- 10,007
- Upside-down in the final corner
- rallymorten
*picture is not from the rally. Also, this is a "juiced" review
Welcome to the review of the second preseason rally of the W.M.A. World Rally Championship, the Peugeot National Rally at Chamonix. It was a rally where Peugeot was seeking a home victory, Mitsubishi aimed at two wins in a row, and Suzuki wanted to learn their latest driver, wolfdragon97, to know.
The rally took place over three stages spanning over the entire winter wonder world. Very unnaturally for this rally, the snowy weather kept away from the rally cars, allowing them to go flat out!
But the Rally God had another surprise for the teams. On the way to stage one, a section of road had iced during the night, and caught Geeky30 by surprise. The car was unrepairable and had to be retired.
The first car on the tricky first stage was Peugeot driver Rallymorten. He had been looking forward to Peugeots home rally, and wanted to impress.
Next car on the road was the winner of Eiger Mini Rally, Mitsubishi driver Aesys. And it was clear that he wanted to continue where he left off.
Citroën once again had small troubles in the start. With Xstylez---x having an accident on the road it was clear, that he was unable to fight for the lead. Nevertheless he got the car to the finish, although with a huge time loss.
Suzuki had finally found a second driver in Wolfdragon97. But it was a stage to forget for the team. A few small mistakes quickly put a stop to her chances for a top 5.
But the problems for the other teams was nothing compared to Subaru. Once again James6653 had been involved in a traffic accident, causing damage to the car. On top of that he was rewarded a 10-second penalty for jumpstarting.
With the second Suzuki out of the race before it had started, the second Citroën was next. But not for long. The same icy section that cost Geeky30
his entry caught H_enry_t too. Unlike Geeky30, he was able to continue with a 30 second penalty.
The second drivers so far had had better luck than the first drivers. The same counts for Subaru. ELMARCOTUFF started the rally in great form, and was trailing the Mitsubishi by just over a second.
Mitsubishi's second driver MrMelancholy15 was the second to last car on the stage, and by now the grip was about perfect. He finished only a second slower than his teammate. An impressive performance when you consider it was his first time in the car.
The driver to close the stage was FuturesPassed in the second 206. But it was not running optimally. An electrical problem meant less feedback from the car. Despite this, he was only three seconds slower than his teammate.
So, after stage one, it looked like this:
As the top 5 was separated by just over 6 seconds, all eyes were on the battle.
Rallymorten was first on the track again, and had to catch up three seconds on this and the final stage. With a huge confidence in this happening, he put the pedal to the medal and never looked back.
But the first split had already indicated he was to lose time. Aesys and the Mitsubishi was flying over the stage and beat Rallymorten by just under a second.
The next top fighter was ELMARCOTUFF on third, only a split second behind MrMelancholy15. He knew he had a chance of taking a podium finish, and ended up winning the stage.
This put pressure on MrMelancholy15. Some might say too much. A jump start on the stage meant a 10 second penalty, added to what would've been the fastest stage time. He was not fine with that.
The last car was again FuturesPassed. The electrical trouble had fixed itself, but he didn't want to risk a top 5 finish, and instead nursed the car home.
After stage two, the rally standings was as follows:
After the service break, all cars went on to the final and longest stage, the stage that would also count as the Thunder Stage. It was here the rally was to be settled!
Rallymorten started the stage four seconds behind the leader. Knowing this would be a good stage to win, he pushed the car to the limits while staying on the road.
But it was all for nothing as Aesys showed. By the end of the stage he had doubled the gap to Rallymorten, and was leading the stage at the time.
But it was his teammate MrMelancholy15 who was to tkae the glory on stage 3. Being half a second faster than his teammate, he made the ultimate comeback, and won the stage.
Further down the field, Subaru was once again the big victim. James6653 hit a snow bank too hard and rolled his car, causing him to retire from the rally.
Much can be said about Wolfdragon97's rally, but she kept on the road, and was overly happy when she reached the finish line.
At the end of the Thunder Stage, things looked like this:
With Aesys winning again, and Rallymorten taking the second podium, the preseason championship ended with these results:
So now the big question rises: can anyone beat the Mitsubishis? Find out in two weeks when the official season starts with the challenging mixed-surface rally at the Eiger Nordwand.
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I feel like I'm reading motorsport magazine lol. Keep up the good work 👍
