Mads Östberg had a half-bad moment on SS12 Ringsåker this weekend. Watch the video:
Thanks to Paulf7uk.
Posts Tagged ‘rally norway’
Video: Mads Östberg close call on SS12 in Norway
Monday, February 16th, 2009
Hirvonen and Latvala – dedication in a nutshell
Monday, February 16th, 2009
Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen - only a matter of time before they rule the WRC. Photo: BP Ford WRT / Les Kolczak.
I knew that Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala both were dedicated to rallying – of course everyone in the WRC top is, otherwise they wouldn’t be there. But the Ford drivers’ quotes from the post event press-conference in Norway makes me even more sure they both are upcoming dominants in the WRC. At the moment they’re just unlucky they are into the sport at the same time as the best ever rally driver who drives for the currently most consistent manufacturer. However, maybe they’ll one day be able to beat Sebastien Loeb by driving – otherwise they’ll have to wait until he gets tired of winning. But I’m sure they will win. Look at Latvala, who’s honestly angry on himself for not being able to challenge for the win in the totally crazy fight between Loeb and Hirvonen – going so fast that both the combattants seemsto be honestly surprised they stayed on the road. And look at Hirvonen, who’s wonderful passion seems to be close to madness. In the press-conference, asked about how to beat Sebastien, he said:
- I go to the next rally and try again. My son is three and a half years old, he plays with his small cars and says: “Here’s Sebastien, it’s very difficult to beat Sebastien…”. He’s going to think it’s impossible if I don’t try.
That’s dedication.
Fantastic Swedish weekend in Norway
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Patrik Sandell and Emil Axelsson on the podium in Norway after a fantastic PWRC performance. Photo: Red Bull
It became a fantastic Swedish weekend in Norway. Patrik Sandell showed everyone the pace of the Skoda Fabia Super2000 when he took the lead on the first stage and kept it to the finish – the first ever victory of the Fabia S2000 and a perfect start to the Red Bull team’s PWRC assault.
PG Andersson had to retire after a clutch problem on the second day – but he is probably still considered start of the rally for most people following Norway from start to end. In his ancient Fabia WRC he took two stage wins and showed many people, including star driver Petter Solberg, that he should have a place in the world top of rallying. It’s a shame it will probably not improve his chances of having a good drive this year, but hopefully it at least improves his position negotiating with teams for next years Super2000 introduction in the WRC.
Patrik Flodin were unlucky and went into the ditch already on day one. After that he struggled on the road – but way distant from the top placings. It will be interesting to see if his good relations with the Uspenskiy team continues even after a failure. It’s easy to be friends while winning…
The rally rotation system – a result of organisers “buying” WRC events
Sunday, February 15th, 2009As I wrote yesterday, the rotation system of the WRC calendar may be one of the reasons why the Swedish Rally have to cut down and in worst case risk bankruptcy. But why was the system introduced? FIAs reasons for introducing the system was to get more events into the championship, but they made a mistake. The events that has gotten into the calendar in recent years, like Norway, Portugal, Jordan and others have all ran candidate events and paid big money to be allowed to do so. So one day FIA realised that they had practically sold out places in the WRC, because the organisers really expected to get a place in the championship. That’s where the rotation system started…
In my opinion the WRC needs high quality events, not a big number of events. We all know that the quality of the current events differ much. I wont name good or bad – since I don’t always agree with the measures used. Driver bash some events, FIA bash others. The drivers most often want perfect conditions, while FIA want strange things such as media stands fitted exactly – on the centimeter – right according to their rules. Sponsors and spectators want events with spectacular conditions and big drama. This doesn’t always match the will of FIA, ISC or drivers. The ranking system needs to be improved – and then maybe the two worst events in years calendar can placed on a special list for a few years, with the potential of replacing it (after a few years) if it doesn’t get better. Potential new events could still be ran as candidate events, but never with a guarantee of getting into the championship. That would give organisers continuity but still keep a good opening of getting in new events.
I don’t have the perfect answer to this, but I know that selling out events in the championship to anyone willing to pay is stupid. Really stupid.
Unexpected conditions in Norway – PG takes stage win
Friday, February 13th, 2009Going into Rally Norway, everyone including me expected front runners to struggle on the first loop with a lot of loose snow. However, it proved quite the opposite because of a thin layer of ice on top of the snow, making them have an advantage over the later-running drivers.
But now, on the second loop – things have changed! The group N cars running in the first loop have moved some snow out on the stages making them slippery for the top runners. That means advantage for the later runners – which was immediately shown by PG Andersson, taking the stage win on SS6.
Henning and Petter – brothers fight in Norway
Friday, February 13th, 2009Henning and Petter Solberg are having a close fight in Norway. After six stages Petter is fifth, 1:03.0 after after Hirvonen while Henning is sixth, 18.3 seconds further back. However, with just an 18 second gap – anything can happen – and the brothers proved the close fight on the sixth stage where they did exactly the same time; 8:16.5. To do exactly the same time with a precision of tenth of seconds on a 14.61 km stage is quite cool.
First loop in Norway completed – close top but problems down the field
Friday, February 13th, 2009Four stages have been run this morning i Rally Norway and the top field is close. After SS5 Kongsvinger Hirvonen leads the pack 4.8s before Sebastien Loeb. Latvala is rounding off the podium positions 25.7 after Hirvonen. The fight is close – Hirvonen took the lead on SS2 but was overtaken by Loeb on SS3 before he got the lead back on SS4.
Some people have had problems this morning, including both home runners in the Adapta World Rally Team. Anders Gröndal went off the road into a ditch on SS5. He managed to get back on the road, but the car is damaged and he is reported to have gearbox problems. Remains to see if the Adapta WRT can fix the problems in the remote service. No matter what, he is now more than 12 minutes off the lead. Also Östberg had problems on SS5 when he overtook a junction and had to reverse to get back on track. He lost around one minute on the stage and is now on 13th position – but with gearbox problems reported.
In PWRC Patrik Sandell shows the potential of the Skoda Fabia S2000 and leads the field. However, Andreas Mikkelsen has beaten Sandell in two stages in a row now, showing that the classical group N cars can still challenge. Sandell will have to look out not to be overtaken by Mikkelsen who is less than 10 seconds behind. For Flodin and Brynhildsen everything seems to have went wrong on SS5. Both have lost more than 11 minutes, but the problem is unknown. Clear is that they wont be battling for the PWRC victory.
The battle in Norway will continue at 12:51 local time with the Opaker stage.
The winner takes it all in group N
Thursday, February 12th, 2009The group N-class in Norway is a real nest of wasps. Brynhildsen, Mikkelsen, Flodin, and Sandell competes (almost for the Swedes) on home soil and are all strong competitors for the class victory. The not-some-home Arai is also – and Prokop was – until he got a penalty today (I don’t know why, but speeding on recce or replacing engine may be the reason), so he’s quite out of the game. Competing in group N is a high game, and in one way I think the pressure is higher there than in the WRC.
Why?
Because in WRC you get seen – even if you’re in 5th place. Group N is downprioritized in media and in the eyes of many spectators, so there is only one way to be seen there – to win. That’s the only thing that matters. Of course all WRC competitors also wants to win, but if you’re in top eight (=points) – you’ve still made a quite good achievement and people will probably remember your name for a while.
So, Brynhildsen, Mikkelsen, Flodin and Sandell may all be nervous – and they should be.
The winner takes it all!
Video: Rally Norway shakedown
Thursday, February 12th, 2009The always awesome guys at eWRC.cz has created a video from this mornings shakedown stage in Norway. As you can see the conditions are perfect. Loeb set the fastest time on shakedown, but one should remember shakedown results most often doesn’t show much of how the rally will be. One this is really sure, and that is that Loeb will struggle and lose time tomorrow going first on the road with the new, wide Pirelli Sottozero tyres. For the Swedes, Flodin showed a good time on the same level as Sandell, while PG blew his turbo. However, this problem was fixed and there is no problem for him going into the rally.
Here is the video:
