On the bright side of the rally, Petter Solberg holds the lead after the first day with around 15 seconds over Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier. Will we see Petter winning a rally for the first time in many years? That would be amazing!

Here is Kimi’s off:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to motorstvfrance for the video.

Räikkönen’s experienced co-driver Kaj Lindström commented after SS9 that the difference to Sordo was 0.9 seconds per kilometer, and at the same time stated that the duo knew they were going slowed than they could – partly because the car setting still wasn’t 100% adapted to Räikkönen’s preferences. Even Kimi himself said at the that he didn’t think it would be very difficult to drive faster, since he knew that the car wasn’t really as he wanted it to be.

Personally, I think Räikkönen got a good and really impressive start. An early off was probably just good for him, since that showed him exactly were the limit was and it also took the overall placement totally off his shoulders. With nothing to fight for in the rally, Kimi could put his focus just on improving his own driving and the car while still having the possibility to compare himself to others, stage by stage.

What I doubt a little bit more is the easiness of going faster. Kimi seems perfectly comfortable by being slower as he knows it’s “the car settings’ fault”. That’s probably perfectly true, but that’s also half the challenge in rallying. You must get a good setup of the car that works from stage to stage. Of course F1 is also much about fine tuning of car settings, but the conditions there are often a little bit more stable. In rallying you’re driving for a longer time and over longer distances, and conditions may vary much or extremely much (Rally Monte Carlo is the perfect example). That’s a part of the challenge and shouldn’t be underestimated.

However, to sum it up I’m really impressed by Kimi’s performance – and it will be a big pleasure to see his developments throughout the season. Go Kimi!

Here is the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve previously posted a clip of the crash from Eurosports footage here.
Thanks to dbe07 for the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to dragracing3 for the video.

Many people following the rally reports from Rally Monte Carlo today have probably noticed and wondered about the fact that Ogier was so angry after going off the stage – and how the hell spectators can come to the idea to put snow on the road just to sabotage for the drivers (If you don’t know what I’m talking about – watch the video!). I can’t answer that question, but it’s certainly a big problem for the Rally Monte Carlo organisers that they need to solve. This has been going on for quite some years now, and I have a feeling they’ve already tried – but I’m not sure they have tried as hard as they should…

It doesn’t even need to be explained how dangerous it is to throw snow on the road when a car potentially going on slicks are approaching assuming conditions are like they were just a few hours before when the ice note crew went through. In road traffic you should have margins for such things – but not in rallying. That’s what rallying is about… Driving without that extra margins, using the skills and the interaction between driver and co-driver to get the car through the stage as fast as possible… The spectators doing those things have no interest in rallying, they are just losers. But in the end – if the spectators can’t handle it themselves, it’s the responsibility of the organiser to get it solved.

With that said, I love the Rally Monte Carlo and that has been even more clear to me in 2009 and 2010 with the beautiful live TV coverage. But I can actually say I’m happy the event is out of the WRC as long as this problem stays as big as it is (=more of standard than exception during the rally). Get guards out to the important twists, damn organisers. I know it’s quite many but what else can you do? If you can cover everything live on TV, you can probably find one guard per turn too. This makes the rally both dangerous and a farce for crews, spectators and marshals.

I really hope this gets better!

And as a note… Mikko Hirvonen leads the rally with 41.9 seconds over last years champion Kris Meeke and 1.04 before Juho Hänninen. The action continues tomorrow – and everything is broadcasted live. Just hope the morons have been sent home then, the rally is too good to be disturbed by such shit..!

Soon, Maximum Attack has existed for one year, and even since the last half of the year hasn’t been very active until recently – it’s been a good one. Now, let’s hope for an even better 2010. IRC are full of interesting competitors, and the WRC Cup/S-WRC along with Kimi Räikkönen’s comeback makes up for some interesting stuff in the WRC too.

Until Rally Sweden starts – better than ever – in the beginning of February, why not stick with this video of Henning Solberg? I was standing in exactly that turn, really close to the camera that took this pictures – and even though accidents are never fun – it was a fabulous example of the thrill you can get to see in a WRC event.

Click here to view the embedded video.

By the way… Here is my own (still) footage of the event:

The scene of today's accident - just seconds before it happened

The rally sport is in chock after a tragic accident today in Czech republic, where three people spectating the Valašska rally where killed. The driver of the car, the 21 year old Lapdavský from Slovakia was seriously injured and chocked. I don’t know what happened and why – and I don’t really want to speculate in it. What I do know is that the turn  should for sure be a forbidden zone and that signs or barriers should point out that to the spectators.

Generally talking, I think that the safety in the rally sport is very well maintained. Organisers put safety highest on the agenda and spectators are most often very well informed about forbidden zones, there are marshals placed in dangerous places and safety cars and sometimes helicopters secures the stage just before it gets started so noone is standing in dangerous positions. Considering driver/co-driver safety, cars are improving continually, and much of the safety evolvement in road cars is also driven by data and tests made in rally cars. One should remember that most rally cars are built on the same chassi as road cars and driven on common roads – closed for traffic. This means that comparisons against road traffic is made quite easy – much easier than in track racing where big zones around the track is used to make off-road excursions less dangerous.

So, whats the main problem with rally safety? With all respect to the ones involved in this certain accident of today, I must say that it is spectators not willing to follow the instructions given by organisers, marshals and other spectators.

Everyone going to a rally wants spectacular experiences, high speeds and some of them also wants to see cars go off. Going off the road is a part of rallying, and doesn’t at all mean that people want anyone to get hurt. But it is a problem that some people doesn’t follow marshals (or other spectators) instructions and therefore stand in dangerous places. I don’t know anything about the instructions in the Valasska rally, but looking at the photo just for one second tells me that there is a clear and present danger to the life of anyone standing in that zone during a rally – no doubt about it. This is also confirmed by the movie (see below) where anyone can see how extremely fast the accident happens. I can hardly believe that they hadn’t been warned by marshals or other spectators at the scene.

Many people have too high expectations on their ability to get out of a spot if a driver lose control. Speeds often doesn’t look so fast, but when something happens – you most often haven’t even reacted before the car is way off the road. I’ve seen quite some accidents myself – luckily without any serious injuries involved – and your best chance is that the driver can avoid you and at least choose exactly the spot where he goes off. However, since an accident is by it’s nature never intended, that may not be the case. So, to anyone out there – make sure to always use your brain, follow instructions, keep some extra safety margin and instruct your fellow spectators to do the same! That’s the smallest thing we can do to show our respect to those ones involved in todays accident.

Watch a video of the accident here:

Read more here (news articles):

http://www.dn.se/sport/otack-rallyolycka-i-tjeckien-1.832640 (in Swedish)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to Paulf7uk.

Spectator safety is a of highest priority to every organiser, but this problem is common. I’ve seen it myself many times. As soon as a car goes off the road, people not only go to help – they go crazy. Everyone should remember that the stage is running and that new cars may arrive at any time. The most dangerous thing often seems to be that people expect it to be 2 (or 1, depending on class) minutes between every car – not thinking about the fact that one car may have overtaken one other etc.

I’ve seen people getting really surprised many times, and I’m afraid it may cause a serious accident one day. Today, it just destroyed Brynhildsens rally…

UPDATE 21:43: Now even VG writes about this problem. Marshals mean they warned Brynhildsen, while Brynhildsen himself and spectators say he wasn’t warned in time. On Saturday it will be decided if Brynhildsen gets an ideal time as a compensation for the mess-up. Read more (Norweigan): http://www.vg.no/sport/motor/artikkel.php?artid=558349

The accident happened on a very narrow part of the stage called “The Mountain” and the car and the truck collided almost front-to-front. The truck driver and passenger escaped without serious injuries.

Now a team car of Ford with two of Henning Solberg’s mechanics on-board have collided with a truck in Norway during the recce. One of the men got stuck in the car until authorities could cut him out. There are currently no reports of how seriously injured the two men are, but police as well as helicopter ambulance were directed to the scene.

Of course this disturbs Henning’s concentration going into his home rally, but at the moment let’s forget that until we know that noone has gotten serious injuries in the accident.

Read more about the crash on VG (in Norweigan): 
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=540717

On Monday Henning Solberg (Stobart) were scheduled to do his test, but a tragic incident stopped everything. Just when the test were scheduled to start, the team lost contact with one of the marshals that made sure noone got into the closed road. When the team got there they found out that the marshal had tragically had a heart attack. The ambulance arrived soon after, but the 60 years old man’s life couldn’t be saved.

Let’s hope for more luck in the rally than in the tests for Ford.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Munchis team is lacking one driver, so there are certainly at least one fresh Ford to get. Maybe Galli is back soon?