The 2014 WRC Thread

Author
Discussion

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Friday 21st March 2014
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Just finished watching the highlights of Mexico. Cracking event and some unlucky accidents.
Meekes not having the best of luck right now. Tho in his defence they wernt stupid pushing too hard offs he had. Just unlucky to find that one rock on/off the racing line!

Elfyn doing a bang up job! Reliability and gaining the experience is a smart move in the first half of the season. No point throwing a factory drive in the first year!

Great for Hyundai to get the podium, even with the aid of a little Mexican beer! biggrin . Also loved Thierry's 'delicacy' of removing the front bumper to see where the leak was coming from! thumbupbiggrin

Looking forward to the rest of this season now!

Allyc85

Original Poster:

7,225 posts

185 months

Friday 21st March 2014
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Totally agreed with the above! Fingers crossed Lataval can keep up this consistency he seems to have found and can give Ogier a good fight!

I see Toyota (Or rather Motorsport Italia) have been out testing with the prototype Yaris WRC!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embed...

It sounds great, butI cant he;p but think that maybe when the new regs come in. in 2017 they need to increase the minimum dimensions as the Yaris looks rediculously small!

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Friday 21st March 2014
quotequote all
Apparently the Yaris is just a engineering exercise. and are awaiting the 2017 regs.

statement by toyota apparently on the IRally website -

iRally said:
iRally has been assured that the car tested in Italy this week is not intended for competition, nor homologation. Toyota Motorsport says it will not compete in the WRC next year. But significantly, the car is being referred to internally as the TMG Yaris WRC.
http://www.irallylive.com/ir_news.htm?00006286&10


I still say they should do an R5/S2000 class GT86/BRZ thumbup

Emeye

9,773 posts

222 months

Friday 21st March 2014
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Are not Motorsport Italia the guys who made a real hash of the WRC MINI?

Alex Langheck

835 posts

128 months

Friday 21st March 2014
quotequote all
Emeye said:
Are not Motorsport Italia the guys who made a real hash of the WRC MINI?
Yes, I was slightly concerned when I read that. Having Sarrazin doing some of the testing is a bonus - one of the best 'all rounders' in Motorsport.

It will be interesting to see whether they do return in 2017, and what the new regs are; seeing as Toyota are keen on hybrid technology.

Personally, I don't want anything to take their attention from their WEC with the new TS040; that should be their priority.

Allyc85

Original Poster:

7,225 posts

185 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
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Motorsport Italia does seem like an odd choice, given the rumoured feedback of their drivers of the last couple years. Positive was not one of the words being used!

Nice weather for Neuville's Portugal test!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqiDKOSAWQo

Allyc85

Original Poster:

7,225 posts

185 months

Sunday 30th March 2014
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The Fafe rally sprint (won by Ogier would you believe?!) looked good fun as always, with a crazy amount of fans watching!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soF4xng7oFE

Meeke certainly won the best jump award!

Ogier onboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H9W_url-Qg

Allyc85

Original Poster:

7,225 posts

185 months

Wednesday 2nd April 2014
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And on to Portugal if anyone is listening hehe

JML fastest in shakedown..

Shakedown times..

1. Jari-Matti Latvala, Volkswagen Polo R WRC, 3:05.2
2. Henning Solberg, Ford Fiesta RS WRC, 3:06.0
3. Sébastien Ogier, Volkswagen Polo R WRC, 3:07.1
4. Dani Sordo, Hyundai i20 WRC, 3:07.8
5. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford Fiesta RS WRC, 3:08.3
6. Juho Hänninen, Hyundai i20 WRC, 3:08.4
7. Thierry Neuville, Hyundai i20 WRC, 3:08.5
8. Robert Kubica, Ford Fiesta RS WRC, 3:10.2
9. Mads Østberg, Citroën DS3 WRC, 3:10.3
10. Andreas Mikkelsen, Volkswagen Polo R WRC, 3:10.5
11. Ott Tänak, Ford Fiesta RS WRC, 3:10.8
12. Kris Meeke, Citroën DS3 WRC, 3:10.8
13. Khalid Al Qassimi, Citroën DS3 WRC, 3:13.3
14. Elfyn Evans, Ford Fiesta RS WRC, 3:16.3
15. Martin Prokop, Ford Fiesta RS WRC, 3:18.1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzmIB9lUF8c


Emeye

9,773 posts

222 months

Thursday 3rd April 2014
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About time!

zeb

3,193 posts

217 months

Thursday 3rd April 2014
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Blimey, Hennings had his weetabix aint he?hehe

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Thursday 3rd April 2014
quotequote all
So who's having a crack at the top 3?

I think its an Ogier win, then I cant decide between Mikko and JML for 2nd & 3rd!

If the weather gets wet again it could cause the chaos of last year (or was it year before?) blowing the top 3 wide open!

I still want to chuck a couple of quid on Thierry Neuville to finish strong.

You know what! I'm saying -

1 - Ogier
2 - Mikko
3 - Neuville.


Edit - ohh and btw anyone know of a link to the BTSport feed of tonights live stage wink

Allyc85

Original Poster:

7,225 posts

185 months

Thursday 3rd April 2014
quotequote all
I have gone for Ogier, Ostberg, Meeke on another forum! I think JML must be due a DNF whistle

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Thursday 3rd April 2014
quotequote all
Allyc85 said:
I think JML must be due a DNF whistle
thats my thinking too.

You watch him go and blitz it now! biggrin

moribund

4,030 posts

213 months

Thursday 3rd April 2014
quotequote all
Allyc85 said:
I have gone for Ogier, Ostberg, Meeke on another forum! I think JML must be due a DNF whistle
That'd be my top 3 too

Skylinecrazy

13,986 posts

193 months

Friday 4th April 2014
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Kubica rolleyes

Very close opening morning indeed..

GravelBen

15,654 posts

229 months

Friday 4th April 2014
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Skylinecrazy said:
Kubica rolleyes
hehe

He is certainly consistent!

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Friday 4th April 2014
quotequote all
Evans ss4, Meeke ss7, JML (we did suspect it wink ) & Kibica ss4 all rolled out today


Hirvonen leads, Tänak is second +3.7, Ogier +6.5, Østberg +25.6, Sordo +25.7

irally said:
Hirvonen 16:27.6: "I wanted to try to attack, and it worked! Fantastic. I'd be happy for the rally to end now"

Tanak 16:29.3 "Nice day, perfect for us. The first loop was difficult for us, we missed the notes quite often, but now the second loop was much better. It has been nice day. We try to keep our place and in the finish we see what we can do."

Ogier 16:36.5: "Being first on the road, not so bad today: I did what I could"

Østberg 16:33.5: "Going quite well, very tricky conditions. I think we did wrong tyre choice [5 hards] this afternoon - try again tomorrow"

Neuville 16:32.3: "Quite okay, but I start to lose a bit the tyres at the end. I took it a bit more carefully. I enjoy the run. We can do some small improvements. It has been a great day, I was on the wrong setting this morning which is a shame as we could have been in a good position. Tomorrow is a difficult day and a lot of things can happen."
Well done to tarmac specialist Dani Sordo on taking Hyundai's first gravel stage win too, and being quicker than teamate Neuville


The WRC.com site is all over the place on times!
I actually hate visiting the site now, it looks st and could be run better by lobotomised monkeys!!

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Friday 4th April 2014
quotequote all
Kubica caught a tree and blocked the stage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9vr9BYCJmo

Allyc85

Original Poster:

7,225 posts

185 months

Friday 4th April 2014
quotequote all
Despite the changes The WRC site is still ste and a complete mess, while the splits take ages to get through and dont auto refresh!

Gutted to see Meeke has crashed again, sounds like some kind of error on the recce making the pace note from what Paul Nagle has said.

Not surprised about JML, he has been on quite a good run recently! I see the car has been passed ok to be repaired and the team has 3 hours to fix it!

Kubica, well, meh...

Looking forward to the daily highlights on motors TV at 10.35!

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months