2010 World Rally Championship Thread

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mlittle
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Post by mlittle » Sun Aug 01, 2010 11:45 am

Current WRC Standings


----Drivers Championship(top-10)
1st} Sebastien Loeb(FRA), 166 pts(4 wins)
2nd} Sebastien Ogier(FRA), 118 pts(1 win)
3rd} Jari-Matti Latvala(FIN), 105 pts(2 wins)
4th} Petter Solberg(NOR), 90 pts
5th} Mikko Hirvonen(FIN), 86 pts(1 win)
6th} Daniel Sordo(SPN), 77 pts
7th} Matthew Wilson(GBR), 48 pts
8th} Frederico Villegra(ARG), 26 pts
9th} Henning Solberg(NOR), 25 pts
10th} Mads Ostberg(NOR), 16 pts
----Manufacturers Championship
1st} Citroen Total WRT, 265 pts(4 wins)
2nd} BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT, 210 pts(3 wins)
3rd} Citroen Junior Team, 145 pts(1 win)
4th} Stobart M-Sport Ford WRT, 108 pts
5th} Munchi's Ford WRT, 40 pts
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Loeb Leads Day 1 of Rally Deustchland

Post by mlittle » Sun Aug 22, 2010 11:49 am

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----In the seven years Rally Deutschland has been featured on the World Rally Championship event there has only been one winner, Sebastien Loeb. Known as a tarmac specialist in his rookie years - before he became a six time champion on all surfaces - the Frenchman earned his first WRC win at the German tarmac event in 2002. The years following became predictable as Loeb bagged another victory each time the series visited the city of Tirer.

In 2009 the event was absent from the schedule but is back in full force for 2010. With it is Loeb's continued quest for a 100% win ratio, he leads after the first day of competition, even after brushing the guardrail on his way to set the fastest time on stage two. Clocking 9.5 seconds behind Loeb is his Citroen teammate Dani Sordo. Together they are almost a full minute ahead of third placed Jari-Matti Latvala.

"I love days like this!" beamed Loeb. "Dani and I have pulled out more than a minute over our nearest rivals. I don't think we could have asked for much more. This afternoon, I set only one fastest time but it's always a bit trickier second time through. The others don't make the same little mistakes as in the first passage. In fact, I got caught out and stalled in a hairpin! But it's all going well and I'm looking forward to the second day in a relaxed frame of mind."

Back with the main team Sordo is looking to maximize his point haul this weekend as a tarmac specialist after having been placed in the Junior team for Rally Finland. The Spaniard will race for the Citroen Jr. squad on all remaining gravel rallies, but for now it's his time to shine in a car equally prepared to Loeb's. With his help it looks like the team is destined for a one, two finish. And with no announced team orders Sordo is positioned perfectly to inherit the lead should Loeb finally trip up in Germany.

"We were chasing a scratch time all day," explained Sordo. "It's good to be second, and good to be only a handful of seconds behind Seb, but that's not the most important thing for me. I'm very pleased to have been in the rhythm in each split in each stage. I've been looking for this kind of consistency and I'm happy to have found it today. It's all very positive but there's no sense in getting carried away."

After Mikko Hirvonen stuffed his Ford Focus in the grass and stalled, the blue oval team has been represented by Latvala, who admittedly would rather be back on the gravel in Finland. As seen in Bulgaria the Focus seems to lack the same pace on tarmac that the Citroen C4 has. Sebastien Ogier's C4 is just 6.2 second away from taking third from the Finn.

While still a full minutes down from the leader Latvala is happy with improvements to the car, "My target for this rally was to finish in the top five. Tonight I'm in third, so I'm very happy with that. It's a strange feeling for me to be in a podium position in an asphalt rally. The car has improved since the last asphalt round in Bulgaria, with a different engine mapping and damper set-up, and it feels more stable."

Not so happy is teammate Hirvonen who lost fourth to Ogier when the Frenchman went faster on stage five, "There was a lot of dirt on the road this morning and it was difficult to find my confidence with the changing grip. I lost some seconds because of that but perhaps I was also over-cautious. There was no pattern as to how or where I lost time."

If it hadn't been for troubles a few Citroen drivers have had Latvala and Hirvonen might have found themselves further down the order. Ogier's pace in the afternoon was well enough for a podium spot but problems in the morning with his anti-stall prevented him to challenge for the top three early on. With the problem fixed and the longest stage of the year looming ahead for tomorrow the Frenchman may very well have a chance to break away from the rival Fords.

"It was quite a difficult morning," said Ogier after the first three stages. "From time to time the engine kept stalling on hairpin bends. It meant that I wasn't able to build up full confidence on these roads and I never really found the ideal pace." By the afternoon his mood was much improved, "The car was perfect and I was able to go quickly. Now we need to continue like this. If we were able to get a podium, that would be a fantastic result for our first Rallye Deutschland in a WRC car."

Returning to the WRC in over a year was Francois Duval, driving for the Ford Stobart team. The Belgian is no stranger to paved roads near beautiful vineyards and could have been much quicker today had the center differential not failed. With only rear wheel driver Duval made the most of it to place sixth, but is way behind the pace of the top five. Just 4.7 seconds behind him is teammate Matthew Wilson in seventh.

Eighth went to Kimi Raikkonen who is still learning how to wrangle a WRC car. The former Formula 1 champion never had to use a handbrake on a 180 degree turn in his F1 Ferrari. The goal is just to finish the event this time around. Every kilometer is a new lesson for the rookie rally driver. Also new to Germany is America's Ken Block. Running in a privateer Focus prepared by M-Sport the famous Gymkhana driver sits tenth, right behind Petter Solberg.

The Norwegian is not new to Rally Deutschland. Like Ogier his morning was less than ideal, a puncture on the first stage put him behind the eight ball. Solberg set the fastest time on stage 4, trying to make up ground but another delay on the final stage meant he was doomed to ninth, almost 5 minutes from Leb.

"It's not been the best day today," lamented Solberg. "That puncture on the first stage cost us lot of time, and then again we lost time when we hade to change the wheel again on the final stage after we touched a bank. That last one was my own fault, as we came wide in corner. We were 2 seconds faster than Loeb when it happened, so apart from the punctures, I think we have proved that we have the speed with this awesome car!"

Tomorrow brings four stages looped twice including the notorious Panzerplatte. The military stage has been lengthened this year to 48 km (30 miles), becoming more daunting than ever as the longest stage on the WRC calendar. This will be one of the hardest tests faced by the crews in 2010. The stage is a tank test road and offers multiple surface changes from concrete to asphalt. Tanks are not the most delicate vehicles on the roads so the road typically is breaking up and will get worse as the cars take it a second time in the afternoon.

Adding to the fun are the Hinkelstones, large concert barriers and rocks placed near the side of the road to keep tanks from leaving the path. For a WRC car the Hinkelstones will serve with the same function, just with more sever results. The "stones" will take a car out instantly as Solberg demonstrated in 2004 when he lost control and slammed into one, making one of the most dramatic crashes in recent history. If that doesn't sound dangerous enough the region is prone to flash rainstorms, making the surface slick and small mistakes serious problems. Which is why Hirvonen is worried about the weather tomorrow, "Thankfully the forecast suggests it will be dry, because I wasn't looking forward to that in the wet."
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Loeb Continues To Lead Rally Deustchland

Post by mlittle » Sun Aug 22, 2010 11:51 am

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Sebastien Loeb is definitely in the catseat to earn his eighth consecutive Rally Deutschland title in this weekend's World Rally Championship event. After taking the early lead yesterday by 9.5 seconds over teammate Dani Sordo, Loeb expanded the gap to 35.7 seconds on today's second leg.

"We put on soft tyres for the first three stages," explained Loeb. "It was a different choice to Dani's and our rivals, but I wanted to see what would happen. All things taken into account, we set almost the same times. We've finished today with a lead of over thirty seconds on our team-mates, and that couldn't be better as we tackle the final stages tomorrow."

There are five stages to be run on Sunday but with the tarmac specialist having a nice cushion, Loeb only needs to stay on the road and allow his rivals to fight for positions. It was the first pass of the 48 km Arena Panzerplatte 1 -- the 10th stage of the event -- that put the rally ace in a commanding position. "We managed to make the break and that's going to make the rest of the rally a bit easier," laughed Loeb. "I wasn't able to push from one end to the other, as the tyres couldn't have coped with it. I just had to find the happy medium in these conditions. I have to add that this performance wouldn't have been possible without my C4 WRC, which had a perfectly-balanced setup."

Sordo maintains second with three stage wins today, the same as Loeb. The two Citroen C4 drivers should finish 1-2 tomorrow bar any unseen mechanical failures or a mistake. Sordo has over a one minute, 30 second edge. "I was surprised by the dampness in the first few kilometers," Sorda said. "The time it took me to see that I wasn't in the right rhythm and Seb had already pulled out 5s. I tried to push, but I wasn't able to close the gap and I lost more time at the end. There's now twenty-five seconds between us and it's a whole different race."

Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala no longer holds third as Sebastien Ogier has taken the position for the Citroen Junior team car. The Finn sits 16.6 seconds off the Frenchman so there could yet be a battle for the final podium spot on the final day. "We went for a slightly more aggressive pace to build up a bit of a margin over Jari-Matti," Ogier stated. "Now we need to keep on driving well to be sure of staying on the podium. Our advantage is only 16 seconds."

Latvala's loss of time in his Focus was on the tenth stage as he explained, "I came down a long straight into a long left bend and it was difficult to see the corner. It was marked too fast in my pace notes and I went too wide. I saw the hinkelsteins on the side of the road and braked hard. The car spun into a bank and I lost time while I reversed back onto the road," said the 25-year-old."

Petter Solberg lays comfortably in fifth in his privateer Citroen and pocketed two stage victories today. Sixth belongs to yet another Citroen in the hands of the Junior team's rookie, Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn cannot catch the Norwegian, unless something unforeseen happens. "Today has been really good fun," said Solberg. "The car is definitely the best car on tarmac, and being fastest on Panzerplatte today were awesome. I got the splits in the car during the stage, and it felt so good to know that we took second after second on Loeb. And after the accident on Panzerplatte in 2004, it feels extremely good to have defeated Panzerplatte - so Phil, this one is for you!" Raikkonen smiled as he said, "I'm quite pleased with our day. We were much closer to the pace than we were yesterday. With some other drivers having retired, we are now sixth. So our aim is to hang onto this position until the end."

Mikko Hirvonen's day ended on the penultimate stage, as his Ford had a "broken input shaft to the transmission" according to the team. He will start Sunday using the SupeRally allowance. Stobbart M-Sport's Matthew Wilson does have a shot of overtaking the former Formula One champion. Raikkonen has a 19.5 second gap over the Briton's Ford. American Ken Block is currently ninth in the Monster World Rally Team Ford but with Hirvonen starting tomorrow under the SupeRally rule, he will move up since he was a mere 11.5 seconds off the Finn.
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Loeb Wins Rally Deutschland

Post by mlittle » Wed Aug 25, 2010 2:44 pm

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----Sebastien Loeb earned his eighth consecutive Rally Deutschland win, keeping his perfect German streak intact and once again setting a new World Rally Championship record. The Frenchman pulled away from his Citroen teammate Saturday and didn't stop pushing, earning two more stage wins today to cap off his weekend. Loeb leaves the tarmac event 58 championship points clear of his rivals and now chases after his 60th win as the next record to set this season.

"It's always a great pleasure to win here. I love driving the C4 WRC on asphalt and it's all the more motivating when you're in front of such a large, enthusiastic crowd!" smiled Loeb. "Once again I was able to count on a perfect, quick and reliable car that really got the best out of the tyres, This is my fifth win in 2010 and brings me one step closer to my ultimate aim my seventh world title on the trot."

The Citroen C4 swept the podium thanks to Dani Sordo and Sebastien Ogier. After the first day it looked Sordo and his new co-driver Diego Vallejo might have been able to give Loeb a challenge, but Saturday their chances for the win were lost on the longest stage of the year. Second place today puts the Spaniard fifth overall in the Drivers' Championship.

"The outcome was decided yesterday in the Panzerplatte stage," confirmed Sordo. "Today, we had nothing to gain and everything to lose. The double that looked on the cards would be a great coup for Citroen in the context of the World Championship for Manufacturers."

While the pair of Citroens prepared by the main works team pulled away at the front Ogier found himself having to climb to the top for the Junior team. On Friday he lost ground due to a problem with his anti-stall. In each hairpin he ran the risk of having to restart the engine. At the end of the first leg he found himself in fourth and facing a battle with Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala.

The fight lasted to stage 10 on Saturday when Ogier was able to takeover third with a nine second gap after his Finnish rival spun. By the end of the day the gap was almost doubled and Latvala would have his worked cut out for him if he wanted to re-take the position. Sadly for the Finn, the challenge proved to be too great and found himself losing more time to Ogier in today's five stages. The Citroen Junior driver sits second in the title hunt, 13 points over Latvala.

"This was an excellent result," said Ogier. "Our objective was to finish behind the two factory Citroen C4
WRCs and now we have achieved our goal. So this was a very positive way to finish. I'd like to thank the entire team for a brilliant job well done."

Latvala's confidence is growing with each tarmac finish, "I enjoyed the weekend and I'm really pleased with my performance. I was happy to fight for the podium. This is the hardest asphalt rally of the year and I was afraid of it, but now I'm not. After my victory in Finland in the last round earlier in the month and a good test here last week, everything fell into place this weekend."

Petter Solberg was caught out on Friday with two punctures that dropped him to ninth overall. Saturday was all about "maximum attack" for the Norwegian and the privateer Citroen driver was able to leap into fifth. His progress stopped there, even with two stages wins today, when his clutch gave out on the final stage. Solberg was able to hold his fifth place, keeping him solidly fourth in the points.

"It has been an incredible rally, said Solberg. "It's just too bad that we lost so much time on Friday with the punctures. But the stagewin on Panzerplatte Saturday feels so good, as well as the two stage wins we had today. The car works extremely well, and has been perfect. Even though I must admit the clutch gave us some excitement today. But we made it all the way in to Parc Ferme before it gave up, and that gave us 10 important points in the Championship."

The fight of the day was over sixth place between Matthew Wilson and Kimi Raikkonen. Overnight, after the second leg, Raikkonen held a 19.5 second advantage to Wilson for the position. It looked to be a long shot but the Stobart Ford driver decided to go after it, "I'm going to push hard tomorrow to try and catch up on Kimi -- I really want my sixth place position back. My best chances are in the first two stages -- we've been doing our best on the morning pass so if I can beat Kimi, I think it will be in SS15 and SS16."

The Brit proved to be right and by the end of Stage 15 he was ahead of Citroen Jr. driver by over 6 seconds. From there the fight was on with Raikkonen and Wilson swapping fast times in the last four. Raikkonen took the overall win on the final stage, his first stage win in the WRC. Yet it proved not be enough, Wilson went second fastest and kept sixth by 3.8 of a second after 405.67 kilometers (252 miles) of road.

"Yesterday [Saturday] was probably our worst day," explained Wilson, "we had a whole new set of notes for Saturday morning's stages so that slowed us down and then Kimi pulled away from us during the afternoon. It was so annoying as we had been ahead of him for most of the event but this morning was great for us -- we had a really clear run on the first stage and put in a much faster time than Kimi which put us back in the game. I'm really pleased that I beat him in the end, especially on tarmac which is Kimi's preferred surface."

Raikkonen offered a simple explanation what happened on today's first stage, "I overshot [sic] two junctions and we lost a lot of time."

"I'm disappointed at having made the mistake in the morning that cost us a place," continued the Finn. "But I enjoyed the stages on Saturday and Sunday. We're continuing to rack up experience and that's very important."

Retirements today included Mikko Hirvonen, the Finn restarted the rally after dropping out yesterday to only complete one full stage today before the gearbox on the Focus sidelined him for good. Ken Block was also unable to finish the event in a Ford when an alternator belt broke on the first stage. Unable to find a lady willing to give up her nylons the American was forced to withdraw from ninth position.

Rally Japan is coming up in September and there will be another switch in the Citroen camps with Ogier and Sordo trading spots once again. Ogier is clearly the favored gravel driver to compliment Loeb while Sordo is viewed as the tarmac specialist. In both Finland and Germany the team's choice has proven to be spot on but one has to wonder how Ogier would have fared this weekend without the early gremlins.
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Post by mlittle » Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:04 pm

Current WRC Standings


----Drivers Standings(top-10)
1st} Sebastien Loeb(FRA), 191 pts(5 wins)
2nd} Sebastien Ogier(FRA), 133 pts(1 win)
3rd} Jari-Matti Latvala(FIN), 117 pts(2 wins)
4th} Petter Solberg(NOR), 100 pts
5th} Daniel Sordo(SPN), 95 pts
6th} Mikko Hirvonen(FIN), 86 pts(1 win)
7th} Matthew Wilson(GBR), 56 pts
8th} Frederico Villegra(ARG), 26 pts
9th} Henning Solberg(NOR), 25 pts
10th} Kimi Raikkonen(FIN), 21 pts
----Manufacturers' Standings
1st} Citroen Total WRT, 308 pts(5 wins)
2nd} BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT, 222 pts(3 wins)
3rd} Citroen Junior Team, 168 pts(1 win)
4th} Stobart M-Sport Ford WRT, 118 pts
5th} Munchi's Ford WRT, 40 pts
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Post by mlittle » Sat Sep 18, 2010 9:18 am

apologies for not keeping this thread quite up to date........D'oh!! :shock: :shock: :shock:


Updated World Rally Championship Standings
---Drivers' Standings(top-10)
1st} Sebastien Loeb(FRA), 201 pts(5 wins)
2nd} Sebastien Ogier(FRA), 158 pts(2 wins)
3rd} Jari-Matti Latvala(FIN), 132 pts(2 wins)
4th} Petter Solberg(NOR), 118 pts
5th} Daniel Sordo(SPN), 107 pts
6th} Mikko Hirvonen(FIN), 94 pts(1 win)
7th} Matthew Wilson(GBR), 56 pts
8th} Henning Solberg(NOR), 31 pts
9th} Frederico Villegra(ARG), 30 pts
10th} Kimi Raikkonen(FIN), 21 pts
---Manufacturers' Standings
1st} Citroen Total WRT, 345 pts(6 wins)
2nd} BP-Ford Abu Dhabi WRT, 250 pts(3 wins)
3rd} Citroen Junior Team, 183 pts(1 win)
4th} Stobart M-Sport Ford WRT, 130 pts
5th} Munchi's Ford WRT, 46 pts
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