Most liked posts in thread: WRC: Rallye Monte-Carlo 2012

Steve · Jan 21, 2012

Drive of the Day - Monte Day 4: Petter Solberg (MaxRally.com)

21st January 2012
The idea of Petter Solberg returning to the Ford camp and being welcomed back with open arms seemed pretty unlikely when he walked out of the team that had brought him into the World Rally Championship to join Subaru in mid-2000. But the Solberg/Ford reunion is working rather well, with a jubilant Norwegian storming to three fastest times in four stages today and carving into second-placed Dani Sordo's advantage.

Unless Sordo does something very daft on tomorrow morning's tricky-but-brief power stage, Solberg won't actually succeed in snatching the runner-up spot. However it will be intriguing to see just how close he can get. Sordo started today 1m06s ahead, and tonight that gap is down to a mere 18s.

Solberg is still in the re-acclimatisation stage at Ford, so there will be plenty more pace to come once he really feels at home in the Fiesta. And having lost team leader Jari-Matti Latvala to a crash (while half a minute in front of the field...) on Wednesday afternoon, Ford will whole-heartedly appreciate Solberg's ability to blast out ultra-rapid times and still keep it on the road. Those third-place points will be very, very welcome.

For his part, Solberg is relishing this chance to be back in a competitive factory car, after a long period in the wilderness with Subarus that lacked the first attribute and Citroens that lacked the second. And he said one of the reasons why he's able to go so fast is because he feels so loved in the team he spurned a decade ago.

"Everything is so nice. It's great. I'm so happy," said Solberg as he completed tonight's final stage. "It seems like I've got a lot more experience, and I'm back in a factory team, and I've been so welcomed into Ford, and it's fantastic.

"That's very important to me - I'm a sensitive guy..."
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Steve · Jan 21, 2012

Part 1 from today, here's hoping there's a part 2 of the night runs on the same stages.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNVV_EvWduc]Leg 4/Part 1 - 2012 Rallye Monte-Carlo - Best-of-RallyLive.com - YouTube[/ame]

Crashton · Jan 21, 2012

I needs me meds.... :crazy:

Steve · Jan 21, 2012

Power Stage to conclude Monte-Carlo thriller (WRC.com)

21 Jan 12

Competitors will get a chance to add to their points totals when Rallye Monte-Carlo hosts its first ever Power Stage on Sunday morning.

The 5.16-kilometre St Agnes-Col de la Madone test will bring the World Rally Championship season-opener to a close when it takes place at 10:11hrs local time.

Bonus points will be on offer to the fastest three drivers with the stage winner receiving three points, the second-placed driver two points and the third quickest competitor one point.

Leading drivers will have to decide whether to attack for additional points or preserve potential podium finishes. If they go for caution then it could allow some of the drivers running further down the order to grab a share of the limelight.

Despite the Power Stage being the last of the demanding five-day Rallye Monte-Carlo, crews will be braced for a tough challenge with the test run on a narrow road characterised by several tight corners making it difficult to establish a good rhythm.

Carlos del Barrio, who co-drives second-placed Dani Sordo, said: â€œThe Power Stage is very twisty, very demanding for the tyres and very easy to have a puncture.â€
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Just 5,6 kilometers remain to the podium. (MiniMotorsport.com)

21 January 2012

Special Stage 17: One stage from the end of the Rally Monte Carlo Dani Sordo summarised the situation on Saturday perfectly: "Now we need to up our game again," he said in light of the fact that Petter Solbergâ€™s third-best time on the 17th special stage saw him slice another 11,7 seconds off Daniâ€™s advantage. 19,1 seconds now separate Daniâ€™s second place in the overall classification from Solbergâ€™s third.

Thus Dani stands on the cusp of his third podium place for the MINI WRC Team. In Germany he placed third; France saw him move up a place to second. The final result of the Rally Monte Carlo will be decided on the 18th special stage run on Sunday. This Powerstage is just 5,16 kilometres long, yet will be extremely challenging. From the start the road climbs non-stop until it reaches an elevation of 327 metres at the finish. The stage includes various twisty sections in which errors will surely be punished. The excitement will build from 10.11 on Sunday.

Pierre Campana can go into Sunday in a relatively relaxed mode, for he occupies a confortable seventh overall on the Rally Monte Carlo in the second MINI WRC. He delivered a consistent, controlled performance to make a promising debut for the MINI WRC Team.

Special Stage 16: On this stage over the famous Col de Turini, where thousands of rally fans were in full party mode, Dani was forced to drop 9,1 seconds on Petter Solberg, who set the fastest time - as he had on the previous stage. Thus Daniâ€™s advantage over Solberg in the overall classification ahead of the final stage of the day: 30,8 seconds.

Special Stage 15: "To be honest I pushed the MINI WRC very hard on this stage," said Dani after the 19-kilometre special stage. This was, though, necessary, as he had driven the previous test conservatively to ensure he maintained his lead over Petter Solberg. However, Solberg still managed to be faster, taking 12,5 seconds off Dani. Thus in two stages Solberg managed to reduce the gap by 26,9 seconds to Dani, who holds second place. The fight for the final steps on the podium is far from over. The duel remains thrilling.

Pierre Campana in the second MINI John Cooper Works WRC again posted a good time, having proven faster than Dani on the previous stage. Pierre continues to hold seventh place.

Special Stage 14: Over the 23,41-kilometre special stage which opened Saturday proceedings on the Rally Monte Carlo, Pierre recorded a time 1,4 seconds faster than Dani, who posted the seventh fastest time as Petter Solberg made up 14,4 seconds." The MINI WRC seemed to react a bit slowly," said Dani. "But I also proceeded too cautiously." Thus Dani remains second, 52,4 seconds up on Solberg.
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Sordo: The Power Stage will be tricky. (MiniMotorsport.com)

21 January 2012

Dave Wilcock, Team Principal: "It has been a pretty good day. The objective was to consolidate second position for Dani. I think the first stage took him a little bit by surprise, as he took it too steadily and shocked himself a little bit and took a while to recover. At service we had a chat about it and went through the data to explain where we thought it might have all been going wrong and he took some strength from that. We altered the set up a little bit for the evening stages by stiffening the car up slightly. The conditions had been cooling throughout the evening, and our weather reports were showing zero to minus one ground temperatures at the top of the Col, so we selected the soft tyre for safety and confidence. Maybe the hard tyre was the ultimate in terms of performance, but in terms of getting Daniâ€™s confidence back it was the right thing to do. For the Power Stage we have allowed ourselves a full selection of tyres by ensuring our tyre usage has allowed us that. Pierre has had a very solid afternoon in all the stages, setting some very good splits, and should be very happy. He had a small spin on stage 16, which cost him a little bit of time, however, he recovered from it well and went on to set a good time in the final stage of the evening."

Dani Sordo (MINI John Cooper Works WRC No 37): "I am quite satisfied because we are still in second place, but to be honest I am not really happy today as I lost a lot of time to Petter Solberg. He was pushing really, really hard in the first two stages and took 25 or 26 seconds off me, which is a lot. Yesterday was more fun as I did better times. Tomorrow there is just one stage of five kilometres so it will be difficult for Petter to overtake me. I will try to do my best in this stage, but I want to be on the podium and this is a really tricky and narrow stage."

Pierre Campana (MINI John Cooper Works WRC No 52): "It was a very good day for me and I think I understand more about managing the car. It is very important to drive the car to get this experience. The Col de Turini is a fantastic stage. There were a lot of people at the top of the stage and this was incredible, but the people were crazy!"
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Steve · Jan 21, 2012

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajRGo2nseGU]80Â° rallye Monte Carlo 2012 moulinet - col de turini - la bollene - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Jan 22, 2012

Overall result: Loeb wins!
2 Sordo (MINI)
3 P. Solberg
4 Hirvonen
5 Novikov
6 Delecour
7 Campana (MINI)
8 Tanak
9 Prokop
10 Araujo (MINI)
20 Nobre (MINI)

Power Stage result: Loeb also won the Power Stage. Sordo finished 4th but that was plenty since P. Solberg was almost 10sec back in 13th. 8th Araujo (tied with Tanak), 9th Campana, 16th Nobre.

Steve · Jan 22, 2012

BREAKING NEWS: Loeb wins Rallye Monte-Carlo (WRC.com)

22 Jan 12

Sebastien Loeb has won Rallye Monte-Carlo for a sixth time following a dominant performance behind the wheel of the Citroen DS3 WRC he shares with Monegasque co-driver Daniel Elena.

Loeb began the final day of the World Rally Championship qualifier, which consisted of one test, the 5.16-kilometre Power Stage, with a lead of 2m41.6s. After completing the challenging run unscathed, victory was all but assured.

Dani Sordo won an exciting battle for second in his MINI John Cooper Works WRC, the marqueâ€™s first podium on the legendary event since Rauno Aaltonen took the overall victory in 1967 in a Cooper S.

Petter Solberg bagged the final podium spot on his return to the factory Ford team after an absence of more than a decade.
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Steve · Jan 22, 2012

SS18: Power Stage glory for Loeb (WRC.com)

22 Jan 12

Wrc.com stage summary

Stage data: SS18, Ste Agnes-Col de la Madone (5.16 kilometres)

Event winner Sebastien Loeb has secured maximum World Rally Championship points on Rallye Monte-Carlo by securing three bonus points with victory on the event-closing Power Stage in his Citroen DS3 WRC.

Loeb took 3m27.8s to complete the challenging stage with team-mate Mikko Hirvonen second fastest, 1.2s slower than Loeb, to bag two bonus points. M-Sport Ford Fiesta driver Evgeny Novikov rounded out at an impressive Rallye Monte-Carlo debut with his first Power Stage point in third.

Ford driver Petter Solbergâ€™s outright pace was restricted having to run three used winter tyres and one winter tyre. Nevertheless he made it through to secure third overall.

Pierre Campana completed the tight and twisty test, held in dry and mild conditions, with a small powersteering problem on his factory MINI. He was ninth fastest as a result, 10.1s down on Loeb.

Czech Martin Prokop fended off MINI privateer Armindo Araujo in the battle for ninth place overall in his Fiesta by going three seconds faster than the Portuguese through the stage. Prokop was fifth quickest, 4.4s adrift of stage winner Loebâ€™s pace.

Francois Delecour, who finished sixth overall, handed driving duties to co-driver Dominique Savignoni for the stage to mark Savignoniâ€™s retirement from the sport. Savignoniâ€™s time was 52.2s slower than the fastest run.
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Steve · Jan 22, 2012

Gotta admire Delecour's move.

Monte Carlo finish: Loeb achieves perfection (MaxRally.com)

22nd January 2012

Sebastien Loeb didn't just win the Monte Carlo Rally for a record-extending sixth time (with a crushing victory margin of 2m45.5s), he also set the fastest time on the power stage.

That means the Citroen driver starts his title defence with a maximum 28-point score, and has exactly that much of an advantage over the man expected to be his main opposition this year, Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala. How the Finn must be ruing that Wednesday afternoon crash when it looked like he might just have Loeb on the ropes (in Monte Carlo of all places!). How he will grimace at the ACM for deciding superally was a concept it could do without. With the top 10 blanketed by 16 minutes, even with a five-minute penalty, big points would still have been possible for Latvala. But then should a man who has rolled out of a rally have a chance to still score points...?

There were no changes to the order on the power stage, as Dani Sordo clinched a valuable second place for Mini. Having not managed to get close enough last night to make a final-stage battle realistic, Petter Solberg took it easy on used winter tyres on the final stage and was ecstatic to claim third on his first rally back in the Ford fold.

Fourth pleased Mikko Hirvonen too, while Evgeny Novikov had plenty to celebrate with a sceptic-defying fifth (and a power stage point) on his debut in this very specialised rally.

But the hero of the power stage was a man who was nearly a minute off the pace. Francois Delecour's co-driver Dominique Savignoni is retiring after this event, so to let him bow out in style, Delecour handed him the driver's seat for the final stage, allowing Savignoni to cross the line and clinch their brilliant sixth place on the 1994 Monte winner's first World Rally Championship outing in a decade.
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Steve · Jan 22, 2012

Some more video from yesterday's night stages.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPiKI4CnuE8]Turini by night - 2012 Rallye Monte-Carlo - Best-of-RallyLive.com - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Jan 22, 2012

WRC.com has come back to life...sort of. If you'd like to see the times for the stages and overall, click here.

Congrats to Dani Sordo on a 2nd place podium position and to Pierre Campana and Armindo Araujo for making it 3 MINIs in the top 10 overall! Apparently Nobre should be congratulated just for finishing...not sure what that's about...

minimark · Jan 22, 2012

Well done! Dani, Mini and the whole Prodrive team and drivers should be very proud!! Astounding results!!!

Loeb is well Loeb! Think he made a major statement to everyone in basically placing himself in a different zip code than the rest of the field. Can anyone catch him? Congrats Sebastian!!!

Steve · Jan 22, 2012

Drive of the Day - Monte Day 5: Dominique Savignoni (MaxRally.com)

22nd January 2012
By Anthony Peacock

Francois Delecour had an exceptional treat in store for his co-driver Dominique Savignoni on Savignoni's very last rally. For the final 5.16-kilometre Power Stage, Delecour handed over the wheel to his co-driver, meaning that their final rally together finished in a much happier fashion than their previous WRC outing (click for a reminder).

Delecour, one of the most mercurial but likeable characters in the WRC, said: "This is something I really wanted to do for my friend Dominique. It's his last rally and I wanted it to be as special as possible for him."

Savignoni (who is the husband of Pierre Campana's co-driver, Sabrina de Castelli) was 42nd fastest of 54 cars, 52 seconds slower than the stage winner Sebastien Loeb.

"I have to say that as a driver he is quite good; certainly much better than I am on the pace notes," added Delecour. "Doing his job on the last stage made me admire what he does even more..."

Malcolm Wilson, along with the rest of the Ford team, was completely in the dark about Delecour's plan to give his co-driver a special send-off, but was touched by the gesture.

"I'd love to see Francois back in one of our cars," he said. "And you never know..."

Delecour and Savignoni finished sixth overall, despite losing time with a power steering problem yesterday.
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Steve · Jan 22, 2012

Speedy Solberg gets suspended ban (MaxRally.com)

22nd January 2012
By Anthony Peacock

Ford driver Petter Solberg has been given a suspended ban from Rally Sweden, to be imposed if he is caught exceeding the speed limit by 50 per cent or more over the next six rallies.

The Norwegian was caught doing 106km/h in the Boulevard Charles III in Monaco yesterday evening, where the speed limit is 50km/h. Solberg explained that he was accelerating while trying to pass a slower car, but then braked immediately.

At a stewards' meeting following the Monte Carlo Rally, where Solberg finished third, it was decided that Solberg had breached article 151c of the FIA International Sporting Code, regarding "any act prejudicial to the interest of any competition or to the interest of motor sport generally."

As well as the suspended ban, Solberg was fined â‚¬1400 and issued with a reprimand. However, the penalty only applies to Rally Sweden: meaning that if Solberg takes away no points from Sweden, he can then speed with impunity because there is nothing to lose...

Third in Monte Carlo was Solberg's best-ever finish on the event: traditionally his bÃªte noire.

"It's been the best start to my season ever, and I'm absolutely delighted with the result," he said. "The car is really fast and it's well suited to my driving style. I can't wait to get to Sweden and the gravel rallies now because I know I can go even faster there."

Just hopefully not on the road sections...
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Steve · Jan 22, 2012

More pics from MINI Motorsport:

WOW, what a road!

Gil-galad · Jan 22, 2012

Steve, really appreciate all of the timely coverage. Great service to all of here on M/A.

I hope the quick '12 podium -> new sponsor(s) -> Chris back in the MINI WRC mix real soon.

Crashton · Jan 22, 2012

Gil-galad said: ↑

Steve, really appreciate all of the timely coverage. Great service to all of here on M/A.

I hope the quick '12 podium -> new sponsor(s) -> Chris back in the MINI WRC mix real soon.
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+1 Steve you really are an asset to our community here on M/A. :beer

minimark · Jan 22, 2012

Yep, great job Steve, thanks!!!:thumbup:

Steve · Jan 22, 2012

Thanks again, I do what I can.

Check out this highlights video and tell me what's up with Sordo's MINI on the crab at 2:14. At first I thought it's just a drift coming out of the corner but it stays that way on down the road. I think it looks like it must have been after one of his two shunts on Wed and his suspension is out of whack but I can't spot damage and he's moving fast like there's nothing wrong.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4skJkc5p0A]The highlights - 2012 Rallye Monte-Carlo - Best-of-RallyLive.com - YouTube[/ame]

Nathan · Jan 22, 2012

Quick screen grab of the the MINI Crab

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