Publicat in: June 17, 2008, Vizualizari: 81
This will be one they will remember. Ford because of the ingenious way in which they secured their 1-2 victory over Citroen. Citroen, who finished 3-4, for the shock at the success of Ford's bold but legal manipulation of the results. Ford had a double memory, this being their 100th successive rally in which the works teams scored world championship points.
"I just hope this car is as reliable as they say it should be", joked Jarmo Lehtinen, Mikko Hirvonen's codriver, "We have go so hard over the rough roads that anything could break." Once again roughness of the roads was the special challenge, and only the ability to miss the rocks piled up beside the roads, and which often rolled into the stages themselves, could reduce the risks. Tyres once again were subjected to incredible stresses. If the rocks didn't cause damage, the never ending spinning of the wheels, especially the rear ones, wrecked the tyres. More drivers arrived at service parks, on this event, with tyres worn down to the construction than for a long time, despite Pirelli's new hard compound and stiff construction designs.
The scene was set for another titanic Ford vs Citroen battle. Ford were still smarting at their defeat two weeks ago on the gravel Acropolis Rally in Greece. With the heavy emphasis on asphalt rallies later in the season, the Greek defeat cost them an important chance to store up useful points in their race against Citroen. Turkey, an event which was absent from the calendar last year, was little changed, except that the weather was hot and sunny throughout this time.
For this event there was little different about the Citroens, but Ford flew out specially strengthened suspension parts to Turkey after their failures in Greece. Subaru came encouraged after the debut appearance of their new car in Greece, with few changes this time. Suzuki made their final appearance with the original specification SX4, before important design changes are to be seen on the next World rally (Finland). Once again the starting order rules did nothing to reward the excellence of the fastest drivers, they further increased the challenge they feared. Because his championship standings meant he had to run first car on the road on the first day, Loeb must have regretted his win in Greece. Ford's drivers were heading the results on the first day, and resorted to tactics to trick Loeb into running first car on the road again on the second. The ploy worked well, so that the Frenchman lost more time on day 2 and eventually had to start the shorter final day over a half minute behind, in third place
Could Loeb, now running third car on the road, pull back his quarter minute deficit to Latvala and even his half minute deficit to Ford's leader Hirvonen, who was now running ahead of him, in the remaining 64 kilometres of stages? In fact, no. It wasn't going to happen, but Sordo who had been delayed earlier by suspension damage got in front of Henning Solberg's Stobart entry. Solberg's teammate Gigi Galli had to withdraw later when the intense heat weakened him. Both Munchi's cars, driven by Federico Villagra and Barry Clark, finished in the Manufacturers' points.
Subaru had mixed fortunes. Petter Solberg twice had suspension failures, once at Shakedown, once on the rally, while Chris Atkinson stopped on the first day with damper problems which wrecked the shock absorber mounting points. Then on day 2 Atkinson firstly had an electrical failure at service, then a hydraulic problem. For the second rally running Solberg upheld their honour, finishing fifth - the only non Citroen or Ford in the top ten. Both Suzukis had to give up on Day 2. Toni Gardemeister had a broken radiator which caused the engine to overheat, while Per-Gunnar Andersson stopped with electrical troubles which had caused the fire extinguishers involuntarily to operate inside the car.
The Austrian Mitsubishi driver Andreas Aigner became only the second driver in the history of the PCWRC to win
three successive rallies in this category. The Austrian took the category lead towards the end of day one and held this to the finish. He had a long battle with Swedish Peugeot driver Patrik Sandell, until Sandell had transmission problems and then gearbox sensor trouble and eventually finished second. Initial leader in the category was Mirco Baldacci, but like many drivers he was delayed by suspension failure, and finished third. Uwe Nittel put up a strong challenge to hold the lead briefly twice on day one but retired on the final day with suspected engine failure. Subaru cars had another bad event. Four of its new N14 cars started but none completed the course: Toshi Arai had power steering failure which caused a fire, Nasser Al Attiyah had failure of an ECU, Naren Kumar and Francesco Trevisin both suffered fuel tank damage because of broken exhaust pipes. Evgeniy Vertunov rolled just before the end of the final stage and finished sixth, the top placed Group N Subaru with an old model Impreza.
The WRC is taking a break of six weeks. The next round is the Neste Rally of Finland between 31 of July - 2 of August.
3mmm
photo 1: Ford Hirvonen
photo 2: Loeb
photo 3: Petter Solberg's broken suspension
photo 4: Andreas Aigner
This will be one they will remember. Ford because of the ingenious way in which they secured their 1-2 victory over Citroen. Citroen, who finished 3-4, for the shock at the success of Ford's bold but legal manipulation of the results. Ford had a double memory, this being their 100th successive rally in which the works teams scored world championship points. "I just hope this car is as reliable as they say it should be", joked Jarmo Lehtinen, Mikko Hirvonen's codriver, "We have go so hard over the rough roads that anything could break." Once again roughness of the roads was the special challenge, and only the ability to miss the rocks piled up beside the roads, and which often rolled into the stages themselves, could reduce the risks. Tyres once again were subjected to incredible stresses. If the rocks didn't cause damage, the never ending spinning of the wheels, especially the rear ones, wrecked the tyres. More drivers arrived at service parks, on this event, with tyres worn down to the construction than for a long time, despite Pirelli's new hard compound and stiff construction designs.
The scene was set for another titanic Ford vs Citroen battle. Ford were still smarting at their defeat two weeks ago on the gravel Acropolis Rally in Greece. With the heavy emphasis on asphalt rallies later in the season, the Greek defeat cost them an important chance to store up useful points in their race against Citroen. Turkey, an event which was absent from the calendar last year, was little changed, except that the weather was hot and sunny throughout this time.
For this event there was little different about the Citroens, but Ford flew out specially strengthened suspension parts to Turkey after their failures in Greece. Subaru came encouraged after the debut appearance of their new car in Greece, with few changes this time. Suzuki made their final appearance with the original specification SX4, before important design changes are to be seen on the next World rally (Finland). Once again the starting order rules did nothing to reward the excellence of the fastest drivers, they further increased the challenge they feared. Because his championship standings meant he had to run first car on the road on the first day, Loeb must have regretted his win in Greece. Ford's drivers were heading the results on the first day, and resorted to tactics to trick Loeb into running first car on the road again on the second. The ploy worked well, so that the Frenchman lost more time on day 2 and eventually had to start the shorter final day over a half minute behind, in third place
Could Loeb, now running third car on the road, pull back his quarter minute deficit to Latvala and even his half minute deficit to Ford's leader Hirvonen, who was now running ahead of him, in the remaining 64 kilometres of stages? In fact, no. It wasn't going to happen, but Sordo who had been delayed earlier by suspension damage got in front of Henning Solberg's Stobart entry. Solberg's teammate Gigi Galli had to withdraw later when the intense heat weakened him. Both Munchi's cars, driven by Federico Villagra and Barry Clark, finished in the Manufacturers' points.
Subaru had mixed fortunes. Petter Solberg twice had suspension failures, once at Shakedown, once on the rally, while Chris Atkinson stopped on the first day with damper problems which wrecked the shock absorber mounting points. Then on day 2 Atkinson firstly had an electrical failure at service, then a hydraulic problem. For the second rally running Solberg upheld their honour, finishing fifth - the only non Citroen or Ford in the top ten. Both Suzukis had to give up on Day 2. Toni Gardemeister had a broken radiator which caused the engine to overheat, while Per-Gunnar Andersson stopped with electrical troubles which had caused the fire extinguishers involuntarily to operate inside the car.
The Austrian Mitsubishi driver Andreas Aigner became only the second driver in the history of the PCWRC to win
three successive rallies in this category. The Austrian took the category lead towards the end of day one and held this to the finish. He had a long battle with Swedish Peugeot driver Patrik Sandell, until Sandell had transmission problems and then gearbox sensor trouble and eventually finished second. Initial leader in the category was Mirco Baldacci, but like many drivers he was delayed by suspension failure, and finished third. Uwe Nittel put up a strong challenge to hold the lead briefly twice on day one but retired on the final day with suspected engine failure. Subaru cars had another bad event. Four of its new N14 cars started but none completed the course: Toshi Arai had power steering failure which caused a fire, Nasser Al Attiyah had failure of an ECU, Naren Kumar and Francesco Trevisin both suffered fuel tank damage because of broken exhaust pipes. Evgeniy Vertunov rolled just before the end of the final stage and finished sixth, the top placed Group N Subaru with an old model Impreza. The WRC is taking a break of six weeks. The next round is the Neste Rally of Finland between 31 of July - 2 of August.
3mmm
photo 1: Ford Hirvonen
photo 2: Loeb
photo 3: Petter Solberg's broken suspension
photo 4: Andreas Aigner
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