Most liked posts in thread: Rally: Robert Kubica

minirab · Mar 24, 2013

Nothing is like his crash in Canada.

Steve · Mar 25, 2013

Kuby-came and conquered (MaxRally.com)

by Giles Wade / 25th March 2013

Okay, hands upâ€¦ who expected that?

Okay, everybody in the MAXRALLY office who has their hands in the air, put them down. You are telling fibs. We spent a long time, a very long time pontificating on how Robert Kubicaâ€™s ERC debut in a Citroen DS3 RRC would go. But nobody predicted a clean sweep through Friday.

He was inspired. And, through some really tricky conditions, looked like heâ€™d spent at least 10 of his 28 years on the stages.

Admittedly, for an ex-Formula One racer starting his full-time career in rallying, last weekâ€™s stages were a good place to be. They were wider than most and offered good grip. Or that was the plan. Until it started raining.

The rain didnâ€™t make the roads any narrower, but it certainly whipped away a good bit of grip. Watching in the second stage, Kubica was at his racing best. Splashing his way into a square right, he braked later than anybody and still the car didnâ€™t budge when he turned in. And just as the car was puckering up for the apex, the taps were being opened again. Just wondering if there are any metaphors to go in thereâ€¦ No. Okay, letâ€™s crack on.

Jan Kopecky and Craig Breen were slower if equally straight at the corner, but Luis Monzon was clearly pushing. Locked up, he came to the corner with one hand full of lock, leaving the other free to wave away the seconds.

Kubicaâ€™s sense of where the grip was and how to use it was sublime. He never looked ruffled or under any kind of pressure. He just got in the car and drove it.

And when heâ€™d finished the stage, he found the perfect turn of phrase to describing the drive. He was engaging, amusing and absolutely ready to offer a deep and technical appraisal of where he felt he was.

Which, clearly, was further forward than he thought he would be. On Thursday night, he was adamant Kopecky was uncatchable. On Friday night, such was his humility, youâ€™d almost think heâ€™d lucked-in to every one of those eight stage wins and the minute lead which accompanied them.

Then he crashed.

Nobody wanted that to happen. The sentence nobody wanted to hear last week was: â€œKubicaâ€™s hit the barrierâ€¦â€ But he did and, if there was any kind of lingering psychology involved with his Italian shunt two years ago, whacking the ARMCO on Saturdayâ€™s second stage might have helped disperse that.

In all honesty, the bloke was awesome.

And last weekâ€™s dominance of an island near Africa was just the start.
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Crashton · Mar 25, 2013

In all honesty, the bloke was awesome.
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I agree 100%.

Steve · Mar 29, 2013

Loeb to advise Kubica on WRC debut (Racer.com)

March 29, 2013

Nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb will be on hand to help Robert Kubica with his gravel and WRC debut in a Citroen DS3 RRC on next month's Rally of Portugal.

The Polish driver impressed with his first asphalt outing in the DS3 in last week's Canaries Rally, but his WRC2 debut in Portugal is expected to be more complicated for the former Canadian Grand Prix winner. Kubica's gravel experience is limited to just 40 miles in one of his own Group N cars and, while he will test his DS3 ahead of the Faro event, Citroen team principal Yves Matton expects him to have questions.

Loeb and current Citroen team leader Mikko Hirvonen will therefore be available to support Kubica.

"When he does his first laps on gravel, he will have a lot of questions," Matton said. "And Seb and Mikko have done so many kilometres on gravel â€“ and they have different driving styles â€“ so I will not say all the answers will be there, but a lot of answers will be there and he can win a lot of time like this. But first he has to do a couple of kilometers just to understand."

Kubica admitted himself that gravel will pose a completely different challenge for him.

"In my life," Kubica said, "I have not done much on gravel and this will be a big challenge and big fun."

In addition to the test, Kubica will contest the Fafe Rallysprint, now a traditional warm-up for the Portuguese WRC round, on April 6.

This article originally appeared in Autosport.com
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Early start for Kubicaâ€™s WRC career (MaxRally.com)

by Graham Lister / 29th March 2013

Robert Kubica will go up against his WRC rivals earlier than expected after he was confirmed for the Fafe Rally Sprint event in Portugal on April 6.

Having starred on his European championship debut on the asphalt roads of Gran Canaria last week, Kubica is now preparing for his first appearance in the world championship on the all-gravel Rally of Portugal from April 11-14.

The Algarve round will mark the ex-F1 racerâ€™s debut on gravel and an outing on the spectator event, which uses a 6.34-kilometre section of the famous Fafe/Lameirinha stage in the north of the country, will be a great chance for the Pole to get to grips with driving on the loose.

â€œI have no experience on gravel so it will be another new experience for me when I come to Portugal,â€ Kubica said.

Kubica will use a gravel-spec version of the Citroen DS3 Regional Rally Car he drove to eight stage wins on Rally Islas Canarias. He is one of 29 entrants for the event, which features two passes of the Fafe/Lameirinha stage, at 1420 and 1710, in eight days from now.
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Steve · Apr 24, 2013

More recce or no rally, says F1 star Kubica (MaxRally.com)

by Graham Lister / 25th April 2013

Ex-Formula One racer Robert Kubica has vowed not to start Rallye Azores tomorrow unless organisers allow drivers the chance to conduct more meaningful reconnaissance of three gravel stages.

The Coroa da Mata, Graminhais and Tronqueira tests were all coated in thick fog during Wednesdayâ€™s second day of recce to the extent that Kubica reckoned he was missing 20 kilometres of pace notes.

â€œThere was one stage where you could see maximum of 10 metres and I have no chance to see the corner,â€ said Kubica, who is making his second start in the European championship and his first in the regional series on gravel. Definitely without pace notes I will not drive. I am not here for risking, safety reasons for me are priority. We need a solution.â€

MAXRALLY understands that several team representatives have raised their concerns with the event organisers who yet to make any changes to the itinerary. With the event starting on Thursday afternoon following qualifying in the morning there is limited scope to adjust the schedule.
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Steve · Apr 26, 2013

After Robert led the qualifying and won the first 5 (or 6?) stages:

ERC Azores: dramatic morning loop, Kubica loses lead to Kopecky (iRallylive.com)

26.04.2013 13:35

The weather descended with a vengeance on San Miguel island in the Azores this morning, causing all kinds of problems for the crews....

Jan Cerny's rally over for now...the Czech driver dropped over 4 minutes 40 on Stage 5 and more on Stage 6 and picked up time penalties as well.... he's now retired for the day.

But the big casualty was rally leader Robert Kubica - he lost 1 minute 46.2 on the long Sete Cidades stage - the one along the [dormant] volcano rim - and that dropped the Polish driver to sixth.

Jan Kopecky now leads, Breen+16.4, Moura+19.0, MagalhÃ£es+19.3, Sousa+30.1, Kubica+1:04.5

Kopecky 19:06.2 : "Big problem in there...the intercom is not working, I can hear him but I cannot change the notes...I hit the bank..."

Craig Breen 19:00.4: "Very difficult to drive flat out when you have no visibility [has lost rear bumper]"

Moura 19:01.5: "Very foggy, very muddy, very difficult..."

And Robert Kubica 20:15.6: "It was very difficult stage, we couldn't see anything in there...80% of the stage I was just cruising...just happy to be here..."

4 more stages this afternoon...
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Crashton · Apr 26, 2013

Hope Robert can move back up the order. :fingerscrossed:

Steve · Apr 27, 2013

Crashton said: ↑

Hope Robert can move back up the order. :fingerscrossed:
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He lost time on the next stage in heavy fog: "Very difficult stage, we couldn't see anything in there; 80% of the stage I was just cruising; just happy to be here."

Then, a couple stages later, he rolled: "Kubica rolls, recovers, stops, checks damage, resumes..."

Video here:

iRally | The free independent Rally App for the iPhone, iPad and Android

This is only his second gravel rally, ever. After Portugal he decided to enter this one last minute to get more experience before the Argentina WRC event. I'd say he's doing pretty well.

Crashing is the only way to learn, says Kubicaâ€™s engineer (MaxRally.com)

by Graham Lister / 27th April 2013

Robert Kubicaâ€™s engineer Kevin Struyf says crashing is the only way for the ex-Formula One star to learn his new trade.

Kubica inflicted substantial damage to his Citroen DS3 RRC when he rolled on Rallye Acores yesterday â€“ less than a month after a heavy shunt put him out of Rally Islas Canarias.

â€œWe are not disappointed because when the driver arrives in a rally itâ€™s quite normal to make a mistake,â€ said Struyf (pictured right with Kubica). â€œItâ€™s impossible to arrive in rally and to make a very good pace without making a mistake, like Sebastien Ogier with the C4 and Thierry Neuville last year with the DS3. When you want to go fast itâ€™s impossible not to make a mistake. Robert had a very impressive pace. He makes six fastest times and was leading the rally. That is the most important thing to keep in mind. He has to work a little bit to be more constant but itâ€™s all part of the learning.â€

There had been speculation that Kubica would retire from the European championship event when he returned to service last night. However, Struyf confirmed that was never part of the plan. â€œWe didnâ€™t consider stopping, we just want to learn and make kilometres.â€

Kubica is eighth overall heading into the final seven stages on Saturday. He is running third on the road behind the Skoda Fabias of Jan Cerny and Mark Wallenwein, who also crashed on Friday.
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Donâ€™t worry Robert: it will be as good as new in the morning (MaxRally.com)

by Graham Lister / 27th April 2013

It wonâ€™t look very pretty but Robert Kubicaâ€™s Citroen DS3 has been put right again for the final day of Rallye Acores.

Kubica was leading the European championship round when he was forced to crawl through the fog-hit eighth stage unable to see where he was going. Undeterred, he was making up for his earlier delay when three stages later he lost an argument with an earth bank and rolled.

Despite the rather shabby looking appearance of his French machine, Kubica has been cleared to return to the action in eighth overall. He explained what had gone wrong: â€œWe went to a right-hander and I lost the car. The road was very narrow so we clipped a bank. We nearly managed to get it back but the bank was bigger and thicker and unfortunately it pulled us on the side and we rolled. At the end of the stage we managed to fix a bit the wheel and we managed to come back. The roll cage is okay from our point of view.â€

Being a decent bloke, Kubica accepted the blame for the shunt: â€œIt was not an issue of visibility, the conditions are very difficult and very difficult for everybody. I was surprised how the car reacted. I was not expecting it. I was not pushing because we had bad luck with the fog at the end of the last stage of the first loop. Even driving at normal speed there was very poor grip in the corner and we lost the car. It was a result of a mistake. When you see the car like this you donâ€™t enjoy it."

While Kubica endured a day to forget in the mid-Atlantic, his old mate Jan Kopecky is heading for win number three in this yearâ€™s ERC with seven stages left to run on Saturday.
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Crashton · Apr 27, 2013

How lucky for them to land on their wheels.That was one narrow piece of road, not much room for error. Stuff happens, & he is learning. Robert has the speed for sure now he has to work on finishing. I think it is probably harder when learning to slow a fast driver down than speed a slower one up.

Steve · Apr 27, 2013

Yup, he's already fast in general and has the reflexes of a fighter pilot, has more confidence behind the wheel than dozens of us put together, now just needs to learn a few new skills he didn't acquire while driving single-seaters on smooth asphalt.

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