Posts Tagged ‘sebastien ogier’

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Ogier takes win in Monte!

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

Reigning JWRC champion Sebastien Ogier took the win in Rally Monte Carlo a few minutes ago after a good performance over three days. He was followed by Peugeot/Kronos team-mate Freddy Loix in second and another Peugeot driver, Stephane Sarrazin, in third.

Ogier has managed to combine speed with a mature attitude where he during the last day just conserved his leading position after both Hänninen and Meeke went off in the very first corners of the days first stage. This victory should be the perfect runner-up for next weekend, when Ogier makes his debut in the Citroen Junior Team on Ireland in the first WRC event of the season.

 

Sebastien Ogier, winner of Rally Monte Carlo 2009

Sebastien Ogier, Monte Carlo 2009, photo: ircseries.com

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Three future stars shine in Monte

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Going into Rally Monte Carlo there were quite many young crews with not very experienced drivers. After two days it’s more and more clear that those ones I thought were most interesting are shining: Juho Hänninen, Kris Meeke and Sebastien Ogier (even though both Meeke and Hänninen have had their problems).

Ogier went up from the French championship last year showing a stunning performance in Wales. Now he’s in Monte leading with the Peugeot 207 S2000. Being booked in a Citroen C4 WRC the rest of the season he’ll have all chances to get experience. After seeing this years stunning competition in Monte the question is: Is he in the right car, the right class and the right championship?

Meeke has shown potential a few years in the JWRC and a few WRC outings. Going into the IRC he has finally managed to get a car where he can win something that matters. Monte is his first ever rally on snow, and he just say’s he loves it and goes on to win a stage!? That’s how things should be.

Hänninen has been in the PWRC for a few years. He has always showed potential and now I have the same feeling regarding him as Meeke – that he has gotten into a car good enough to win, and best of all it’s in the right time. He hasn’t been struggling around for too long – but he also hasn’t just paid himself straight into the top league. I remember seeing the Swedish Rally a few years ago with Jari-Matti Latvala in an old Toyota Corolla WRC. That year he did most WRC events to get experience and look where he is now. I think Hänninen has the same smart attitude – and his quote at the end of SS5 today shows a spirit that I just love. Asked about if he was going flat out or if he had margins left, he answered:

- Small margin maybe, but I wouldn’t like to use it on this rally.

That’s what it’s all about. Being smart, confident and having patience. I’m sure that at least one of those guys are a future champion – no matter if the championship is named WRC or IRC. They’ve already shown us that they are the guys that will bring us close competition and priceless rallying entertainment. I love it!

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Rally Monte Carlo – an open affair in an IRC stronger than ever

Monday, January 19th, 2009

The IRC started as a small baby when the FIA decided to wait before switching to Super 2000 regulations a few years ago. With smart decisions and a strong media partner the championship has now grown into a teenager or a young adult, and soon it may be a full-grown beast seriously challenging the WRC in many ways. This year the season opens with the Rallye Monte Carlo – a mythic event full of history and legends.

Rally Monte Carlo has for years been the season opener of the World Rally Championship, but with the WRC stepping down to 12 events per year Monte is now in the IRC calendar for 2009 – and it will for sure be great. In 2009, IRC will have seven manufacturers commited to go for the championship – compared to WRC’s two. Abarth is the old guys in the game running their Punto Super 2000, while Skoda is the latest addition running two Fabia Super 2000 with Juho Hänninen and Jan Kopecky at the wheels. Besides them, also Honda, Citroen, Mitsubishi, Peugeot and Volkswagen are going for the IRC title.

With a number of new drivers, the 77th Monte Carlo Rally should be an open affair. Reigning IRC champion Nicolas Vouilloz is of course one of the favourites – but he will for sure be challenged by Abarth’s Basso, Skoda’s Kopecky, Peugeot’s Freddy Loix, Didier Auriol and Stephane Sarrazin as well as Kris Meeke in the brand new Kronos/Peugeot UK-run Peugeot 207. But maybe the biggest danger to Vouilloz in Monte is his own countryman, upcoming youngster Sebastien Ogier. Ogier has been awarded the Monte Carlo start in a Peugeot 207 Super 2000 in the BFGoodrich Drivers Team but is set to compete in the Citroen Junior Team in the WRC the rest of the season.

No matter what happens, the event will be a huge show to the public. It’s run in three legs during Wednesday to Friday and four stages will also be run in night conditions – like in the good, old times. Everyone having access to Eurosport should be happy, since the event is covered probably better than any previous rally, counting both the WRC, IRC and others. Rally Monte Carlo will get no less than 6h 15min of live television and added to that 2×15 minutes of short highlights from day one and two. More about that (including TV times) in my post regarding Eurosport TV coverage.

More info about the 77th Rally of Monte Carlo (external links)

Entry list
Itinerary
Stage maps
IRC Official website

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Posted in IRC, Rally promotion and media coverage | No Comments »

Video: Kris Meeke and Sebastien Ogier tests before IRC season opener in Monte

Monday, January 19th, 2009

With IRC season opener Rallye Monte Carlo coming up this week, Kris Meeke has recently tested his Kronos Racing/Peugeot England Peugeot 207 Super 2000 on snowy roads in Saint Auban, France – 60 km’s north of Nice. In the test also Sebastien Ogier took part, partly driving the car of Kris. Check out this video:

YouTube Preview Image

Kris and Sebastien are just two good drivers among others starting the Rally Monte Carlo this week (Ogier has been chosen to start in a single outing for the BFGoodrich Drivers Team). The IRC entry list is really impressive compared to the starting field previous seasons, and IRC is really becoming a championship to respect. I’ll get back to this later this week with a more detailed preview before the rally begins.

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Now confirmed: Aava in Ford/Stobart

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

There have been rumours, and in my recent post “Who drives what in WRC 2009?” i predicted it, but reading the Rally Ireland 2009 entrylist it’s now confirmed: Urmo Aava from Estonia will drive a Ford Focus WRC for the Stobart team in 2009. He is also confirmed to be driving Norway, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Finland, Spain and GB in the team.

What’s quite interesting is that Henning Solberg, who announced a his deal with the Ford boss Malcolm Wilson just a few days ago, is not nominated as a points scorer for Stobart in the rally. Instead, Matthew Wilson is nominated (as usual) and Aava. That’s strange, considering the fact that Henning presented his deal as a really good one including a lot of testing and highest priority in the Stobart team. The later is now very unlikely to be true, as I’m sure Wilson Sr (Malcolm, team boss) will put his focus on the drivers that scores points for the team. Of course, Henning will probably be nominated in rallies later – for sure in Norway – but it’s still not good for him to be set aside for a young driver as Aava.

Other things to note is that Khalid Al-Quassimi, as expected, drives a third works Ford and that Chris Atkinson has been nominated along with reigning junior champion Sebastien Ogier to score points for the Citroen team. That means that the Citroen bosses sets mediocre-driving-but-well-paying Conrad Rautenbach aside, which is probably a good decision for both the team and the sport.

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Who drives what in WRC 2009?

Saturday, January 3rd, 2009

Despite the fact that the M1 entry time has closed for the WRC silly season is going on at it’s best. I made a quick list of entries (as far as I know) that will do at least one and probably more than one rally in the WRC 2009. However, I’m sure this list is far from complete, and some facts may be incorrect, so please make it better by adding what you know in the comments. I’ll try to update the list based on your comments as good as I can.

WRC entries

Mikko Hirvonen / Jarmo Lehtinen, Ford Focus WRC, 12 rallies
Jari-Matti Latvala / Miika Anttila, Ford Focus WRC, 12 rallies
Khalid Al-Quassimi / Michael Orr (?), Ford Focus WRC, 6 rallies

Matthew Wilson / Scott Martin, Ford Focus WRC, 12 rallies
Henning Solberg / Cato Menkerud, Ford Focus WRC, 12 rallies 
Urmo Aava / Kuldar Sikk, Ford Focus WRC, 8 rallies

Federico Villagra / Jorge Perez Companc (?), Ford Focus WRC, 8 rallies
2nd Munchis – various drivers / ?, Ford Focus WRC, 8 rallies

Peter van Merksteijn / Erwin Berkhof, Ford Focus WRC, 8 rallies
Peter van Merksteijn Jr / Eddy Chevalier, Ford Focus WRC, 8 rallies

Sebastien Loeb / Daniel Elena, Citroen C4 WRC, 12 rallies
Daniel Sordo / Marc Marti, Citroen C4 WRC, 12 rallies

Conrad Rautenbach / Daniel Barritt, Citroen C4 WRC, 12 rallies
Sebastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia, Citroen C4 WRC, 6 rallies
Evgeny Novikov / Dale Moscatt, Citroen C4 WRC, 8 rallies
Chris Atkinson / Stephane Prevot, Citroen C4 WRC, at least 1 rally

Mads Östberg / Ole Kristian Unnerud, Subaru Impreza WRC, 8 rallies

 

So, I think that was it… Don’t beat me if I’m wrong or if I’m missing something. Just tell me in the comments, and if you can; add a source link. I’ll try to keep this list updated as good as possible.

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Posted in Silly season, WRC | 1 Comment »

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