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[EwanM]

Let's have a little thread on this shall we?

Loeb clinches Rally Ireland victory

By Matt Beer Sunday, February 1st 2009, 13:16 GMT


Sebastien Loeb has commenced his quest for a sixth successive World Rally Championship in perfect style by clinching Rally Ireland victory.

The Frenchman led a commanding Citroen one-two ahead of teammate Dani Sordo, with Ford's Mikko Hirvonen a distant third.

Such a result looked highly unlikely on Friday morning when Loeb chose the wrong tyres for the sodden Irish roads and lost 42 seconds to early leader Jari-Matti Latvala in the opening stage alone.

Latvala then damaged his Ford in SS2 and had to retire, allowing Stobart Ford's Urmo Aava - who, like Latvala, had chosen extreme winter tyres - to take a shock lead.

But Loeb was soon into his stride, and soon after switching to 'snow' tyres at the first service, he moved into the lead and proceeded to pull away, winning by nearly a minute and a half.

"It was a really tough rally, I'm really happy to take these 10 points here," said Loeb.

"Tarmac is important for me, and a difficult rally like this is tricky for everyone. I could have made a mistake, but no, we are here and we won the rally. I will try to continue like this."

Sordo was equally comfortable in second after the chasing Hirvonen was slowed by power steering problems on Saturday morning.

"It's a really, really good result to start the year," said Sordo. "I'm really happy for me and for the team - it's a great weekend. The conditions were really bad and there were some crazy stages with the water."

Hirvonen said he was content with a podium in Ireland - and vowed to fight back in Norway in a fortnight.

"We had some problems and a wrong tyre choice, so I'm pleased with the six points," he said. "Of course I was hoping I could fight with Sordo, but maybe another time. Norway next - I can't wait, it's definitely going to be a different story there. Now we start fighting for the title."

The battle for fourth came down to the final stages. Henning Solberg moved up into the position after his teammate Aava crashed on Friday afternoon, but Chris Atkinson was closing in as he acclimatised to the Citroen Junior C4, having lost a lot of time with a broken windscreen (after failing to secure his bonnet) and then an accident on Friday.

Atkinson finally overhauled Solberg this morning, only to go off the road again in the penultimate stage, losing over a minute and handing fourth back to the delighted - and surprised - Solberg, who traditionally struggles on asphalt.

"It's a big step for me, I am very, very happy," said Solberg.

The Norwegian had decided to switch back to the normal slick tyres for the final loop in a bid to re-pass Atkinson, who stayed on the winter rubber.

"At the end we made a mistake and I don't think we would have beaten him on these tyres," Atkinson said. "That's life, we've got to be happy with fifth."

Atkinson's Citroen Junior teammate Sebastien Ogier recovered from an over-cautious start and a Saturday morning mistake to take sixth, while the third Junior C4 of Conrad Rautenbach crashed out of a promising fifth just before half-distance.

Matthew Wilson (Stobart Ford) and Khalid Al Qassimi (Ford) completed the scorers - with the latter taking his first ever point.

Ninth-placed Eamonn Boland was the best of local privateers, ahead of the recovering Aava, although Gareth MacHale had run in the points before a variety of dramas on Saturday, and Niall McShea had held a staggering third place overall in his S2000 Proton after SS1 before hitting electrical problems. He rejoined under Superally for day two, but crashed out.

Aaron Bukart finally claimed his first Junior WRC win with a comfortable advantage over Martin Prokop. Burkart had won a tough early battle with Hans Weijs Jr, who then had a huge accident, while Prokop lost too much ground with a day one engine problem and an error.

Leading finishers:

Pos Driver Car Time
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 2h48:25.7
2. Dani Sordo Citroen + 1:27.9
3. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 2:07.8
4. Henning Solberg Ford + 6:32.4
5. Chris Atkinson Citroen + 7:51.9
6. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 10:44.0
7. Matthew Wilson Ford + 11:23.8
8. Khalid Al Qassimi Ford + 14:07.9
9. Eamonn Boland Subaru + 15:23.4
10. Urmo Aava Ford + 15:35.4



http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73090

[McLaren Fan]

I like the idea of rallying, but the television coverage of it is awful. You don't get to see a whole stage in its entirety, there is very little onboard footage etc. On top of that, there seems to be only one team and driver in it. It makes Formula One at the start of this decade look entertaining.

[7UpJordan]

I think the Rally of Great Britain used to get some decent coverage on BBC Grandstand back in the days. But now you can only watch a small highlights show on either MotorsTV, Eurosport or Dave.

[EwanM]

I think the Rally of Great Britain used to get some decent coverage on BBC Grandstand back in the days. But now you can only watch a small highlights show on either MotorsTV, Eurosport or Dave.

Well the WRC's media rights owner is David Richards, who hasn't exactly done a good job to advertise it. The BBC did an ok job on the WRC when it was Rally GB, but the best was Channel 4 who for a few seasons had primetime slots for the coverage. Now the wrc lacks a proper reporter etc.

THE IRC is so much better, more manufacturers and Eurosport give it airtime and live stages!
WRC need to follow in the S2000 rules before it's too late, because IRC is duckling up the WRC's credibility and picking up the rallies it doesn't run due to the pointless alternate system.
IE Rally GB and Monte Carlo

[EwanM]

Loeb stuns Ford with Norway victory

By Matt Beer Sunday, February 15th 2009, 13:04 GMT


Sebastien Loeb has resisted huge pressure from Mikko Hirvonen to win the Rally Norway - and deal a significant blow to Ford's title hopes.

Ford had dominated recent snow rallies, while Loeb had only won on that surface once in his career (in the 2004 Swedish Rally) and crashed in the last Norwegian event.

But even though he ran first on the road all weekend, Loeb was able to match Hirvonen's pace from the start, and then edged away on Saturday.

Hirvonen closed dramatically in the final loop of stages this afternoon and started the deciding Budor test just 7.7 seconds adrift. The Finn had declared that he would take an 'all or nothing' approach, but despite his best efforts, Loeb was actually 2.1 seconds faster through the stage, giving him his 49th World Rally Championship win by 9.8 seconds.

"Mikko has done a really great rally and I had to push on the limit from the first to the last stage," said Loeb.

"Finally, we've done it. It's been very difficult mentally to keep pushing to the end and know that you could lose everything at the last corner of the last stage. It's a lot more exciting when you win with a battle like this."

Hirvonen admitted that he had mixed feelings after one of the toughest fights of his career.

"I'm sad that we came second, but I'm glad we finished," he said. "It was a really, really big and close fight. He was faster yesterday, and that was it. I'm glad about my speed today - I managed to push him really hard."

Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala, winner of the last snow rally in Sweden a year ago, took a low-key third, having only sporadically matched Loeb and Hirvonen's pace.

"It's been a frustrating weekend - not all that I was hoping for," said Latvala, who escaped a minor error in the very last stage. "But at least we got a third place."

Many had tipped Henning Solberg (Stobart Ford) for a podium or possibly even a victory in his home rally, but he lost touch with the leaders on Friday. Set-up changes improved his pace later in the rally and allowed him to charge past Citroen's Dani Sordo and repeat his Rally Ireland fourth place.

Although Solberg's younger brother Petter got his career as an owner/driver off to a fairytale start by winning Thursday night's rally-opening superspecial, his 2006-specification Citroen Xsara could not match the factory cars in the fully-fledged stages. A misfire on Saturday was particularly time-consuming, but Solberg still took sixth place after winning a late battle with Matthew Wilson (Stobart Ford).

"It is a dream," said Solberg. "I never thought this was actually possibly to do in three weeks. With a new team, new mechanics, friends and family, anything is possible. I just have to say thank you to everybody.

"I was so afraid earlier because I had a clutch problem for two stages, I was very, very scared of breaking the clutch, so I'm very pleased to come to the finish."

Wilson's teammate Urmo Aava claimed the final point.

The Adapta Subaru team had a highly frustrating rally, with myriad mechanical problems and some errors consigning Mads Ostberg to a distant ninth on a weekend when he had hoped to star. His teammate Anders Grondal dropped out of contention with a trip off the road on Friday.

Various technical problems and driving mistakes left Citroen Junior's Sebastien Ogier, Conrad Rautenbach and Evgeny Novikov back in 10th to 12th places, but the inexperienced trio showed flashes of promise - with a shock second-fastest time from teenage WRC debutant Novikov on Friday afternoon, and Ogier briefly running in the top six.

But the greatest disappointment of the weekend was surely the clutch failure that ended Per-Gunnar Andersson's rally at half-distance. The Suzuki refugee took two stage wins and held a remarkable fifth overall in his private Skoda Fabia before having to retire.

Patrik Sandell took the first Production victory for an S2000 car in his Red Bull Skoda. He was handed a huge lead when his Friday sparring partner Andreas Mikkelsen went off the road, and then hung on to win the class despite a quick excursion of his own this morning.

Leading finishers:

Pos Driver Car Time
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h28:15.9
2. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 9.8
3. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 1:21.8
4. Henning Solberg Ford + 3:33.5
5. Dani Sordo Citroen + 3:52.0
6. Petter Solberg Citroen + 6:25.4
7. Matthew Wilson Ford + 6:35.6
8. Urmo Aava Ford + 6:49.1
9. Mads Ostberg Subaru + 10:00.5
10. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 12:49.8

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73300

There really is no stopping Loeb. This weekend has further strengthened the argument I made along time ago. There is NOBODY else in the WRC good enough to challenge him. Not over a season at least.
Or is it he's simply too good? I believe the former.