The WRC 2012 Thread

[anonymous-user]

MrKipling43 said:

Oh come on FFS! SPOILERS.

You don't need spoilers.
You know Loeb is going to win

[anonymous-user]

I was expecting an Ogier crash.
Pushing that S2000 very hard. Unlucky.

[anonymous-user]

Saw them on FB. Looks quite bad, going to see on the highlights later.

[anonymous-user]

The highlights need to be longer. I know they're highlights but an hour show would be great.

[anonymous-user]

Mini1275 said:

Sebastien Loeb continues to extend his Monte Carlo Rally lead, having judged the conditions perfectly as the weather changed on Friday morning.

SS12 featured two kilometres of snow and ice, and Loeb (Citroen) was one of several drivers to run on four studded tyres, allowing him to pull over two minutes clear of second-placed Dani Sordo.

The Mini driver used two winter tyres without studs, and though he lost 36 seconds to Loeb, he gained over a minute on his second-place rival Petter Solberg, whose Ford was running entirely on slicks.

That dropped Solberg a minute behind Sordo in the overall standings, but he is still 36s clear of fourth-placed Mikko Hirvonen despite the Finn taking his first stage win in Citroen colours on SS12 as he too chose all-studded tyres.

M-Sport Ford duo Evgeny Novikov and Francois Delecour remain fifth and sixth, but after taking seventh with a strong time on SS11, their team-mate Ott Tanak fell back to eighth behind Pierre Campana on SS12 as the Mini driver also picked the right tyres and set an impressive third-fastest time.

Leading positions after SS12:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h14m13.6s
2. Dani Sordo Mini + 2m09.0s
3. Petter Solberg Ford + 3m09.6s
4. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 3m45.9s
5. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 4m25.7s
6. Francois Delecour M-Sport Ford + 6m19.9s
7. Pierre Campana Mini + 7m24.7s
8. Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford + 8m17.9s
9. P-G Andersson Proton + 12m15.0s
10. Kevin Abbring VW Skoda + 13m59.6s


http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97109

Things are starting to spread out a bit now.

Good to see Hirvonen off the mark.

I enjoy this picture from day 1

[anonymous-user]

EDLT said:

The commentators on Eurosport's coverage are awful.

I'd like someone a bit more 'excited' as well as educated. Bit like the F1 commentators.
F1 coverage is sublime.

[anonymous-user]

Allyc85 said:

Im 99.9999% going to the Monte next year, it looks amazing! PH trip anyone?

I'll be there. Gutted I couldn't make it this year

For anyone who hasn't seen anything here is SudRallye coverage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puXllWOn67E
Just waiting for some from RallyMedia now.

[anonymous-user]

melvster said:

I would like to see Petter Solberg win a rally or 2 this year, has had quite a few tough years in the WRC after his championship win in 2003.

With you on this. For sure he is the most likeable driver in the WRC

[anonymous-user]

The Excession said:

Allyc85 said:

Great to see Stage 1 Technology will be back in the WRC at the next round with their tracking system.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97189

Fantastic stuff.

Stage 1 Tech (previously ISCT) have a system (that as I've alluded to) has been developed to work in ALL environments for World Rallying. Thousands of man hours have gone into the development of that system and I'm really happy to hear that these guys are back in the job.

article said:

The return of Stage 1 Technology also means the teams won't have to rely on stop watches and pit boards to feed mid-stage information to their drivers, with the return of split times.

So can I claim a 'lah lah told you so' from another thread where I said 'They'll all be back to using stopwatches and paper and pencils'. As I said a shocking state of affairs for the WRC.

I wonder if they are still using the satellite kit?

(and of course everyone knows his name is not Simon, it's Robin )

His name is Simon, if you are refering to the chap in the article who runs the timing systems.

[anonymous-user]

Doh, it's been a long week!

[anonymous-user]

Latvala is looking very fast also Motors TV is where you'll still be able to watch WRC highlights.

[anonymous-user]

I'm a big Loeb fan but it would be so nice for someone else to win.
They're all good guys.

[anonymous-user]

Mini1275 said:

Here are the positions after SS5:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen 44m17.7s
2. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 2.9s
3. Mads Ostberg Adapta Ford + 10.3s
4. Sebastien Loeb Citroen + 12.7s
5. Petter Solberg Ford + 14.6s
6. Dani Sordo Mini + 21.8s
7. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 30.5s
8. Patrik Sandell Mini + 1m03.4s
9. Henning Solberg Go Fast Ford + 1m06.1s
10. Eyvind Brynildsen Adapta Ford + 1m25.0s

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97468

I approve of this.

[anonymous-user]

Allyc85 said:

Wonder how high he can get back up!

standings here, JML has just taken the lead

http://www.wrc.com/results/2012/rally-sweden/stage...

Would you be surprised if he won?

[anonymous-user]

epom said:

Have to say, after giving out about the coverage the last time too, I really enjoyed this weeks rally om Motors TV.

Same.
Now if only it was in HD...

[anonymous-user]

Anyone seen Ken Block's new car?
I'm not his biggest fan as a rally driver but his car is lovely


Check out the video down the bottom of the page

Gutted that he isn't doing more WRC events even though I'm not a mega KB43 fan, he is at least very very entertaining.

[anonymous-user]

Motors TV have no WRC coverage for Mexico?
My TV Guide says they're just doing re-runs of Sweden

[anonymous-user]

Looks like nowhere at the moment then.
I'll have to hope bestofrallyelive upload videos daily.

[anonymous-user]

For a sport as big as rallying/wrc its pretty pathetic.
Imagine the uproar if this happened to F1

[anonymous-user]

Jerry Can said:

it is a minority sport. Unfortunately?

You're not wrong. Personally i was astonished BMW went rallying with the Mini brand at all!

Number of Mini buyers who follow or know anything about rallying = zero (or possibly slightly less ;-)