Official WRC thread

This rally is going to be really good. Gr?nholm and Loeb are very evenly matched, and if Loeb had not been penalised for arriving to a time control late with 10 seconds, they would only have 0.2 seconds between them. On the longest stage of the day both said they drove as fast as they could, and the gap was only 0.8 seconds.

And Petter... How much bad luck can a man have? He suffered a driveshaft failure on the very first stage and lost three minutes before it could be fixed, and was in tears after that. And as if that was not enough, he then had a gear selection problem which cost him more time on stage and caused a 2:20 minute time penalty. Subaru's day wasn't exactly helped when Atkinson had a minor off on one stage but managed to damage his power steering, losing much time as well.

Another heartbreak was for Mikko Hirvonen, whose car lost a water pump only few kilometres from the finish of the fifth stage, and he was forced to retire. He was third at the time, and looking set for a very good finish.
 
Gigi! Gigi! Gigi! comon, make that first podium finish as with a underfunded mitsubishi privateer :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :woot:
 
Gronholm vs Loeb

Gronholm vs Loeb

I think Gronholm is more likely to make a mistake than Loeb. So probably Gronholm and Loeb will always be tight battle but then one of the rallies Gronholm will crash out giving Loeb the advantage.
 
p0w3r said:
Gigi! Gigi! Gigi! comon, make that first podium finish as with a underfunded mitsubishi privateer :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :woot:
he didnt make it .. but another underfunded mitsubishi privateer did .. Daniel Carlsson

( Daniel Carlsson is now second in Rally norway, a candidate event for the FIA World Rally Championship 2007.)
 
Amazing crash. Punctured tire and he lost it on the next corner...WOW.
 
^I haven't seen the actual footage of it. I saw the aftermath of the crash on the coverage I downloaded (see Video Offers Sticky). What a shame for him though. With a few people making mistakes, he climbed up to a very competative position at one point.
 
I have the coverage. Day 2 shows the crash.
 
Let's activate this topic, Rally d?Italia Sardegna is on and Marcus Gr?nholm lead to Loeb is 35,4. Another Finn Mikko Hirvonen is third, over minute to Gr?nholm.

My guess is that Gr?nholm wins, Hirvonen is second because he's gonna push today and tomorrow and Loeb is going to be third. Petter Solberg is out, although he's gonna restart today. It's been just bad luck thru the season for him.
 
Solberg can't buy good luck at this point. That sucks. I'm really rooting for him though since he must be on the edge of absolutely loosing it.

Galli though, passionate guy. :shock:

Overall not a bad rally. Gronholm had Loeb beat in this and Gronholm ONCE AGAIN finds trouble.
 
Strange how Loeb never runs out of luck. NEVER. I wish that it wouldn't be true, but the chance for Marcus to win the championship is between slim and none.
 
He only crashed once of all the times I remember and that was the last rally of the season last year I believe. I'd like Loeb's horseshoe right about now.

It looks like it will be interesting to see when Petter will turn around. It's been like 3 years of bad luck for him.

But then also look at Sordo. He has been benifiting from all the top runners retiring.
 
Mischief007 said:
He only crashed once of all the times I remember and that was the last rally of the season last year I believe. I'd like Loeb's horseshoe right about now.

He did crash in Monte Carlo, although in there was saved by the Super Rally.

Of course Loeb's seemingly endless invulnerability is partly down to luck, but it is also down to a combination of a fast, yet tank-hard car and a smooth and yet hugely fast driver.

A few rumours around:
- Subaru might be parting ways with Prodrive in the near future
- Petter Solberg, on the other hand, is rumoured to be considering a move to Suzuki, who enter the WRC circus in 2007.
 
WRC 06 is getting a bit boring at the moment. Citroen is almost too reliable. In Sardegna Rally both Loeb and Gronholm hit the same rock and Gronholm broke the engines oilsump. Loeb is one damn lucky bastard...

Petter Solberg seemed pretty frustrated and bitter when they asked about Pirelli tires. He didn't even bother to answer. I wish Subaru would change their tire supplier or something... :think:
 
I forgot about the crash in Monte Carlo. Since he placed on the podium it didn't look like it ;).

Yeah Loeb does have a horseshoe.

But Petter deserves better. He is an excellent driver but is extremely unlucky.
 
WRC Rally Greece 2006 results from day 1:

1 M. GRONHOLM 1:19:45.7
2 P. SOLBERG +26.3
3 S. LOEB +35.5
4 M. HIRVONEN +1:15.9
5 F. DUVAL +1:29.4
6 M. STOHL +1:38.1
7 H. SOLBERG +1:39.8
8 T. GARDEMEISTER +1:42.1

Looking good... Gronholm leads, no problems with the car. Petter also good work. Loeb said in the interwiew: "I'm pushing to the limit, Marcus is too fast for me now"... :mrgreen:

I bet that Gardemeister will develope more speed along the race because he tested the Citroen only 50km before race.
 
Who's ass does Solberg have to sacrifice so that he can finally finish a race?? Poor guy. He is speechless at this time. There's nothing he can do. He's just got way too much bad luck.
 
OMV Peugeot's Manfred Stohl has praised the decision to include three new events in the WRC in 2007.

Next year Ireland, Portugal and Norway will join the fold, replacing Cyprus, Turkey and Australia. Furthermore while Stohl added it is always sad to see any events lose their place in the FIA World Rally Championship, he reckons it was definitely the right way to do.

Australia gone :thumbsdown:

Source
 
The new calendar was published quite a while ago. I don't like the fact that Australia is gone but don't mind the others, and both Ireland and Norway seem very interesting events.

Rally Finland starts tomorrow, I'm heading to the shakedown stage in the morning.
 
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