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...
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?