WRC Thread

[niniendowarrior]

Fresh new thread for a new season.

Ford has announced it's staying in the sport for 2 more years with M-Sport. Malcolm has also announced the line up:

Jari-Matti Latvala
Petter Solberg (He signed as a number 2 driver for a year!)

Citroen's line up for 2012:
Sebastien Loeb
Mikko Hirvonen

Mini's line up for 2012:
Daniel Sordo
Kris Meeke

VW's line up for 2012:
Sebastien Ogier
??????

[niniendowarrior]

Petter Solberg doing tests with the Fiesta for the Monte rally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOJgHus626Q

[Mtn Man]

I was sad to hear Mikko was leaving Ford but I think Solberg is a damn good replacement. This should be a very interesting season. Any news on US TV coverage for 2012?

[niniendowarrior]

No news on that one... I think your best bet is Discovery channel. I think seansloan watches WRC there. Barring that... there's always the leben to ESPN UK which is how I catch the live shows (when they are timezone friendly).

http://dhd.discovery.com/tv/world-ra...hip/about.html

Mini's WRC program seems to be in some crisis. They missed the deadlines for application and Prodrive seems to be locked in talks with Mini over the long term plans for the program.

[niniendowarrior]

Day 1, Rallye Monte Carlo

Sebastien Loeb leads Dani Sordo by a whole minute. Petter Solbeg on the Ford Fiesta is only a second behind Sordo. Jari Matti-Latvala rolled out of the lead.



Malcolm Wilson confirms that Latvala cannot continue (superally regulation is not active in Monte) and hopes for the weather to smile in Petter's favour. Latvala raises his hand and says it's his fault being preoccupied by the icy surface than the corner that his co-driver called out to him. Just like that... it's looking like Loeb is walking away with 25 points.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97082

[niniendowarrior]

Latvala's drama.

[niniendowarrior]

WRC 2012 Monte Carlo Day 1

Part 1


Part 2

[seansloan]

The crossover tyre pattern Loeb used in ss2 was genius.Sorto quicker than I expected.JM pushing too hard too early.Says needs a perfect year to win the title and then takes unnecessary risks that far out weigh the gains.

[niniendowarrior]

I personally don't think Jari-Matti took unnecessary risks. This is Monte Carlo we're talking about here where the rally itself is the biggest foe of every driver. It looks to me like it was simply a lapse of concentration on Latvala's part as he didn't pay attention to the notes given to him. He got the 30 seconds lead from Loeb by following Petter's advise on the tyre choice and getting it absolutely right.

Also... it looks like Monte Carlo is 5 days long now, and that's likely the longest rally we've seen in a while now.

Sordo hasn't been a revelation too much for me. Sordo is really good on tarmac and I've seen him go toe to toe against Loeb on a couple of occasions. Mini is looking like a good car, but we'll have to see how it does in other surfaces. That goes for Sordo as well.

[niniendowarrior]

Sebastien Loeb leads day 2 as Sordo and Solberg pull out hammer and tong for second place.

The news of the day is Seb Ogier's crash. The guy has been blisteringly quick, outpacing WRC class cars with his Super 2000 car. Alas, he crashed his Skoda Fabia and it's the end of the road for him.