***The offical Monte Carlo Rally Thread 2015***

[GravelBen]

Ogier did make mistakes this weekend, I saw at least one clip of him running wide and getting away with it - though to be fair I didn't see him hit anything. He made a few mistakes last year too!

IIRC Loeb said he had to push hard on that stage to stay in touch because the earlier cars had dragged a lot of mud and gravel onto the road before he got there, he thought he would lose too much time if he took it carefully.

I remember Loeb making mistakes in the past as well, like hitting a tree in Australia.

Edited by GravelBen on Monday 26th January 00:35

[tyrrell]

Ogier played it very well on Friday just let all the hot heads roar off into the distance, then one by one they all fell off.

[Slippydiff]

GravelBen said:

Ogier did make mistakes this weekend, I saw at least one clip of him running wide and getting away with it - though to be fair I didn't see him hit anything. He made a few mistakes last year too!

I remember Loeb making mistakes in the past as well, like hitting a tree in Australia.

Indeed Ogier no doubt did make some mistakes, that much televised running wide on an open right hand corner with nothing to hit, being one of them ...... But my point is that Ogier clearly didn't make any mistakes that damaged his car sufficiently to put him out of the event. Loeb did, and with everything else removed from the equation, that error ensured he couldn't win the event, as did his mistake on Rally France two years ago.

So Ogier beat Loeb because he stayed on the road and because of the stage times he was setting, those times meant Loeb had to drive sufficiently quickly that he finally made a mistake.

Would Ogier have won the event if Loeb had kept it on the blacktop ? I suspect he would, but that's one of life's imponderables ........

Loeb's mistake to event win ratio must be minute, of course he's made mistakes, but my point was that they were few and far between, yet on the last two, much hyped events when he's come up against what appears to be his nemesis, he's crashed out on both occasions. read into that what you will.

GravelBen said:

IIRC Loeb said he had to push hard on that stage to stay in touch because the earlier cars had dragged a lot of mud and gravel onto the road before he got there, he thought he would lose too much time if he took it carefully.

Rough translation: "I was under pressure from Ogier, and I knew I was under pressure from him. I went for it. I crashed"

Edited by Slippydiff on Monday 26th January 10:48

[Alex Langheck]

Loeb had to push as the conditions were so different from when Ogier had gone through; snow, mud & gravel had been pulled into the road, so he knew has was having to take calculated risks.

Loeb has nothing to prove; 9 World Titles, 78 WRC wins, a Pikes Peak win, WTCC, FiA GT event wins, plus a 2nd overall at Le Mans... He's probably the best 'all round driver" of the last 10-15 years. If Ogier can do half of that, he'll have had a great career - and I hope he'll have a crack at some other disciplines.

[zeb]

I was quite pleased to see AT LAST Latvala being sensible and taking the points for second place. Heres hoping he can take the fight to ogier this year.

[BlackpoolRock]

I don't think Loeb was too upset, when they were repairing the car by the side of the road they didn't appear to be in a rush at all. I think Loeb could quite easily have been quickest on the power stage too but was either told or knew that Meeke would need those extra 3 points. As others have said he has nothing to prove now, he said himself he was there just for fun. I hope we see him do a 1 off again.......

[SAGTAFF]

RyanTank said:

with regards to coverage - I managed to find a btsport stream for the powerstage and it looked pretty good. not a fan of the commentators, but that could be them dumbing it down for new viewers. There was one comment of "don't worry, that's just tyre smoke which happens when a driver pulls the handbrake to cause the back end to slide" or pretty close to that quote.

I agree with this - I signed up to BT sport in order to get the live coverage and cannot complain too much. Both live stages on the sunday were pretty good I thought. Only two comments

1) why do they stay so long showing a driver sat at the start line when there are two or three cars in the stage?!?
2) Julian Porter is annoying as a commentator (it was he who said the statement above) and John Desborough just talks in riddles half the time. Julian Porter is much better as an interviewer at the end of the stage.

[RyanTank]

Allyc85 said:

I worry about Bob and his co-driver, its amazing he has avoided further injury with the amount of shunts he has had. I also find it weird that the FIA denied Craig Breen a start at rally Germany because of a back injury, but it is ok for Kubica to effectively drive a 200kph rally car one handed.

I said the same, not sure in this thread or another, but I often wonder if a few of his offs are due to not having full use of the right hand. Juggling a wheel one handed while out of control cant be easy!
I completely agree with you about the Breen part. But they justified his exclusion on the grounds of its a back injury and could lead to life changing circumstances should anything happen. Kubica's luck will run out again and someone will get hurt. However its testament to Malcolm and M-Sport on how strong they are building the cars, suspension parts excluded, that the off's he's had so far haven't caused further injury.

Allyc85 said:

I see fellow circuit convert Jonathan Hirschi is also finding rallying a challenge, here going off where Tanak did on Saturday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8THr0omOMY

When I saw Tanak go off I thought it was a soft accident, car hit gravel and just didn't grip. A bit like Breens in the snow at the Janner rally.

Still a good showing from the M-Sport boys despite Tanak's off, mid table result on a difficult rally and a handful of good stage times.

Meeke is getting better and better as I'd expected, hope he's got the crashes faze out of his system, but being a McRae protege there's bound to be a slip up or two in the system

SAGTAFF said:

1) why do they stay so long showing a driver sat at the start line when there are two or three cars in the stage?!?

I guess they don't have enough cameras in stage to cover more mileage shots, so they fill with the driver on the line as the cars in stage have either not got to, or passed the camera points.

I know many people dislike the WRC Live radio presenters of Becs Williams & Colin Clarke, but they live and breath the WRC and its media aspect so are by default just better presenters. George Donaldson was great at stage end interviews too. But he's moved away form the media side of rallying.

[zeb]

I said the same about kubica last year. At first it was tounge in cheek but now its just a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt by him....or worse...

[RyanTank]

a better angle of the Kubica off on day 2 http://youtu.be/B5bHoiq3Ztk?list=PLVyRAt2cxbxsXY3F...

He was out of control coming into the corner, on a dry road too. obviously we cant see the road before he comes into view, but it looks like he just over cooked it maybe?

[Slippydiff]

Alex Langheck said:

Loeb had to push as the conditions were so different from when Ogier had gone through; snow, mud & gravel had been pulled into the road, so he knew has was having to take calculated risks.

Loeb has nothing to prove; 9 World Titles, 78 WRC wins, a Pikes Peak win, WTCC, FiA GT event wins, plus a 2nd overall at Le Mans... He's probably the best 'all round driver" of the last 10-15 years. If Ogier can do half of that, he'll have had a great career - and I hope he'll have a crack at some other disciplines.

I've never suggested anywhere that Loeb has ANYTHING to prove, his stats tell the whole story. I'm merely saying that last weekend I considered Ogier to be as quick as him, or possibly quicker AND that Ogier kept it on the black top when Loeb didn't. That might have been a mistake or miscalculation on Loeb's part, OR he may have been feeling the pressure. I suspect it was the latter. None of this detracts from what he accomplished in his WRC career though.

I'm afraid I don't buy into the "Look what time Loeb set on the first stage of the Monte" hype, because a look at Ogiers time on the second stage tells an equally compelling story .......but that doesn't make for such a good headline, does it ........

[ArnageWRC]

Ogier is a full time WRC driver - he should be quicker than a driver who has spent 2 years circuit racing; even if it is Loeb. Even he is bound to suffer from 'rally rustiness'; no WRC event for 15 months, is bound to have some effect.

I just hope the VW 1,2,3 isn't a clue to the rest of the year; not what we all need. What we do need to see are more R-GT cars, and maybe other marques. I love a Porsche, but would've to see other GT3 cars.

[Allyc85]

Funnily enough I read about a new Aston Vantage project on the go earlier.

http://www.mat.fi/gallery/85

[Alex Langheck]

Yeah, I saw that on Twitter. The more the merrier - I expect Prodrive to dip their toe in the water with the R-GT regs, but so far nothing.

How long before we see a few marques; and the inevitable BoP queries.....That could be fun......

[Slippydiff]

Allyc85 said:

Funnily enough I read about a new Aston Vantage project on the go earlier.

http://www.mat.fi/gallery/85

Stunning cars those guys build. Been lusting over their Group 4 308 GTB builds for a couple of years now.

[tyrrell]

RyanTank said:

a better angle of the Kubica off on day 2 http://youtu.be/B5bHoiq3Ztk?list=PLVyRAt2cxbxsXY3F...

He was out of control coming into the corner, on a dry road too. obviously we cant see the road before he comes into view, but it looks like he just over cooked it maybe?

I am beginning to worry about RK, those spectators on the outside of that bend were so nearly wiped out.
He is great to watch but he can't seem to stop binning it, as others have said it just a matter of time before he hurts himself again or others.

[sanf]

Kubica certainly has the 'flair' of McRae about him - especially on Tarmac, his gravel pace isn't quite there yet. McRae spent many events chucking it off, and that's what made him so good and exciting. Kubica is in the same vain. Once he comes good, he will be awesome - his original accident was a freak of running again the grain on the barrier - which has subsequently had far worse consequences. So while Kubica is flying off the road, this weekend was still a good weekend for him, especially as the final off was likely down to a break problem. Hopefully he is not the danger that people keep talking about - but a very quick driver with a great profile that could be very good for the WRC - if he starts to win.
Watching the 3 main Fiesta drivers should be really interesting this year. Tanak and Kubica seem to have bundles or raw pace - but keep crashing. Where as Evans seems to have more of a 'Burns' approach, learning his craft and getting some very solid results with flashes of great pace.

M-sport have built a decent car in the Fiesta, it would be good to see what it could truly do with some support and investment from Ford. For 2016 Ford could be sitting on a real gold mine of a Trio in Tanak, Evans and Kubica - that could be one hell of a works team. Looking how long it's taking Mikklesen to get up to speed (he is another very talented up and coming) just shows how hard it is to get to the top of the current WRC with Ogier & JML up there.

Some the underlying potential this year - Neuville, Mikklesen, Meeke, Evans, Kubica, Tanak and perhaps Paddon - if any of them can snatch some top results and even sneak a win it could be a great season.

Thought the whole Monte was a cracking start to the season. Enjoyed watching it on BT sport and as the upgrades keep feeding through to the Citroen, Fords and Hyundai's they may well be closer to VW than expected.

Looking foward to seeing the new i20 from mid season, and maybe if the two lead VW's apply more pressure to each other, and have the odd mishap, it may allow some of the others a look in.

Great start to the season - hope it carries on this way. Meeke's dry tarmac pace was fantastic, as the power stage showed, especially with no splits. Some of the variations that created was superb.

Hopefully another good year for the WRC

[Allyc85]

WRC - Rallye Monte Carlo 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grnQi2Q_oE0&li...

WRC Rallye Monte Carlo 2015 - Highlights [HD]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38_Md859UE0&in...

Rallye Monte Carlo 2015 - Power Stage - Checkpoint Rallye -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icaiWF4HckY&li...

And a muppet stood on the outside of a bend where cars have crashed..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woAN4zJxxiQ&li...

[tyrrell]

Love the Rallyelange clip, once again many thanks for posting