Publicat in: October 6, 2008, Vizualizari: 52
Sebastien Loeb is now well on his way to breaking the next record in his sensational career, a fifth successive World rally title! Victory in Spain has put him 12 points ahead of Mikko Hirvonen in the 2008 season with three events still to run. The Frenchman went into the lead from the start with his ever faithful teammate Dani Sordo right behind him, and three days later they finished just like that, with Sordo in second place for the tenth time in his career. Throughout the event Fords were lying third and fourth, this time with Francois Duval in a BP team car, and when the Citroens eased their speed at half distance, Mikko Hirvonen and Duval had the chance to show their pace. Duval was required to cede his third place to Hirvonen with two stages to run.
While Loeb's team started to calculate exactly how soon Sebastien would be unbeatable in the championship, Hirvonen analysed his failure. It had been a frustrating event. "For the first half of the event we were all at sea, nothing seemed to work with the car. The car seemed very easy to understeer. Then in the second half of the event I decided to slow down, not to push the car so much and it all started to go better. If only I had tried that earlier in the event." Behind them the new Subaru World Rally Cars were gradually improving, but embarrassingly they were being split by the privately run Citroen C4 of Urmo Aava, who had risen to fifth place. The Estonian was having a splendid drive before he damaged his steering with two stages to go and hobbled his way to the finish. Subarus were in line to finish fifth and sixth when Latvala, on this occasion in a Stobart car, recovering after a low start, finally passed Atkinson, the Australian was suffering from the usual Subaru damper-related problems at the start of the event but was gradually able to speed up. Latvala came to Spain low in confidence after a run of three disastrous rallies and the humiliation of being demoted to the Stobart team, for the two remaining asphalt events. It was also difficult for him to get the best out of his Stobart car, but by the final day things were better and the usual laughing smile on his bespectacled face appeared. Both Suzukis finished the rally but neither were in the points. Toni Gardemeister had trouble fighting understeer while Per Gunnar Andersson missed stages because he slipped off the road, albeit the car was undamaged on the first day but there were no spectators to help him.
Aava's performance had been a revelation but other private drivers also went well. Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen avenged his embarrassing national championship-losing mistake the weekend before by bringing his Ford home in eighth place, ahead of the official world championship team drivers Matthew Wilson, Henning Solberg and Federico Villagra and the two Suzukis. Brice Tirabassi drove his rented works Subaru into tenth, good experience for his challenge on home territory next weekend in Corsica. This was the first asphalt world championship event for Mads Ostberg and he finished 14th, ahead of the fellow Subaru driver Eamonn Boland. The charismatic Dutch father and son drivers van Merksteijn were fighting each other furiously. Less than a second separated them after two stages before Junior went off the road. Father eased his speed but suffered engine failure on the final day.
Catalunya was the first of the two late-season back-to-back asphalt events, events where Citroen World Rally Cars have proved unbeatable in recent years. Ford's devastating defeat in New Zealand five weeks ago provided the French manufacturer with great confidence that they would regain the Makes World title back from BP Ford well before the end of the year, while Loeb proved once again he was in a galaxy of his own. This is the smoothest and fastest of the asphalt rallies in the championship, this year with less of the traditional corner cutting driving characteristics which, normally, spreads gravel over the roads. There were punctures suffered, but usually as a result of impact damage rather than the gravel thrown on the roads. With the ice and snow of Monte Carlo and the broken roads in Germany, this was the first of the really clean road rallies this year. The required lines through the bends required racing not rally driving techniques. And notwithstanding the customary use of control single-supplier Pirelli tyres, the winning speed was for the fourth year running a record for the rally. Only three of the event's nine stage venues were the same as before, and mostly speeds on these stages were slower this year, but the nature of the stage roads in general allowed higher speeds.
Another Sebastien thought he was on his way to glory but glory was to be delayed. Sebastien Ogier was handsomely leading the JWRC category when he had a high speed spin on loose gravel and impacted his Citroen C2 S1600 into a rock. His rally finished with water pouring out of the car at the end of the stage, the engine terminally cooked. Despite the disappointment at Ogier's retirement Citroen went on to take three of the top four placings. Martin Prokop, in another C2, took the chance of a second JWRC win of the season, despite losing time on the first day with power steering failure. The Renault Clio R3 of Alessandro Bettega finished second, the best championship result so far on asphalt for these cars. In third and fourth places were two more C2s, those of Aaron Burkart and Shaun Gallagher. Patrik Sandell started very badly with a lot of brake problems, which many of the other R3 cars also suffered, but eventually pulled up to finish fifth. The two official Suzuki entries were headed by Jaan Molder (who finished sixth) but teammate Michal Kosciuszko lost time with a broken throttle and then a puncture. Kris Meeke took over a Clio R3 at short notice but had brake trouble and a puncture before retiring with alternator belt failure.
The second part of the season, after a lot of problems earlier on, has been a major success for Prokop. In the last four rallies he has won the Junior category twice and the Production Car once. "It would have been really nice if the season had started a little later this year!" Like the overall championships, the Junior series was now between just two people: Sebastien Ogier and Aaron Burkart. Francesco Fanari, the JWRC Rookie champion elect, arrived at the start of the event feeling unwell, crossed the start line and withdrew, becoming what is generally believed to be the first driver in motor sporting history to gain a title without completing even one of the qualifying rounds. Such is the change that the SupeRally rule has brought to rallying. The little known FIA Federation championship was looking like a clean fight between the French FFSA governing body, represented by Ogier, and their Dutch colleagues at KNAF whose cars were driven by Hans Weijs and Kevin Abbring. Of these only Abbring finished the event, albeit delayed by transmission trouble on day 2, while Weijs overturned, so unexpectedly KNAF lead the FFSA in this championship.
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Sebastien Loeb is now well on his way to breaking the next record in his sensational career, a fifth successive World rally title! Victory in Spain has put him 12 points ahead of Mikko Hirvonen in the 2008 season with three events still to run. The Frenchman went into the lead from the start with his ever faithful teammate Dani Sordo right behind him, and three days later they finished just like that, with Sordo in second place for the tenth time in his career. Throughout the event Fords were lying third and fourth, this time with Francois Duval in a BP team car, and when the Citroens eased their speed at half distance, Mikko Hirvonen and Duval had the chance to show their pace. Duval was required to cede his third place to Hirvonen with two stages to run. While Loeb's team started to calculate exactly how soon Sebastien would be unbeatable in the championship, Hirvonen analysed his failure. It had been a frustrating event. "For the first half of the event we were all at sea, nothing seemed to work with the car. The car seemed very easy to understeer. Then in the second half of the event I decided to slow down, not to push the car so much and it all started to go better. If only I had tried that earlier in the event." Behind them the new Subaru World Rally Cars were gradually improving, but embarrassingly they were being split by the privately run Citroen C4 of Urmo Aava, who had risen to fifth place. The Estonian was having a splendid drive before he damaged his steering with two stages to go and hobbled his way to the finish. Subarus were in line to finish fifth and sixth when Latvala, on this occasion in a Stobart car, recovering after a low start, finally passed Atkinson, the Australian was suffering from the usual Subaru damper-related problems at the start of the event but was gradually able to speed up. Latvala came to Spain low in confidence after a run of three disastrous rallies and the humiliation of being demoted to the Stobart team, for the two remaining asphalt events. It was also difficult for him to get the best out of his Stobart car, but by the final day things were better and the usual laughing smile on his bespectacled face appeared. Both Suzukis finished the rally but neither were in the points. Toni Gardemeister had trouble fighting understeer while Per Gunnar Andersson missed stages because he slipped off the road, albeit the car was undamaged on the first day but there were no spectators to help him. Aava's performance had been a revelation but other private drivers also went well. Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen avenged his embarrassing national championship-losing mistake the weekend before by bringing his Ford home in eighth place, ahead of the official world championship team drivers Matthew Wilson, Henning Solberg and Federico Villagra and the two Suzukis. Brice Tirabassi drove his rented works Subaru into tenth, good experience for his challenge on home territory next weekend in Corsica. This was the first asphalt world championship event for Mads Ostberg and he finished 14th, ahead of the fellow Subaru driver Eamonn Boland. The charismatic Dutch father and son drivers van Merksteijn were fighting each other furiously. Less than a second separated them after two stages before Junior went off the road. Father eased his speed but suffered engine failure on the final day. Catalunya was the first of the two late-season back-to-back asphalt events, events where Citroen World Rally Cars have proved unbeatable in recent years. Ford's devastating defeat in New Zealand five weeks ago provided the French manufacturer with great confidence that they would regain the Makes World title back from BP Ford well before the end of the year, while Loeb proved once again he was in a galaxy of his own. This is the smoothest and fastest of the asphalt rallies in the championship, this year with less of the traditional corner cutting driving characteristics which, normally, spreads gravel over the roads. There were punctures suffered, but usually as a result of impact damage rather than the gravel thrown on the roads. With the ice and snow of Monte Carlo and the broken roads in Germany, this was the first of the really clean road rallies this year. The required lines through the bends required racing not rally driving techniques. And notwithstanding the customary use of control single-supplier Pirelli tyres, the winning speed was for the fourth year running a record for the rally. Only three of the event's nine stage venues were the same as before, and mostly speeds on these stages were slower this year, but the nature of the stage roads in general allowed higher speeds.
Another Sebastien thought he was on his way to glory but glory was to be delayed. Sebastien Ogier was handsomely leading the JWRC category when he had a high speed spin on loose gravel and impacted his Citroen C2 S1600 into a rock. His rally finished with water pouring out of the car at the end of the stage, the engine terminally cooked. Despite the disappointment at Ogier's retirement Citroen went on to take three of the top four placings. Martin Prokop, in another C2, took the chance of a second JWRC win of the season, despite losing time on the first day with power steering failure. The Renault Clio R3 of Alessandro Bettega finished second, the best championship result so far on asphalt for these cars. In third and fourth places were two more C2s, those of Aaron Burkart and Shaun Gallagher. Patrik Sandell started very badly with a lot of brake problems, which many of the other R3 cars also suffered, but eventually pulled up to finish fifth. The two official Suzuki entries were headed by Jaan Molder (who finished sixth) but teammate Michal Kosciuszko lost time with a broken throttle and then a puncture. Kris Meeke took over a Clio R3 at short notice but had brake trouble and a puncture before retiring with alternator belt failure.
The second part of the season, after a lot of problems earlier on, has been a major success for Prokop. In the last four rallies he has won the Junior category twice and the Production Car once. "It would have been really nice if the season had started a little later this year!" Like the overall championships, the Junior series was now between just two people: Sebastien Ogier and Aaron Burkart. Francesco Fanari, the JWRC Rookie champion elect, arrived at the start of the event feeling unwell, crossed the start line and withdrew, becoming what is generally believed to be the first driver in motor sporting history to gain a title without completing even one of the qualifying rounds. Such is the change that the SupeRally rule has brought to rallying. The little known FIA Federation championship was looking like a clean fight between the French FFSA governing body, represented by Ogier, and their Dutch colleagues at KNAF whose cars were driven by Hans Weijs and Kevin Abbring. Of these only Abbring finished the event, albeit delayed by transmission trouble on day 2, while Weijs overturned, so unexpectedly KNAF lead the FFSA in this championship. 3mmm
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