***The Official Rally Germany Thread***

***The Official Rally Germany Thread***

Author
Discussion

Pwig

Original Poster:

11,956 posts

269 months

Friday 21st August 2015
quotequote all
Anyone want to do a sweep stake for how long it will take Meeke to bin it? biggrin

GravelBen

15,655 posts

229 months

Friday 21st August 2015
quotequote all
hehe

I wouldn't be surprised if Mikkelsen beats him to it, tarmac isn't his best surface and he's trying hard to keep up with his team mates.

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Friday 21st August 2015
quotequote all
Wonder how many time Ogier will complain about being first on the road this round? wink

My prediction is - Ogier, JML, then Meeke or Mikkelsen (if either manage to keep it on the road long enough)
Could also see a Hyundai in 3rd.

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Friday 21st August 2015
quotequote all
Great, the radio player on WRC has crashed. Now I have to sit here listening to the st CD's the receptionist plays rolleyes

Pwig

Original Poster:

11,956 posts

269 months

Friday 21st August 2015
quotequote all
So Latvala leading by 0.1 seconds at service!

Pos Car No Driver Co-driver Team Eligibility Group Class Time Diff Prev Diff 1st

1. 2 FINJ. LATVALA FINM. ANTTILA Volkswagen Motorsport M RC1 39:41.7
2. 1 FRAS. OGIER FRAJ. INGRASSIA Volkswagen Motorsport M RC1 39:41.8 +0.1 +0.1
3. 9 NORA. MIKKELSEN NORO. FLOENE Volkswagen Motorsport II T RC1 39:57.6 +15.8 +15.9
4. 3 GBRK. MEEKE IRLP. NAGLE Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT M RC1 40:03.1 +5.5 +21.4
5. 8 ESPD. SORDO ESPM. MARTI Hyundai Motorsport M RC1 40:15.6 +12.5 +33.9
6. 7 BELT. NEUVILLE BELN. GILSOUL Hyundai Motorsport M RC1 40:18.5 +2.9 +36.8
7. 5 GBRE. EVANS GBRD. BARRITT M-Sport World Rally Team M RC1 40:23.3 +4.8 +41.6
8. 20 NZLH. PADDON NZLJ. KENNARD Hyundai Motorsport N T RC1 40:25.7 +2.4 +44.0
9. 4 NORM. OSTBERG SWEJ. ANDERSSON Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT M RC1 40:32.5 +6.8 +50.8
10. 6 ESTO. TANAK ESTR. MOLDER M-Sport World Rally team M RC1 40:33.5 +1.0 +51.8
11. 21 CZEM. PROKOP CZEJ. TOMANEK Jipocar Czech National Team T RC1 40:44.8 +11.3 +1:03.1

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Friday 21st August 2015
quotequote all
Meeke got away with clipping a kerb in ss3, but continued to set a good time of 4th fastest despite a wobbly rear wheel and 4th fastest in SS4.

Kris Meeke said:
'It happened in a slow junction, second gear, the rear just stepped out and hit a kerb. We don't know how bad it is until we have a look.'
He's clearly the best of the rest so far, and with 5 stages complete already 26 seconds away from JML & SO and 7.5 adrift from Mikkelsen, who I dont think is as good a driver yet as Meeke.
Plain to see that the VW are just superior machines

Pwig

Original Poster:

11,956 posts

269 months

Friday 21st August 2015
quotequote all
Sounds like he's pushing too hard.

Gone off again and dropped a minute.

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Saturday 22nd August 2015
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I think thats it for Meeke and his Citroen seat. His overshoot yesterday cost him 90 seconds that dropped him to 11th.


Kris Meeke said:
"I was caught out on some gravel. I went off into a field and had to find my way out. The car felt OK but then something went and I have a problem. I have to find out what"
That problem he had ended up being a broken front left compression strut costing him a further 9 minutes as he limped through the rest of the day. No word if that came as a cause or a contribution to his overshoot or if it came later in the stages


SS9 Times
1. OGIER 10:44.1
2. EVANS 10:44.8 +0.7
3. LATVALA 10:46.4 +2.3
4. NEUVILLE 10:47.6 +3.5
5. SORDO 10:48.0 +3.9
6. TANAK 10:50.8 +6.7
7. MIKKELSEN 10:51.0 +6.9
8. PADDON 10:51.1 +7.0
9. OSTBERG 10:51.7 +7.6
10.MEEKE 10:54.4 +10.3

SS10 Times

1. LATVALA 9:14.9
2. OGIER 9:17.7 +2.8
3. MIKKELSEN 9:20.8 +5.9
4. MEEKE 9:21.6 +6.7
5. NEUVILLE 9:21.7 +6.8
6. EVANS 9:21.8 +6.9
7. TANAK 9:24.7 +9.8
8. OSTBERG 9:24.8 +9.9
9. SORDO 9:25.0 +10.1
10.PADDON 9:25.9 +11.0

SS11 Times

1. OGIER 1:46.5
2. SORDO 1:46.9 +0.4
3. NEUVILLE 1:47.2 +0.7
4. MIKKELSEN 1:47.7 +1.2
5. LATVALA 1:48.1 +1.6
6. MEEKE 1:48.2 +1.7
7. LEFEBVRE 1:48.3 +1.8
8. TANAK 1:48.3 +1.8
9. OSTBERG 1:48.3 +1.8
10.EVANS 1:48.8 +2.3

SS12 Times

1. OGIER 1:45.6
2. LEFEBVRE 1:46.1 +0.5
3. SORDO 1:46.5 +0.9
4. MIKKELSEN 1:46.5 +0.9
5. LATVALA 1:46.7 +1.1
6. MEEKE 1:46.9 +1.3
7. NEUVILLE 1:47.0 +1.4
8. TANAK 1:47.3 +1.7
9. OSTBERG 1:47.5 +1.9
10.EVANS 1:47.8 +2.2


Top ten at the end of SS12

1. OGIER 1:42:47.4
2. LATVALA 1:42:59.1 +11.7
3. MIKKELSEN 1:43:34.4 +47.0
4. NEUVILLE 1:44:05.7 +1:18.3
5. SORDO 1:44:06.7 +1:19.3
6. EVANS 1:44:18.8 +1:31.4
7. TANAK 1:44:32.4 +1:45.0
8. PADDON 1:44:39.7 +1:52.3
9. OSTBERG 1:44:41.2 +1:53.8
10. LEFEBVRE 1:45:46.8 +2:59.4

Panzerplatte Long running now

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Saturday 22nd August 2015
quotequote all
Mid day service and the top 10 looks like this after Ogier went through Panzer long 6 seconds quicker than the rest. opening the gap to 18 seconds to JML


1. OGIER 2:08:26.5
2. LATVALA 2:08:45.0 +18.5
3. MIKKELSEN 2:09:33.5 +1:07.0
4. SORDO 2:10:09.1 +1:42.6
5. NEUVILLE 2:10:15.8 +1:49.3
6. EVANS 2:10:27.7 +2:01.2
7. TANAK 2:10:44.3 +2:17.8
8. OSTBERG 2:10:44.8 +2:18.3
9. PADDON 2:11:19.5 +2:53.0
10. LEFEBVRE 2:12:09.0 +3:42.5


a video of the aftermath of Meekes off @12 seconds https://youtu.be/9GSYpix4jNg?list=PLVyRAt2cxbxvJ7k...

lots of dust n crap on the roads in this vid, I've also seen SO cutting corners dragging crap onto the stage, similar to what he was accused of doing with the snow in Monte - https://youtu.be/KGx7v60A1Kk?list=PLVyRAt2cxbxvJ7k...
a load of drivers have been mentioning it on rally radio at the stage ends

Allyc85

7,225 posts

185 months

Saturday 22nd August 2015
quotequote all
Been pretty busy, so only just caught up on the rally Gutted to see yet another mistake from Kris, just 1 more event for him to try and prove himself then.

Surely now VW will be having words with the drivers just to bring it home, now, can't see JML getting that gap back now.

RyanTank

2,850 posts

153 months

Saturday 22nd August 2015
quotequote all
There was some very strange and cryptic answered from JML at the stage end reporting when asked what he could do about SO's lead. Which made it sound like team orders had been issued, despite a hestitated thought out answer by Capito when quizzed at service.

VW drivers have only been given the orders of bringing all 3 cars home, so I'm reading that as no pushing each other and keep it as it is.

Allyc85

7,225 posts

185 months

Sunday 23rd August 2015
quotequote all
No surprise to see it finish with a vee-dub 1-2-3, even if Latvala nearly did bin it on the last stage!! hehe


Slippydiff

14,742 posts

222 months

Monday 24th August 2015
quotequote all
RyanTank said:
Lots of dust n crap on the roads in this vid, I've also seen SO cutting corners dragging crap onto the stage, similar to what he was accused of doing with the snow in Monte
He's in a different league to ALL the other drivers, his increased speed and commitment is very clear to see when you watch him stage side. He's incredibly smooth, but uses a lot of the road due to his speed, whether the debris being thrown into the road thing is intentional or a by-product of his massive speed, I'd not know, and whilst the other drivers bhing about is to be expected, it's nothing more than just sour grapes IMHO.

Latvala now looks to have really got a handle on the Polo on Tarmac, he's now a VERY accomplished Tarmac driver and a joy to watch. His commitment and pace looked to be close to SO's on Friday and Saturday morning, but Ogier seemed to up his game and the pace thereafter.
Mikkelsen (who I like a lot as a driver) looked plain pedestrian compared to both his team mates.

What was very clear (even on tarmac) is just how far ahead of the opposition the Polo is, it's stability under braking from high speed was all too obvious, but also it's traction and punch out of the corners was in a different league to the Citroens and i120. The Fords sound very aggressive, but they don't appear to be consistently quick.

BOBTEE

1,034 posts

163 months

Tuesday 25th August 2015
quotequote all
We had a great time out in Germany! biggrin It's a great event, I'd deffo recommend it.

Our campsite was right next door to Service, the pedestrian exit lead directly into Service which meant a 470ft walk from M-Sport to our tent (we tracked it using a cycling GPS biggrin ).

A slight gripe was the start, WRC were last through and even then in reverse order.The very first car through was nearly 9PM so we actually gave up at about 1030 and missed the WRC teams. (then got slightly lost walking back to the campsite!)

We managed three stages on the Friday, Panzerplatte on Saturday and two runs through Dhrontal on Sunday.

Anyway, here's a 4 minute video I made, it's the whole trip and my first attempt! Apologies for the two scenes I filmed at the wrong angle!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8uzqdhvev8

Slippydiff

14,742 posts

222 months

Tuesday 25th August 2015
quotequote all
BOBTEE said:
We had a great time out in Germany! biggrin It's a great event, I'd deffo recommend it.

Our campsite was right next door to Service, the pedestrian exit lead directly into Service which meant a 470ft walk from M-Sport to our tent (we tracked it using a cycling GPS biggrin ).

A slight gripe was the start, WRC were last through and even then in reverse order.The very first car through was nearly 9PM so we actually gave up at about 1030 and missed the WRC teams. (then got slightly lost walking back to the campsite!)

We managed three stages on the Friday, Panzerplatte on Saturday and two runs through Dhrontal on Sunday.

Anyway, here's a 4 minute video I made, it's the whole trip and my first attempt! Apologies for the two scenes I filmed at the wrong angle!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8uzqdhvev8
I feel quite dizzy after watching that biggrin Well done for taking the time to record/edit/post it.

I recognise the natural ampitheatre in Dhrontal, we spectated from just to the right of the 3 storey scaffold tower you can see middle left, it had already been built by some truly hardcore fans when we drove through the stage late on Saturday morning ..... yikes

We watched the poorly choreographed girls lick dancing on the start ramp before the Opel Adams with female drivers/navigators came through. I figured the top ten wouldn't be there much before 11pm, so decided we should leave and get an early night ready for an early start the following morning. Glad we did now !

Didn't do the Baumholder stages as we'd done them in 2002 and really didn't rate them, so we did Graftschaft at 7.34 on Saturday morning, then back to the hotel for breakfast and a much needed shower, before driving/recceing Dhrontal and then heading over to watch Grafschaft 2 (at a different location) at 15.31 and then on to watch Bosenberg 2 at 18.45.

Looks like you hung around for the rain on Sunday afternoon/evening, it was forecast for Sunday morning, but fortunately held off. The conditions on the Autobahn as we drove to Luxembourg airport were horrendous.

Probably going to do Corsica (and Germany again) next year.





BOBTEE

1,034 posts

163 months

Wednesday 26th August 2015
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We went to the other side of Porta Nigra for the start, it's been good before when the WRC boys were first through, also has the bonus of missing the glitz on the main side!

I'd heard bad things about Baumholder but went with the theory of 'how bad can it be?'. Turns out it's really not that good!! The GF made the point though that you have to see these things though and it is in the spirit of the rally, I guess she has a point. Annoyingly we'd walked past the start and the hairpin and dismissed it to go in to the arena, we ended up going back to the start and the hairpin and it would have been a cracking spot!

We stayed sunday night and drove home Monday morning...got horrendous sun tan lines and the only rain we saw meant the tent has gone away wet, grrr!

This was the first event for the GF, must have been good as she hasn't given a green light for Sweden!