Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport He ended the year how he should've started it. WRC vice-champion Thierry Neuville claimed his fourth win of 2017 by taking victory on the final round of this year's championship Kennard's Hire Rally Australia.
The Hyundai i20 pilot fought back from a sluggish start to lie second overnight on Friday, before inheriting a lead on Saturday morning that he would not relinquish. The result means he finished the season with twice as many wins as anybody else and with the most stage wins across the 13 rallies. Might Neuville rue 2017 as the one that could've been? Behind the Belgian, it was all kicking off. Team mate Andreas Mikkelsen was the early leader on just his third start for Hyundai, but swiped a bank on the exit of a sweeping right hander and got two punctures. With just one spare in the boot of his i20, the Norwegian was forced to pull over. This elevated Jari-Matti Latvala into second with Ott Tanak, Kris Meeke and Craig Breen all too squabbling for a podium position. The Finn pushed Neuville hard in his Toyota but was struggling to match the Belgian's ultimate pace. However a mistake in the Power Stage sent his Yaris into a tree and into instant retirement in front of the live television cameras. A disappointing end to the season. After a lacklustre Friday, Tanak would gratefully accept Latvala's gift of second place, the Estonian bidding farwell to M-Sport in the perfect fashion by ensuring the Fiesta WRC finished on the podium on every round of the season. Hayden Paddon was also a beneficiary of Latvala's blunder. The New Zealander wasn't happy with his speed but can take solace in a second podium of the year on the closest event to home, even if he wasn't truly in the fight up front. The event was one to forget for Citroen. Meeke was tipped for success in the lead up to the event and was running in the leading pack before swiping a bridge on Friday and damaging his C3's suspension. With the proceeding stage cancelled, the Northern Irishman was left fuming at the decision to retire the car believing he could've nursed it back to service. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. Meeke recovered to take seventh. Craig Breen was also going well, running in the top three on Friday, but in a bid to get back onto the rostrum he crashed heavily on the final leg. Both he and Scott Martin emerged unscathed but with dented pride. Stephane Lefebvre didn't fare too much better, retiring on the same stage as Breen with a wheel hanging from his Citroen. All this left Sebastien Ogier to take fourth on what may be his final ever outing in the World Rally Championship. After sealing his fifth consecutive world title last time out in Wales, all the talk surrounding the Frenchman regarded his future: would he sign for M-Sport for a second year or call it a day and become a full time dad? Time will tell on that one, but Ogier had a difficult time in Australia with an uncharacteristic spin and a gear selection issue hampering his progress. After his heroics on home soil, Welshman Elfyn Evans was expected to struggle down under and that would prove to be the case. The DMACK rubber he was using is much more suited to damper, colder conditions so Evans was at an inherent disadvantage compared with his rivals who were all running Michelin runner. Esapekka Lappi brought his first season in the WRC's top flight to an end with a top six finish for Toyota Gazoo Racing. The Finn was another to struggle though, with mechanical issues slowing him on Friday. The remainder of the top 10 was rounded out by non-WRC crews, with sole WRC2 entrant Kalle Rovanpera taking 12th and Mikkelsen finishing 13th. After 13 grueling and fiercely competitive rallies, the championship table looks like this: 1) Sebastien Ogier (Ford) 232 pts 2) Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) 208 pts 3) Ott Tanak (Ford) 191 pts 4) Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) 136 pts 5) Elfyn Evans (Ford) 128 pts 6) Dani Sordo (Hyundai) 95 pts 7) Kris Meeke (Citroen) 77 pts 8) Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) 74 pts 9) Juho Hanninen (Toyota) 71 pts 10) Craig Breen (Citroen) 64 pts 11) Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) 62 pts 12) Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda / Citroen / Hyundai) 54 pts 13) Stephane Lefebvre (Citroen) 30 pts 14) Teemu Suninen (Ford) 29 pts 15) Mads Ostberg (Ford) 29 pts The 2017 World Rally Championship promised to be epic with new, exciting technical regulations and the withdrawal of Volkswagen Motorsport leveling up the playing field. To say it has delivered is an understatement. We were treated to the closest title fight in years, witnessed seven different winners for four different marques which also included three debut victors. How can 2018 possibly topple that? I'm looking forward to finding out how.
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Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport The race is over. Yet it's just about to begin. The final round of the World Rally Championship takes the series down under for Rally Australia.
With Sebastien Ogier and M-Sport securing the drivers' and manufacturer's titles in Wales last month, all the championships have been sewn up heading into the final event of the year. This means the scores are reset to zero: with nothing left to fight for, Australia promises to be a hell-for-leather mad dash race for glory. This immediately puts new five-time champion Sebastien Ogier on the back foot. The Frenchman will be cleaning the road for his rivals on Friday - a big problem in Australia especially - which could well take him out the running for outright glory. Ruling him out completely however would be naive. You don't win 40 world rallies and five world titles by accident. Ott Tanak will start his final rally for M-Sport, the team he has spent the entirety of his WRC career with. The Estonian will therefore be looking to go out on a high, and also has the added incentive of wrestling second place back off Thierry Neuville in the championship. Elfyn Evans is the man of the moment after a breakthrough WRC win in his own backyard on round 12. However the DMACK rubber that helped him dominate Wales Rally GB is likely to hold the Welshman back down under. The British tyre firm played its tyre joker ahead of Rally Spain with an eye on Rally GB, as the new compound is designed for cooler, slippery conditions. The chances of Australia being cold and wet are improbable. Hyundai have struggled to recapture the scintillating form themselves and lead driver Neuville were in before the summer break. With both championships now out of reach, the Korean manufacturer will be desperate to end the season in the right manner. Neuville has a good record in Australia having claimed podiums in the past, but its new recruit Andreas Mikkelsen that is perhaps the favourite for victory when the action starts next weekend. The Norwegian dominated the event 12 months ago on his final event in a VW Polo, and this year in an i20 Coupe has the benefit of a lower starting position. He lead on his first full day of gravel in the car on Rally Spain, so the potential is there. Hayden Paddon meanwhile made a subdued return to WRC action last month after being benched for the Spanish round of the championship. Paddon has endured a difficult season, but there is no better place for him to put that behind him than on his closest event to home. A podium will be his target. Toyota have struggled for form after their double podium on Rally Finland. Jari-Matti Latvala has been the man doing most of the impressing in white and red this year, but mechanical gremlins have stagnated his season. He will be looking for a strong result in Australia, with Esapekka Lappi looking to get back into gear too after a crash in Spain and an anonymous performance in Wales. Juho Hanninen won't make the trip to the south of the globe. Citroen Racing will however, and the team will round out the year with the driver line-up that started it after a turbulent season. Kris Meeke is the man most likely to deliver. The 37 year old has an enviable record in Coffs Harbour as well as a lower starting position, so could fly next week. Stephane Lefebvre returns to the hot seat after sitting out GB while Craig Breen will start his first ever Rally Australia. He can't afford to relax though, with team principal Yves Matton looking for big performances from his "junior" drivers. It's time for the talking to stop and the action to unfold. Predicting a winner this season has been incredibly tough and it's even more tricky ahead of the 13th and final rally. Place your bets everyone, it promises to be a good one. Photo Credit: Nick Bradshaw / Floor It Photography With the superb performance of home heroes Elfyn Evans and Daniel Barritt on last weekend's Wales Rally GB, you could be forgiven for not looking beyond the headlines. The event is one of the trickiest rallies in the world, with such changeable grip and unpredictable weather making it a real test of a driver's endurance and skill behind the wheel. Hard enough then for a seasoned-pro, but even harder for somebody making their first competitive outing of the year. I hear you call Elfyn Evans and Tom Cave forward (who took third in WRC2) for performances of the rally. I'll raise you: John MacCrone. The Scotsman kept himself out of trouble, steering his Ford Fiesta R5 to 21st overall and second privateer home, without having a driven a special stage in anger in 2017 before Tir Prince on Thursday 26th October. "A couple of things fell through when trying to get a championship run together at the start of the year," MacCrone explains, "so we decided that GB was attainable as there was still time left to secure the required budget. It's been something that we have worked towards all year. "Our preparation mainly consisted of watching onboards from previous years. Prior to this year I'd only done GB once back in 2011 and none of the stages were run in the same format back then so this was the best way for me to familiarise myself. We had a test on the Sunday before recce where I did around 50 miles, but that was it." After spending the best part of a year on the sidelines, MacCrone's expectations were realistic ahead of the British round of the World Championship. "My aim before the event was just to make sure I got to the end," he admits. "After waiting all year for the rally the last thing I wanted was to be sitting in a ditch on the Friday afternoon! "Generally I'm fairly happy with how it all went. I still feel like I'm learning in this car as I've not done too many stage miles in it despite winning events, especially when you look at how much experience my competition had with the R5's." The advantage of diving into the deep end with such a tough rally however is it's easier to identify what areas you need to work on. "I hadn't ever made pace notes with a four wheel drive car before on gravel and it's something I definitely need to improve on. Through rustiness I made too many mistakes, sliding wide here and there, which all adds up over the course of a stage and at this level you can't get away with those mistakes if you want to be at the front. "We had a bad run on Saturday night in the fog too, but so did plenty of others! These are all things that can be ironed out with more time in the car. "We really enjoyed the stages, especially the challenge of the longer ones and the buzz of it being a WRC event. Saturday was a big day and I think between leaving parc ferme in the morning and returning to service at night we were out there for 17 hours! I enjoyed every second of it." Photo Credit: Bex Hinton / MCR Motorsport Media MacCrone's M-Sport built Fiesta was being looked after by preparation specialists Dom Buckley RSC on the event. Their experience helped him as despite having some experience with the Fiesta R5, GB was MacCrone's first time in the car with the Evo 2 upgrade package equipped.
"Dom Buckley RSC prepared the car to highest standard and it certainly drove that way," he said. "There was a noticeable difference in the engine upgrade and it just felt magic. It took my brain a fair few miles to catch up with how fast everything was happening!" MacCrone's career has followed a difficult trajectory. Bursting onto the scene of the British Rally Championship at the turn of the decade, the 28 year old was forced to progress sideways rather than forwards with the demise of the series and his own budget constrains. A proud Tobermory boy, the Mull Rally is an event close to his heart. Twice a winner in 2013 and 2016, his performance last year was particularly special. 2015 had ended tragically with the death of his co-driver Andrew Mort, so to fight back the emotions and win on Mull the following year showed great strength of character and was the perfect tribute to Mort. You're unlikely to meet a more humble person around the service park than John MacCrone. It's an infectious trait that rubs off on those around him and you can't help but wish him well. He commented on his Facebook page after the event: "Still smiling after an outing in such an awesome machine at the weekend! After a long day off I truly realise how lucky and privileged I am to get to enjoy such a buzz. This drug is the best sh*t going! As with every rally I do, a tip of the cap to the big fella looking over upstairs!" But what does the future hold? Will his successful run on Wales Rally GB lead to further opportunities? "I really hope it does," MacCrone replied, "because the bug has bitten hard again! "It never goes away but after having not managed to make anything happen this year all I've concentrated on is keeping my head down and waiting patiently for Wales. I'll be trying hard to get a campaign of some description sorted and would love to be given the chance to increase my speed in the R5!" We would love that too, John. |
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January 2018
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