Most liked posts in thread: WRC: Rallye Monte-Carlo 2013

Steve · Jan 14, 2013

Snowy Rallye Monte-Carlo in prospect (WRC.com)

14 Jan 13

Freezing temperatures and a forecast of snow on Tuesday mean WRC crews are bracing themselves for extra slippery stages on this week's Rallye Monte-Carlo.

The eventâ€™s classic mix of asphalt roads with snow and ice covered sections has earned it a fearsome reputation for varied conditions. And while some recent editions have been light on snow, there was plenty in evidence on this yearâ€™s pre-event recce. Worst affected was SS11 St Jean En Royans [pictured] that was covered from beginning to end when it was driven this afternoon.

Citroen Total Abu Dhabi team driver Mikko Hirvonen said the conditions on the recce were very inconsistent. â€œIt was a varied picture, with some stages totally clear and others completely snow covered, but in general there was more snow that I think Iâ€™ve ever seen in Monte before,â€ he told wrc.com. â€œIts not deep, maybe only one or two centimetres, but itâ€™s in many stages, and for some long sections, so itâ€™s its going to be tricky.â€

Hirvonenâ€™s team-mate, World Champion Sebastien Loeb, felt dry asphalt conditions would give him the best chance of victory this week and was hoping the predicted snow melts in time for Wednesdayâ€™s opening stage.

â€œIf it stays then the changing grip all the time will be difficult for me,â€œ he explained. â€œThe second stage last year was part snow and Jari-Matti Latvala was a lot faster than me there. I always took it carefully on the snow because I knew I could be faster on the tarmac that followed. But of course if thereâ€™s more snow and ice then its difficult to do that.â€

One driver excited by the prospect of a white Monte was Sebastien Ogier who will begin his Volkswagen Motorsport campaign this week. â€œIâ€™m sure there will be snow during the race now and thatâ€™s okay - what I want is difficult conditions,â€ he said. â€œItâ€™s not an advantage, as such, but as this is our first race we know itâ€™s going be harder to be on the pace of the others. But then if the conditions are really difficult then the differences between the cars will be less.â€

The drivers will tackle the pre-rally shakedown test on Tuesday morning between 0800hrs and 1200hrs. The rally proper gets underway at 0800hrs on Wednesday 16 January.
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Crashton · Jan 17, 2013

Steve's coverage is better than that.

Steve · Jan 24, 2013

To tell the truth, as much as I enjoy this stuff I think I'd rather watch coverage of the coming Monte Carlo Historique. In addition to the five Renault Alpine A110s there are a total of 314 (!!!) historic rally cars entered, including 10 Minis!

If I can find video and other coverage, I'll start a thread.

ALPINE RETURNS TO THE MONTE (PistonHeads.com)

Renault boss leads Alpine charge to celebrate 40 years since historic Monte win

by Dan Trent | Thursday 24th January

Expect to hear quite a bit about Alpine over the coming months. Indeed, you already have what with confirmation of the tie-up with Caterham and the recent announcement of a new advisory board packed with rally royalty and people with long historic links with the brand to oversee the return of Alpine.

Speaking of history Renault is entering a total of five A110 Berlinettes into next week's Monte Carlo Historique and, excitingly, we'll be going along to watch them in action. Stay tuned for more on this in due course but with over 300 cars taking part comprising the expected Minis, 911s, Escorts, Fulvias and the like together with the odd Mustang and a couple of Citroen DSes and other rarities it should be quite a sight. Check out the entry list here.

The Alpines should make quite an impact on the event, as indeed they did 40 years ago in the 1973 Monte with a 1-2-3 victory led by the pairing of Jean-Claude Andruet and his co-driver 'Biche' en route to a manufacturer title for the brand. The pair will be reunited with an A110 1600S for this event too, Renault rally legend Jean Ragnotti in a Group 4 A110 1800 and Renault boss (and handy racer) Carlos Tavares also taking part in an A110 1300. His co-driver will be Jean Pascal Dauce, engineering head of the Renaultsport-Caterham road car project. Suffice to say, we'll be very keen to talk to him and hear all about that.

We'll be joining the Alpine drivers for a run up the Col de Turini ahead of the event's arrival in Monaco next Friday, following the cars on a night stage and then enjoying a run in an A110 up the Turini the following day. Which'll be fun. Full details of the teams taking part and their cars here and some pictures also to get you in the mood- expect plenty more on this next week.
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Full article with more pics and all the links here.

Crashton · Dec 30, 2012

Looking forward to the upcoming season. Hope there are MINI's running, but it will be great regardless.

Come on MINI get your head outa your butt! ut:

tWard · Jan 8, 2013

oh man that looked like fun ^ thanks steve

Steve · Jan 11, 2013

What the Volkswagen drivers say (iRallylive.com)

11.01.2013 16:43

Volkswagen Motorsport has issued these 2 quotes from SÃ©bastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala:

Jari-Matti Latvala: "I can hardly wait for the season to get started. I may already have five years as a works driver in the World Rally Championship under my belt, but both the Volkswagen Motorsport team and the Polo R WRC are new to me. As such, I will be making my debut in two regards. The tests up to now have shown that the Polo R WRC is very reliable. This is probably the most important finding so far – and a good basis for future technical developments over the course of the season."

"I have already developed a good feeling for the car on asphalt and snow, which is a good sign ahead of the Rally Monte Carlo. It is great fun driving the Polo R WRC. It is very stable and the driveability of the engine is also very good. I would like to get the season off to a good start at the ‘Monte’. The result is not the top priority yet, although I would obviously love to pick up some World Championship points.”

SÃ©bastien Ogier: “The ‘Monte’ is a very special rally. After all, it is my home rally. However, the season-opener near my home will be an extraordinary experience for the entire team, as it is the first rally with the new Polo R WRC. We have been working towards this moment with Volkswagen for over a year. We can hardly wait to finally get started."

"However, it is difficult to judge how we will compare to the opposition, as we have not yet raced against the other teams under competitive conditions. Making your debut in a world championship with a completely new car is a big challenge, particularly as the other manufacturers have several years more experience than we do. For this reason we must be patient and concentrate at first on reaching the finish without any problems. Experience shows that this is anything but simple at the Rally Monte Carlo, as anything can happen at this event.”
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Crashton · Jan 11, 2013

I'll be rooting for VW too. Should be a great season.

Steve · Jan 11, 2013

Sordo again (the music ends after about a minute.)

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkwnivoXXwM]Dani Sordo - DS3 WRC Monte-Carlo 2013 Testing - asphalt and ice - YouTube[/ame]

Latvala, also testing.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLbRFkDPlc4]Latvala testing for 2013 Rallye Monte-Carlo - Best-of-RallyLive.com - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Jan 11, 2013

A few pics of Kościuszko testing his new MINI.

Crashton · Jan 14, 2013

That rally needs snow. All the great Monte's of old had snow. Look for the Scandinavian's to be on top form.

Justa Jim · Jan 15, 2013

Reminds me of my driveway a couple of weeks ago. :lol:

Jim

Steve · Jan 16, 2013

SS1: Ogier claims maiden stage win for Volkswagen (WRC.com)

16 Jan 13

Wrc.com stage summary

Stage data: SS1, Le Moulinon â€“ Antraigues (37.10 kilometres)

Stage description:
A classic Rallye Monte-Carlo stage, which was last used in this format in 1994. It starts from the Ardeche village of Le Moulinon, south west of Valence on narrow, twisty and technical roads then climbs gradually, passing through small villages, until reaching the top of the Col de la Fayolle at the midway point. From there the road widens and itâ€™s a fast descent, on bumpy roads to the finish at the village of Antraigues.

How the action unfolded:

Sebastien Ogier got Volkswagenâ€™s World Rally Championship campaign off to a sensational start by winning the opening stage of the Rallye Monte-Carlo in the German manufacturerâ€™s brand new Polo R WRC.

The Frenchman completed the 37km test from Le Moulinon in a time of 27m31.8s, beating his Citroen rival, defending world champion Sebastien Loeb, by 3.7s.

After snow flurries on Tuesday, skies were clear as crews left the service park in Valence to make the 45km journey to the start of the opening test. Roads around Valence were largely dry but sub zero temperatures meant there were still patches of snow around. And after a dry start to SS1, a treacherous 7km section of hard packed snow remained on the high altitude approach to the Col de la Fayolle.

Studded winter tyres were the most popular of the four choices on offer, even though the dry sections risked damaging the studs.

Ogier, 28, leapt from his Polo at the end of the stage to check his tyres, before declaring himself delighted with the result. â€œItâ€™s a good start!â€ he said. â€œBut we have more than 400km still to go, so really itâ€™s nothing â€“ now we have to carry on.â€

With another long stage to come before the midday service, Loeb was concerned about the state of his Michelins. â€œWhat can we do?â€ he said. "I tried to save them on the first part of the stage but it was very long - I think about 25km of dry asphalt. The tyres were moving around a lot so I destroyed them for sure.â€

Fellow Citroen DS3 WRC driver Dani Sordo was third quickest, 16.5s slower than Loeb, but satisfied with his first performance on his return to the team.

Mikko Hirvonen was fourth in another Citroen. â€œIt was difficult to find the balance between saving the tyres and attacking. Did I save them enough? I donâ€™t know â€“ weâ€™ll see on the next stage,â€ he said.

Evgeny Novikov rounded off the top five, setting a time 29 seconds slower than Ogier in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

Lotos World Rally Team driver Michal Kosciuszko got off to a bad start, dropping 2m22s after his MINI John Cooper picked up an engine problem. â€œMy first stage in the MINI was going okay but then the engine sound changed,â€ he said. â€œ I donâ€™t know whatâ€™s wrong. I need to speak to the team.â€

After the finish control, crews set off on the 30km drive to the village of Burzet and the start of SS2.
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Steve · Jan 16, 2013

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIok5y7vmA8]Leg 1 Highlights - 2013 WRC Rallye Monte-Carlo - Best-of-RallyLive.com - YouTube[/ame]

Justa Jim · Jan 19, 2013

So, VW took 2nd. Very nice.

Jim

Steve · Jan 20, 2013

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlbOzwYR9UU]The race - 2013 WRC Rallye Monte-Carlo - Best-of-RallyLive.com - YouTube[/ame]

Angib · Jan 25, 2013

Full marks to VW - those Polos sound good, with both rasp and twitter.

After one of the Quatar Fords went into and out of the ditch on that tricky bend, did he or his team-mate then intentionally put two wheels off the road into the verge in order to slow down quicker than he would on the ice? It looked intentional to me, like a good braking technique - I only mention this as it's one of the few snow tricks I've learnt.

CHKMINI · Dec 30, 2012

Thanks Steve!

Alan · Dec 30, 2012

Steve said: ↑

FYI, I don't even think Prodrive have worked that out yet. It's all about funds and, unfortunately, I think they've decided to give the Monte a pass this year. If you're going to make it to only some of the rallies, I'd call it short-sighted to skip either Monte Carlo or the opener and in this case they're one and the same, but I'm not in charge of divining where Prodrive's bang-for-buck ratio is highest.
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"The team had hoped to run on the opening event of the new campaign but has instead elected to switch focus towards putting a programme in place from Rally Sweden onwards."
Prodrive missing from Monte

Steve · Jan 8, 2013

Dani Sordo testing his new Citroen ahead of Monte Carlo. The music goes away after about 45sec.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx0T9y5R3cI]Essais PrÃ©s-Monte Carlo 2013 Dani SORDO Citroen DS3 WRC - YouTube[/ame]

Justa Jim · Jan 9, 2013

Great job Steve. We can always follow VW. I think they are going to be a player.

Jim

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