Posts Tagged ‘portugal’

Admindo Araujo looks set to drive PWRC 2010

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

The Portugese PWRC winner of 2009, Armindo Araujo, looks set to do the PWRC in 2010 – probably in his Mitubishi Lancer from last year. His participation was unclear for a long time because of financial troubles. Armindo is believed to do six rounds, namely Sweden, Mexico, Jordan, Germany, France and GB – and potentially even Portugal in a S2000 car if he can manage to get the extra money needed for his home round.

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Posted in S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season, WRC | No Comments »

Marcus likely to do Rally Poland with Prodrive

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Prodrives sporting director Richard Taylor says that the team plan to do Rally Poland with Marcus Grönholm driving the team’s Subaru Impreza WRC. Currently, the outfit are searching for sponsors to finance the outing in Poland, that will be a follow-up to Grönholm’s comeback in Portugal earlier this year.

Rally Poland runs the 26-28th of June this year, and is quite similar to the Neste Oil Rally Finland – Grönholm’s home rally that he has previously said he hopes to drive.

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Posted in Silly season, WRC | No Comments »

Video: Latvala rolling in Portugal

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

After having mentioned it in the last post I just had to add the video of Latvala crashing in Portugal here. Probably most of you have already seen it, but do it once again. It’s really, really frightening – and the guys should be really lucky to be able to walk away from it…

YouTube Preview Image

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Posted in Video, WRC | No Comments »

Catch-up: Rally of Portugal, Sandell making PWRC interesting, Latvala’s future and Petter’s legionella disease…

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

So, after the long time off, here comes a catch up of what I haven’t mentioned:

  • Rally of Portugal ended quite as expected. Loeb first, Hirvonen next, the Sordo and then finally something unexpected: Petter Solberg. I’m really impressed by seeing him so high up in the standings. The car went well in Cyprus, but that’s a much slower and way different rally. I’m really impressed and I must admit I was wrong regarding Portugal, but I still think Petter shouldn’t expect very much of the Xsara later on in the faster rallies of the season. Anyway, Portugal was a real Norweigan party with Petter 4th, Henning 5th and Östberg 6th!
  • Patrik Sandell made the PWRC season much more interesting when he went off the road early in Portugal, allowing for Armindo Araujo to win the group N class. This means a huge change in the standings where Araujo now leads with 23 points, before Sandell on 20 and both Brynhildsen and Prokop on 14. Now we just need a Brynhildsen and Prokop to take one step up – then the PWRC is a real nest. In fact, I consider PWRC at least as interesting this season as the WRC.
  • Added to Petter’s impressive performance in Portugal, one should take into account that he was ill. On the run-up to the rally he was diagnosed with legionella, an evil disease that can be really bad. Petter is still suffering from the bacteria, but doctors have this week made sure that there will be no permanent harm to Petter’s lungs. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Petter has bronchitis and will have to take medicins for a while – medicins that interfere with the doping rules of the WRC. Petter has discussed the issue with the WRC doctors, and he will now have to stop eating the medicines before starting in Argentina next weekend.
  • A lot about Petter, but it should also be added that he have tested the Abarth Grande Punto Super2000 – and Abarth immediately sent out a press release that Petter was looking to do a few IRC events in the car this year. I don’t know if that’s true, but didn’t Petter say something about a focus on the WRC? Well, I don’t know, I just know that I probably wouldn’t choose the Abarth…
  • Conrad Rautenbach will go to Azores in a PH Sport backed Peugeot 207 Super2000. I guess his competitive impression will be quite weak, as usual, but it still annoys me considering the doubtful source of his money. When will somebody ask this guy where he get all his cash? Considering that he now adds an IRC drive on top of his current Citroen drive in WRC, war and crimes(?) seems to be really a good affair.
  • Jari-Matti Latvala immediately got speculated to leave the team after his frightening crash in Portugal. After 20 rolls, voices were raised everywhere that he should be thrown out of the Ford team. I think that Latvala’s team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen, has proven quite the opposite. Hirvonen’s career in Subaru in 2004 was disastrous, but exactly that kind of learning period that a young drivers needs – and to stop investing in Latvala now would be totally stupid, since he has shown numerous times that he has got the speed. Just wait and see, if Latvala get’s the time he will show everyone… (and at the moment he seems to have gotten a little bit more time)
  • That’s it – keep coming here, because Rally Argentina is coming up – and I’ll try to be a little bit more regular in my posting again!

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Posted in IRC, Rally testing, WRC | No Comments »

SS2: Patrik Sandell has rolled

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

It seems like Patrik Sandell didn’t get his dream start as he wanted in Portugal. He have just had an accident 5 km’s before the end of SS2 and is reported by Armindo Araujo to have rolled the car. Let’s hope that noone is hurt and that the car is okay. At least, this opens for a more interesting PWRC this year…

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Video: Petter Solberg pre-Portugal test

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Petter Solberg has tested before Rally of Portugal in the southern parts of Portugal, close to the rally area. Here is a video:

YouTube Preview Image

Thanks to nfontas.

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Posted in Rally testing, Video, WRC | No Comments »

Interview: Patrik Sandell goes for Portugal win

Monday, March 30th, 2009
Patrik Sandell/Skoda Fabia Super2000 in Cyprus Rally 2009, Photo: Red Bull Rally

Patrik Sandell/Emil Axelsson in Skoda Fabia Super2000 in Cyprus Rally 2009, Photo: Red Bull Rally

Rally of Portugal is getting closer, and Swedish Red Bull Skoda driver Patrik Sandell arrived in Algarve on Sunday evening. He spent the Monday just chilling in the sun to gain energy and focus for the event:

- I always try to get one extra day before the recce and other preparations begin. With my full-speed lifestyle it’s important to get some time off to focus. We’re back in Portugal after quite a disappointment in 2007 when I ended up retiring from all three days. However, I liked the event very much and it fits both me, Emil and the car perfectly, I think so I think it will be just fine.

Looking back on the close fight with Araujo in Cyprus, how different are the circumstances here in Portugal?

- Considering Araujos car, I think it will be harder for him, at least as far as it’s dry. We know that the Super2000 cars have a little bit of a problem when it’s wet, since we lose some traction – while group N cars can rely on low revs and still go very fast. Besides that, Araujo also have the advantage of being in his home roads. At least, the weather forecast is for nice weather…

Besides Araujo, for the first time this season there’s some real opposition with a number of drivers in Super2000 cars. What’s your view on that?

- It’s only fun! Looking at last years IRC result in Portugal, Magalhaes led after three stages, and even though he rolled on the 4th stage he has proven himself to be fast. I’ll look out for him. Of course also Flodin is in place and he is always good on finding the throttle, so it’ll certainly be a tough weekend!

Have there been any technical changes to the car since Cyprus?

- No, not really. We’ve made some small adjustments to the suspension, but since we haven’t had time to do any tests after Cyprus, most of the fine-tuning will have to be done on shakedown. I’ve got some small ideas…

So, do you have any worries for the event?

- Actually no, none at all. The roads are nice, the car is 100%, Emil is in good shape and I’m in an unusually good shape too! We can’t change what the others are doing, we can just go out and drive the car to 100% – and that’s what we’re gonna do. Of course I’m here to win – but at the same time I’m not prepared to take too big risks this time. If I’ve got 8 points easily in my hand and the chance for 10 points with high risks, then I’ll probaby just settle for the second position. However, the goal is to never get into that situation at all, instead we’ll try to get the speed high from the beginning and see how far we get… I think it will be enough for quite much!

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Posted in Swedish Rallying, WRC | No Comments »

Marcus start in Portugal – a one time outing or a stupid comeback?

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

As most people know, Marcus Grönholm will return to World Rally Championship rallying in Portugal this year driving a Subaru Impreza WRC S14 (the “new” Impreza) for Prodrive. However, don’t expect too much. Everyone knows that the Subaru is a car lacking some speed and a lot in reliability – even Grönholm himself. He says he just want to have fun and compare his speed to the young guns…

So, when comparing speeds, Grönholm will probably keep that in mind. In fact – that’s probably why Marcus chose the Impreza. He can make his comeback in a safe way where he can’t lose, making a half bad result and then blaming the car. I think he realises that it wouldn’t be very smart to get into the Focus, a car that today is the back pocket of Hirvonen, Latvala and to a large extent even Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson. In the same manner it would be stupid to get into the Citroen of Loeb and Sordo. He would risk getting crushed – without anything to blame.

Probably the most interesting question is wether this is a one time outing, or if Grönholm will try to make a true comeback to a full (or close to) season in the WRC? Grönholm himself says it’s a single event and nothing more. But he fills in that after this he will analyse his feelings and decide on the future – indicating that he may do a larger scale comeback…

Imagine that larger comeback, what would it mean? I’m well aware Grönholm negotiated a full season for Subaru before the marque retired from the WRC in December but I can’t think of a full comeback in the Subaru Impreza. Why would Marcus get back to rallying full-time without the real chance of winning? That’s not really a former WRC champion’s style… No, it would probably be in another car – but who would be interested? Marcus is good for sure, but not an upcoming name. So, given the fact that WRC works teams doesn’t really grow on trees – I don’t know, actually…

Anyway, let’s assume Marcus did get a good car, perhaps a Ford. Would he win? And would it be good? Honestly, maybe he’d get few podiums, but in the big picture I don’t think it would be so good. He is getting older and all careers have their end. Running in the Peugeot 307, Marcus made himself an even larger WRC profile than before by being bitter of the car. It worked out really well and was entertaining, but to do that without being considered a boring person requires quite big – and fresh – star quality. It also requires reasonably recent good results – and Marcus doesn’t have all this anymore. People would no longer consider him a genious in a bad position – just a bitter old man not knowing when to end his career.

Counting all those parts together, I really hope that Marcus enjoys his one time comeback in Portugal – and maybe a few more guest entires. But I hope it ends there. Not that I don’t wanna see Marcus drive, I would love it. But I don’t wanna see a good star and a fantastic WRC profile fall off his heights and become a struggler that just didn’t know where to stop. Marcus has proven what he can do – and I think he knows himself that a full time comeback would just be stupid. So, that gives you my bet; don’t expect a full scale comeback.

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Posted in Silly season, WRC | 5 Comments »