Tuesday 11th September 2012

Time for Tea? Rallying with Robert Kubica

On-board footage from this weekend's victorious motorsport return

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If PH Heroes covered people and not just cars, Robert Kubica would be a dead-cert for inclusion.

As you may have read yesterday, Kubica won the Rallye Ronde di Lana Gomitolo over the weekend, his first competitive driving event since crashing in February 2011. His margin of victory was more than a minute, despite the rally being only four stages long. It was a fairly unequivocal staement of intent by Kubica, showing that his return to the highest forms of motorsport is progressing well.

So today's Time for Tea? celebrates the Pole's victory through an onboard clip from Special Stage 3 of the weekend's event. Driving a Subaru Impreza WRC, the clip shows Kubica scything through the stage; hammering only inches past delpaidated Italian houses, cutting verges and drifting through hairpins. Of course, this is exactly the kind of commitment we expect from a rally driver but this was Kubica's first competitive driving in 19 months after a huge crash in a similar rally. Driving like this takes real bottle ordinarily; given the context, it is a remarkable feat of bravery.

Kubica plans to make his F1 return in 2014. He is out of contract with Lotus-Renault after missing all of 2011 but this video shows he has retained all of his desire and talent, so expect some clamouring for his signature when negotiations open.

Thanks to PHer Luke (@zeduffman) for making us aware of this video via twitter

 

[dave stew]

This is really impressive and harks back to era when drivers would have a go in so many disciplines (Jacky Ickx, Vic Elford etc). Kubica deserves another shot at F1, but if he didn't get the drive, I am sure we'd equally enjoy his rallying (and no doubt Le Mans) antics!

[Slarty Bartfast]

Amazing!!!

[soad]

Enjoyed that, looks fast too.

[slikrs]

Nice result but let's put some context on it.

http://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=5229&t...

[Antj]

nice to see its in a brit car too.....pretty sure thats a uk tax disc in the bootom right of picture

[em177]

Antj said:

nice to see its in a brit car too.....pretty sure thats a uk tax disc in the bootom right of picture

British plate is surely a more obvious give away

[Cyder]

Prodrive built and with a UK numberplate, wouldn't surprise me if they still owned it and hire it out for events.

[Monkeylegend]

Those F1 divers don't need to go sideways to go fast, impressive.

[anonymous-user]

Lovely bit of smooth driving! (considering the setup looks a bit off, especially on the cold tyres for the first 1/3 of the stage ;-)

[EDLT]

slikrs said:

Nice result but let's put some context on it.

http://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=5229&t...

Good to see he beat other WRC cars, and not a bunch of Group Ns like Raikonnen did.

[pw32]

Yes clearly the other machinery wasn't amazing but importantly he is back in a car driving. Hats off to him for that alone, hope he recovers enough to fulfill his F1 ambitions in decent machinery.

[Ranger 6]

Very wide for a rally stage - that's more Epynt than Mull or Otterburn.

[GroundEffect]

Monkeylegend said:

Those F1 divers don't need to go sideways to go fast, impressive.

Watch pretty much any tarmac rally. They rarely go sideways.

[rhinochopig]

GroundEffect said:

Monkeylegend said:

Those F1 divers don't need to go sideways to go fast, impressive.

Watch pretty much any tarmac rally. They rarely go sideways.

Really?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d01VBR5nKPw

[PHSeb]

rhinochopig said:

Really?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d01VBR5nKPw

Superb! Great howl from the N/A engine too. Would love to have been around to watch the MK2 Escorts when they were in their prime.

[rhinochopig]

PHSeb said:

rhinochopig said:

Really?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d01VBR5nKPw

Superb! Great howl from the N/A engine too. Would love to have been around to watch the MK2 Escorts when they were in their prime.

I think their prime prime is probably now TBH. On the RAC it's rare to see a car that's not an Escort, and many of them are running way more power than they ever did when new.

[Gary C]

slikrs said:

Nice result but let's put some context on it.

http://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=5229&t...

Yes lets do that.

Very impressive from someone that virtually had his hand severed plus other serious injuries.

Keep it up, inspirational.

[Bloitus]

bloody hell that thing is on rails!

[Throttle Body]

After the terrible accident he had last year, I can't see how he can have the nerve to return to F1, but if he can return to rallying and drive like that, he must have a chance. If I was him, I would flinch a little every time some more guard rail comes into sight.

I really hope that he can return to F1 with the full commitment he showed before.

[Raven Flyer]

Not only a great drive from RK but to win in a 4WD machine on tarmac makes it extra special. Very impressive.