WRC: Rally Sweden 2012

Justa Jim · Feb 12, 2012

minimark said: ↑

Thanks Steve for the great coverage!!! Wish the Minis were nearer the front but 8th is still respectable!!!!
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Yes, once again the coverage is great and I followed it all day yesterday on my iPhone, as my wife just shock her head.

8th is respectable, but leaving the radiator blocked is a "rookie" mistake, which he is of course, but "rookies" should not be in that car. :nonod:

The factory team guys seem like a couple of "yahoo's", from what I have read here. We have a WRC car that can win, being driven by two less capable drivers and one rookie. They are going to make a joke out of a fine machine at this rate. :frown5:

Jim

Steve · Feb 12, 2012

SS24: Loeb salvages Power Stage win (WRC.com)

12 Feb 12

Wrc.com stage summary

Stage data: SS24, Hagfors 2 - POWER STAGE (4.66 kilometres)

Stage description:
By Citroen Total World Rally Team co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen: â€œThereâ€™s a new start from the centre of Hagfors. The first 1.3 kilometres are all new, then we get onto the ski slope and itâ€™s the same as last year. This isnâ€™t my favourite stage as itâ€™s not typical of any of the other stages and itâ€™s hard to get a good rhythm. Having said that, itâ€™s the same for everyone and there are some very important points on offer for the power stage. As itâ€™s the last stage of the rally you donâ€™t have to worry about looking after the tyres.â€

How the action unfolded:

Sebastien Loeb may have only been able to finish sixth overall in Rally Sweden, but he picked up three handy extra points for his 2012 FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia title campaign by winning the Power Stage.

The world champion had earlier hinted that he would not be risking everything on the final stage as he suspected there would be too many rocks on its surface. But when he realised the Hagfors test was holding up better than he had anticipated, he decided to press on and ended up fastest by 4.9 seconds.

"I tried to still push in this one, "said Loeb. "It was not much worse than the first pass so I had to try."

Second place Power Stage points went to Petter Solberg, despite the Norwegian picking up his second puncture of the day.

"I tried to push very hard on the power stage but had another puncture unfortunately," said Solberg.

The final Power Stage point was collected by Jari-Matti Latvala in the other works Ford, as he took his score for Sweden up to 26 by also clinching the outright victory.

An impressive run from Czech National Ford driver Martin Prokop saw him just miss out on a bonus point in fourth on the stage times, ahead of outright podium finisher Mads Ostberg (Adapta Ford).

Overall second-place finisher Mikko Hirvonen took it easy over the Power Stage was only seventh.
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Steve · Feb 12, 2012

Looks like we might see more of Patrik Sandell this year.

Sandell delighted with best-ever home run (WRC.com)

12 Feb 12

Former Junior champion Patrik Sandell from Sweden declared himself very pleased with his best-ever result on home territory: eighth overall in the MINI John Cooper Works WRC, run by Prodrive.

Sandell, who has also competed on the Production Car World Rally Championship, is putting together a programme of selected events this year in the MINI as part of the innovative Sweden World Rally Team scheme. This is backed by Swedish former champions such as Bjorn Waldegard and Stig Blomqvist.

Next week the 30-year-old should know more about his programme for 2012, after he meets his backers to finalise his plans.

â€œThis is just the beginning,â€ said Sandell. â€œIâ€™ve still got a lot to learn about the MINI but this has been a solid start. Maybe my next rally will be Portugal, but we will see.â€

Touring car driver Richard Goransson, competing in the Swedish Touring Car Championship with BMW this year, was pleased just to finish his home rally in another MINI.

â€œWe started off the rally first on the road and we finished first on the road,â€ said the Swede at the end of the final stage. â€œItâ€™s going to be a good memory for my future rally career - maybe!

"It was a shame that we had an engine problem yesterday, but today was fun, even though I couldnâ€™t push as hard as I wanted to. Iâ€™d definitely like to do some more. People say that I should try some asphalt rallies, but Iâ€™m not sure if that will be possible this yar.â€
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Steve · Feb 12, 2012

Overall standings:
1 - Latvala
2 - Hirvonen
3 - Ostberg
4 - P Solberg
5 - Novikov
6 - Loeb
7 - H Solberg
8 - Sandell

15 - Araujo
38 - Goransson

Sordo - retired
Nobre - retired

Steve · Feb 12, 2012

26 minutes of highlights from Saturday:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h3Il4K9gEI]WRC 2012 | Rally Sweden_Day 2 Highlights - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Feb 12, 2012

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bezKtzDXRHM]Highlights - 2012 Rally Sweden - Best-of-RallyLive.com - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Feb 12, 2012

If I understood a few things I read near the start of the season, because of money issues and related uncertainty Prodrive did zero car development during the off-season. Though they may have studied and planned, they didn't upgrade anything between the last rally of 2011 and the first of 2012. This is a good article for other reasons but, more importantly, it says they're working on the car again.

SANDELL COMPLETES FINE DEBUT IN MINI WRC (Prodrive)

by Prodrive on Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 2:13pm

Positions:

8th 52 P. SANDELL +5:08.9
retired 37 D. SORDO

Patrik Sandell has finished eighth at Rally Sweden today and the highest placed local driver on his debut in the MINI John Cooper Works WRC. The Swedish driver finished the day in the same position he started and extended his lead over the chasing driver, Prokop.

It has been a very strong debut for the Swede in his first outing in a World Rally Car with only established and far more experienced WRC drivers ahead of him. Sandell was in eighth position after stage one and, except for one stage, maintained this position throughout the event.

There was disappointment in the team that Dani Sordo had to retire on Friday while he was running in fifth place. The loss of the water pump drive belt caused his engine to overheat resulting in damage that meant he could not return under rally 2. Having led the rally after the first stage, Dani was showing a strong pace on the MINI WRCâ€™s snow debut and the team fully expected him to maintain this fifth place for the event.

The Prodrive team will now return to Banbury to prepare for a development test on the MINI WRC later this month. In March the team will introduce a number of performance enhancements on the engine, chassis and aerodynamics ready for the MINI WRCâ€™s next outing on the World Rally Championship.

Dave Wilcock, team principal:

â€œPatrik has a very mature rallying head on his shoulders. He has maintained a consistent pace throughout the rally, managed his Michelin tyres very well and hasnâ€™t put a mark on the car. He has achieved all his goals and to be honest, eighth place is a good as he and we could have hoped for on his debut with so many experienced WRC drivers ahead of him. I think he has a great future and I fully expect him to be challenging for podiums. I was also pleased to see how well everyone in the team got behind Patrik, encouraging him every step of the way. We are homologating a number of new parts for the MINI on March 1st and these will all be on the car the next time we compete.â€

Patrik Sandell:

â€œItâ€™s been a fantastic experience and to finish in eighth on my debut in a World Rally Car with so many great drivers ahead me is a very good result. The balance of the MINI WRC has been really good and it is so easy to drive fast. Over the weekend my speed has been coming more and more and I hope next time out in a WRC to be in the top five and after that to aim for a podium. The way the Prodrive team has supported me has been fantastic and I have learnt so much from them. Without their support I donâ€™t think I would have improved so much during the weekend.â€
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Steve · Feb 12, 2012

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_eEpXN_MTk]Review Rally Sweden 2012 Ford WRC - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Feb 12, 2012

Great stuff here.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqi8ytQo-TM]Best of WRC Rally Sweden 2012 - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Feb 13, 2012

28 minutes of highlights from Sunday:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7U0n7EDdJA]WRC 2012 | Rally Sweden_Day 3 Highlights - YouTube[/ame]

Love the overhead helicopter camera shots at 14:33+ !

Steve · Feb 13, 2012

Araujo learns valuable Swedish lessons (WRC.com)

13 Feb 12

Portuguese driver Armindo Araujo has targeted a return to the top 10 on Rally Mexico next month, having taken away some valuable experience after finishing 14th in Sweden: a rally that he admits is not his favourite.

Araujo was the second-highest classified MINI at the finish of the Swedish event, six places behind local hero Patrik Sandell in another John Cooper Works WRC. However, Araujo admitted that his lack of experience of the snowy Swedish stages held him back.

"We are very happy to have made it to the end of Rally Sweden," he said. "It was a big challenge for us as snow isn't our favourite surface and we don't have much experience on it. We made a few small mistakes on the first day and unfortunately we then had a problem with the exhaust manifold and the turbo but overall it was a good weekend and we learnt a lot on how to drive in snowy and icy conditions.

"It's a positive result for us, for WRC Team MINI Portugal and for MINI and I hope we can achieve an even better result in Mexico."

Araujo, who finished third in the Production Car World Rally Championship standings on his last outing in Sweden in 2010, will contest all the remaining rounds of this year's FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia with WRC Team MINI Portugal.
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Crashton · Feb 13, 2012

Steve once again thank you for providing better WRC coverage that I have ever seen anywhere. That includes the subscription to the Motoring News that I had for years because it was the only way to get rally news in the 70's & 80's. Thanks again!!!

I owe you a beer or two.... :beer

Justa Jim · Feb 13, 2012

You truly do a great job Steve, as Crash has said.

Araujo and team MINI are ............never mind, my thoughts were not PG13.

Jim

CHKMINI · Feb 14, 2012

+1 thanks Steve!!

Gil-galad · Feb 14, 2012

CHKMINI said: ↑

+1 thanks Steve!!
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+2

Steve · Feb 15, 2012

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqE33BcgYyI]Rally Sweden 2012 - WRC [HD] - YouTube[/ame]

Justa Jim · Feb 15, 2012

Jim

Metalman · Feb 15, 2012

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bezKtzDXRHM&hd=1]Highlights - 2012 Rally Sweden - Best-of-RallyLive.com - YouTube[/ame]

Crashton · Feb 15, 2012

And the hits just keep on coming....

Steve · Feb 15, 2012

Yeah, but that one's a rerun.

That's ok, it's worth a second run IMO.

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