Photo Credit: Volkswagen Motorsport "Sebastien", "Ogier" and "crash" are not three words usually associated with each other, but they were on Sunday 25th October as the World Champion crashed his Polo R WRC en route to his 8th victory of the season and 3rd in succession on the final stage, the Power Stage of Rally RACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada. It was a highly dramatic Power Stage, with close battles up and down the top 10, chiefly the battle for 2nd between Volkswagen team mates Mikkelsen and Latvala. The Norwegian managed to out pace his team mate through the final stage to claim what he thought was 2nd place. Then seconds later, news filtered through that Ogier had carried too much speed into a left hander and smashed into the arm-co barrier, ripping a wheel of his car. In similar circumstances to Ogier's Swedish win where he found out Mikkelsen had binned it, the reverse was true in Spain as it sunk in to Mikkelsen that he was now a WRC winner after 64 rallies. It was a beautiful moment as co-driver Ola Floene was in tears, showing how much it means to the pair and how close the two Norwegians are to each other. And I don't think anybody is more deserving of this turn of luck than Andreas, who has come close to winning a WRC rally on several occasions. He has never been a lover of tarmac, but he may now be changing his mind! As for Ogier, he was airlifted to hospital for checks but was declared fine, but will no doubt have wounded pride and be wondering how he managed to throw away a 50 second lead. Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport TSpain's home hero Dani Sordo came home to take yet another podium on his home event, to the delight of the adoring Spanish fans. However, the Hyundai squad are now 8pts behind Citroen as Ostberg and Meeke came home 4th and 5th respectively.
Thierry Neuville was on for a top 6 result but a differential issue led to the Belgian's i20 falling off the road under braking. He managed to complete the rally but lost shed loads of time through the live on TV Power Stage. M-Sport too suffered a miserable event, after an impressive performance from Ott Tanak on the gravel on Friday. However, both he and Elfyn Evans made errors on Saturday to all but end the Cumbrian squad's chances of taking 2nd in the championship. The main talking point though (and rightly so) is Mikkelsen's first ever victory. Can he carry this momentum into Wales Rally GB? I expect the battle between all 3 VW's in Wales to be epic! Should be a great ending to the season.
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Round 12 of the 2015 World Rally Championship sees the teams head to mainland Spain, Catalunya to be precise, for the RACC Rally de Espana. With Friday's action contested on gravel and the proceeding two days driven on tarmac, the Spanish round of the WRC is the only truly mixed surface event of the year. It comes as no surprise then that the previous winners since it became a mixed surface rally are Sebastien Loeb and Ogier, the two most complete drivers of their generation. Rally de Espana is a great showcase of what the WRC's mechanics are capable of, as they have just 75 minutes to convert the cars from rugged gravel machines to low-slung, corner-hugging beasts on the Friday night of the rally. It sounds easier than it is, as besides the obvious aesthetic changes (wheels and tyres) the brakes, suspension and other components must be changed. Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport The gravel tests on the opening day are notorious for hanging dust, so despite sweeping the loose gravel away for those behind, championship leader Sebastien Ogier may not be at too much of a disadvantage. And as for the tarmac tests, they're as close as the WRC gets to a racing circuit, with fast, flowing and wide roads for the world's best drivers to attack. These are stages a certain home hero Dani Sordo (pictured above) relishes, and with a jubilant home crowd pushing him on he is one of the hot favourites for a strong result in Spain. However, if he wants to win his second WRC event and first on home soil, he has to knock Volkswagen off their perch, which only Kris Meeke has managed all season and that came when the German marque were blighted with mechanical failures. The Ogier vs Latvala battle is most likely to be one of three battles to watch this weekend. Ogier is the only driver of the current crop to have won the event, but Latvala is both rapid on gravel and tarmac, and is determined to win the final three rallies of the year, and is so far on course after winning the Tour de Corse earlier this month. The second battle to keep an eye on is the race for second in the Manufacturers Championship between Citroen Racing and Hyundai Motorsport. The French marque head Hyundai by just a single point travelling to Spain, and could well lose that spot with home hero Sordo and fine tarmac driver Thierry Neuville heading the Hyundai charge. However, Neuville is low on confidence and Meeke's is rising, so don't expect this to be a one horse race. Although not scoring manufacturer points, keep an eye on the ever improving Hayden Paddon too, who has recently received the boost of news that he will take Thierry's position in the main team for Wales Rally GB in November. Paddon made his WRC debut in Spain in 2013, and won his first stage a year later, so he has good form and for once for him, solid experience of a WRC event. Photo Credit: Skoda Motorsprot The third and final battle that is definitely worth casting an eye over during the 2015 Rally de Espana is the one at the head of the WRC2 field.
Defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah and 2014 European Champion Esapekka Lappi are set to slug it out in what is effectively a title decider in Spain. The Qatari driver is striving to become the first man to win the WRC2/SWRC series more than once, but the young Finn Lappi is hotly tipped as one of rallying's brightest prospects and has a great turn of speed, but will need to eradicate mistakes like the one in Germany. It remains to be seen which way the pendulum will swing in this titanic battle! The rally gets underway with a spectator stage in Salou on Thursday night. On Friday, there is the added challenge of no mid-day service break, so any mistakes on the gravel could prove costly. And with seven new stages in this year's route, the outcome of the rally is further thrown into the open air. What I do know though is this is definitely not one to miss, and Sebastien Ogier will probably win... Jari-Matti Latvala took his second consecutive win in France last weekend on the 2015 Tour de Corse as the WRC returned to the island for the first time in 7 years, with team mate Sebastien Ogier languishing in 15th place after a deflated tyre and a gear selection issue. M-Sport's Elfyn Evans took an incredible and much needed 2nd place ahead of Norway's Andreas Mikkelsen, who claims he doesn't like driving on tarmac compared with gravel and snow, although this season he has finished on the podium on both sealed surface events. Photo Credit: Volkswagen Motorsport The rally route comprised of 9 special stages, but only 7 were run due to substantial flood and water damage on the wayto SS2 and 4 Casamozza - Ponte Leccia, and reported landslides in the stage itself forced the event organisers to cancel the test. Corsica was under intense rainfall of up to 200mm for 24 hours as a weather phenomenon similar to a tropical storm known as a medicane hit the island. This made conditions exceptionally tricky, being described at one point like "driving on [cling] film." However, that brief introduction doesn't really paint the weekend out as a whole, and I'd like to take you through a few of the weekend's talking points I feel are definitely worth mentioning. Latvala On TargetBefore round 11 of the 2015 World Rally Championship got underway, Jari-Matti Latvala - who has recently lost the chance of winning the title - declared he wanted to win the final three rallies of the season in Corsica, Spain and Wales. And thanks to his victory on the Mediterranean island, his 15th career win, he is a third of the way there! Many expected the event to be a battle between Volkswagen team mates Latvala and newly crowned triple champion Sebastien Ogier, and sure enough after the first special stage it was the World Champion who was leading the way. The event was meant to be something of a homecoming for the Frenchman, returning to race in his home country after recently winning the title. However, much like the England Rugby Team (being Scottish I couldn't resist!) there was no home advantage for Ogier, who first picked up a puncture and then retired with a gearbox related problem on the road section back to the service park in Corte. That left Latvala the firm favourite, and in the end he won by 43 seconds, to become the second Finn to win in Corsica after Markku Alen did so in 1983 and 84. Andreas Mikkelsen came home in his customary position of third. However, there was absolutely no doubt as to who the man of the rally was... Photo Credit: M-Sport Elfyn Evans - Star Of The ShowIt's hard to think of the most appropriate word to sum up Elfyn Evans' performance on the 2015 Tour de Corse, I think 'sublime' is closest to the mark. Certainly nothing short of that. Nobody could have expected him to finish 2nd, especially after his frankly diabolical performance in Australia. The result is not only then massive for his confidence, but came at the perfect time. It was on the second stage of the weekend - SS3 - where the young Welshman really made his mark, blitzing his opposition by 30 seconds to storm into the overnight lead. The conditions were as challenging as the drivers are likely to face all year, which made the drive even more impressive. Perhaps the strongest part of Elfyn's weekend is that he managed to stay in touch with Latvala on day 2, and when the conditions dried out on day 3, hold off the other VW (which is let's be honest the superior car in the championship by a good distance) of Andreas Mikkelsen for the second step on the podium. It was a stand out performance that made everybody stand up and take notice, and drew praise from rally winner Latvala. And on a personal level, I always love to see British drivers come through, especially ones I have seen rally in the UK like Evans. And with Kris Meeke on the scene this year and potentially next year too, we may now have 2 good British drivers who can fight for top honours like the glory days of Colin McRae and Richard Burns! Although I may be getting ahead of myself on that one... Photo Credit: Citroen Racing | Hyundai Motorsport Citroen vs HyundaiCorsica vs AlsaceThe final talking point I want to touch on is really a debate. Which rally should be the French round of the championship: the historic Tour de Corse or the Alsace event. Team principals, in particular VW's Jost Capito, were critical of the organisation of this year's Corsican rally, saying it was ridiculous that they should have to have team members staying in a number of various hotels. Malcolm Wilson slated the service park, claiming they'd gone from the best in Alsace to something nowhere near as good in Corsica. Drivers were also not fond of the itinerary, which featured a lot of road section and only 9 special stages. They also expressed fears over lack of spectators. Not being involved in the rally itself but just observing from the comfort of my student accommodation on WRC+, I can't really weigh in with much insight here, but do understand where the drivers at least are coming from with the lack of stages. I don't see why they couldn't run a stage in between some of the stages to cut down on the normal road miles. Spectator wise, I suppose it's natural that there were less because the rally is based on an island which is less accessible than mainland France, but conversely I suspect TV audiences may be higher with Corisca being such a beautiful and historic round of the championship. I was a fan of the Alsace event don't get me wrong, but it was in a way quite similar to Germany. Corsica is unique, and in my opinion having such historic events is crucial. But organisers if by the off chance you are reading, maybe work on the itinerary? Thanks for reading. Let's see if Latvala can continue his run of form into the mixed surface Spanish event... One of the most intriguing battles of the second half of this season has been the race for 2nd place in the manufacturers standings between Citroen Racing and Hyundai Motorsport.
It was Hyundai who held onto the position heading to the serene French island, and who in my opinion at least looked to be fielding the strongest line up. In their main squad was 2011 and 2012 winners of the Corsican event Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo, whilst Citroen had Kris Meeke who first and foremost was aiming on finishing and Mads Ostberg who is by no means a tarmac ace, and was recovering from broken ribs sustained in a recce crash in Australia last month. However, after just 1.2km of competitive action, the #7 Hyundai i20 WRC had clouted the right rear on the side of a bridge, damaged its suspension and had to retire from proceedings. Thierry Neuville had made a blunder. And it's not the first time of late he has disappointed. After a sensational start to the season (think back to that epic battle for victory in Sweden in which he was involved) results have curtailed at near exactly the same time Hayden Paddon grabbed his Sardinian podium and improved. Coincidence? Not to me. Thierry drastically needs to improve, as his mistake in part cost Hyundai their 2nd place in the championship. It was in fact the drivers from the second Hyundai team that had the strongest rally. Kevin Abbring was running as high as 2nd after day 1, impressing in the filthy conditions on only his 4th event in a WRC car. He fell to 5th after day 2, but sadly didn't make the finish after sliding off the road on a left hand bend, due to a pace note that "made no sense." That left Hayden Paddon (the weakest of all the Hyundai drivers on tarmac) to fly the flag for the Korean marquee. And he didn't disappoint. A solid 5th place, taking points off Citroen after demoting Mads Ostberg to 6th and in my opinion he deserves a seat in the main squad for 2016. Question is, who should he be lining up alongside? Neuville has the youth, but right now is a mere shadow of his old self. Sordo had a strong Corsica, and would I believe have been on the podium were it not for a puncture. As for Citroen, they now lie 1 point ahead of Hyundai after steady drivers from both Meeke and Ostberg took them to 4th and 6th respectively. I predict the French team will come out on top in this battle for second, but only just! I imagine Hyundai will regain the initiative after Sordo's home event in Spain, but Citroen will snatch it back on Rally GB, Meeke's home event. However, in rallying nothing is ever that certain. |
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