Skoda last year so he has some links to the main company.
 
If Petter Solberg drives for them I know who I would be rooting for in 2013.
 
If Petter Solberg drives for them I know who I would be rooting for in 2013.

I would absolutely love to see Petter driving for VW. Not that it would guarantee his success, but it would be great to see him compete with the backing of a full works team again.
 
I think Petter is very likely to end up in VW. As said, he is by far and away the best driver available. The only slight question there is his own team which he is trying to establish as a business instead of just having a team for himself (he already runs customer cars every now and again), and whether that would create any problems.

In other news, did anyone follow Rally Sardinia yesterday? Mini's debut was a reasonably promising one, Meeke managed to set third fastest stage time on the second stage of the rally before crashing out on third one (apparently due to a brake problem) and Sordo is on sixth after day 1.
 
Mini have done very well so far, but obviously there's teething problems. Meeke's Friday issue was throttle stuck open was it not? I haven't really been able to follow Sardinia due to being ridiculously busy atm.

Looks to be close....behind Loeb anyway. Nothing too surprising there.
 
Mini have done very well so far, but obviously there's teething problems. Meeke's Friday issue was throttle stuck open was it not? I haven't really been able to follow Sardinia due to being ridiculously busy atm.

I think stuck throttle was mentioned in the rally radio. Reliability issues are to be expected but at least the car is showing pace, which is more than the likes of Suzuki ever did...
 
so its allowed to cut corners now, or take different routes altogether. its like auto orienteering.
 
Eerrrr.....what?

I take it you didn't follow Rally Argentina? :p

Basically they had a roundabout or something and there was some confusion on whether you had to go around the roundabout or take a shortcut. As it turns out Citro?n guys took the short way and Fords took the long way around, and Ford later protested about it.

From what I gather the teams had actually made a spoken deal about that intersection and it had been agreed that you can cut it, but this had not been made formally and therefore there was no mention it in the official papers. In the end the organisers were penalised for this, so don't expect to see this sort of confusion again in WRC level.
 
Firstly, nice to see (you know what I mean) you again Hazardous my fellow rally-head.

I did follow Rally Argentina but unfortunately haven't seen or heard anything about the incident in question. Obviously on the tarmac sections (particularly at one intersection where the TV cameras were) the drivers were taking big cuts but all of them were.

If there was no pre-event agreement about it I reckon everything is fair game. If you can cut it cut it. I remember incar of Loeb from a few years back (I think it was Sardinia) and he completely left the road as there was a small track he could take. McRae once drove through fields for a number of kilometres on the Safari as well. Part of the game!!

On another note, surely Loeb has title number eight well in his sights? I know we are only halfway through the season, but a quick look at the calendar must fill his rivals with dread. Germany, France and Spain are all yet to come, and who has the pace to challenge Loeb on tarmac? Maybe Petter, but I wouldn't mind betting his closest challenger turns out to be Sordo in the Mini.

In other news, the 2012 calendar has been released:

22/01: Monte Carlo
12/02: Sweden
11/03: Mexico
01/04: Portugal
29/04: Argentina
27/05: Greece* (or 03/06)
24/06: New Zealand
05/08: Finland
26/08: Germany
16/09: Great Britain
07/10: France
04/11: Spain
October: Italy*

Awesome news, it pretty much reads like a WRC calendar should! Obviously it would be great if Australia was on there (bias) but the return of the Monte is just fantastic.
 
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Firstly, nice to see (you know what I mean) you again Hazardous my fellow rally-head.

Great to have you back as well!

I did follow Rally Argentina but unfortunately haven't seen or heard anything about the incident in question. Obviously on the tarmac sections (particularly at one intersection where the TV cameras were) the drivers were taking big cuts but all of them were.

If there was no pre-event agreement about it I reckon everything is fair game. If you can cut it cut it. I remember incar of Loeb from a few years back (I think it was Sardinia) and he completely left the road as there was a small track he could take. McRae once drove through fields for a number of kilometres on the Safari as well. Part of the game!!

The problem here is that the road book clearly indicated that cutting the corner by going the wrong way around the roundabout is not allowed. Here's the roadbook page, potential hotling failure pending...

1144163.jpg


The last image is what the conundrum is all about; The short cut through left is clearly marked as a no-go zone with those two lines.

As said, there apparently was a deal done in the pre-rally team meeting (no official source for this I guess, I read this from Tomi Tuominen's blog which I consider a reliable source) which stated that teams were allowed to go across that roundabout as they pleased. I presume this was approved by the clerk of the course (or some other official) but for some reason this decision was not done formally and therefore the route Citro?n took was still illegal as far as the official documents go.

In the end the organisers were fined for the whole deal, which is quite a sensible way to go I guess since the winners had already been crowned and the rally run. I hope the officials take note of this and we won't see this issue again...

On another note, surely Loeb has title number eight well in his sights? I know we are only halfway through the season, but a quick look at the calendar must fill his rivals with dread. Germany, France and Spain are all yet to come, and who has the pace to challenge Loeb on tarmac? Maybe Petter, but I wouldn't mind betting his closest challenger turns out to be Sordo in the Mini.

I'm afraid Loeb is going to be really strong on those... I think the most likely challengers would be Ogier, Latvala or Solberg but realistically I don't see any of them doing anything more than few fastest stage times. If Loeb has no technical woes those three events are going to be a walk in the park for him. Mini showed some promise in Sardinia (and, being Irish, Kris Meeke is also a handy tarmac driver) but I don't see them challenging for wins just yet.

Then again, the points gaps are not that massive so a single mistake or technical problem for Seb could make things very interesting indeed...

In other news, the 2012 calendar has been released:

...

Awesome news, it pretty much reads like a WRC calendar should! Obviously it would be great if Australia was on there (bias) but the return of the Monte is just fantastic.

I think GB should be the final event... But that's just nitpicking I guess.

I'm happy to see Monte back in WRC calendar but it also makes me slightly sad in one way... What Eurosport has done over the last few years with the TV coverage of Monte Carlo has been simply amazing, and it is a real shame if that is lost.

Apart from those small details, though, it's pretty much as it should be... Now, I can't wait to start seeing what sort of routes and schedules those 13 events are going to have, now that the organisers are given more freedoms. Will Monte Carlo keep their wednesday - friday schedule, will Argentina go on with the planned marathon event?
 
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