WRC 2011 Season

  • Thread starter timeatkuu
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There's been plenty of mechanical problems on many Ford's. I could be wrong, but I think that JML and Mikko are the only ones who's cars haven't had some kind of problem. JML had puncture though. Citroen's have problems too, probably new cars and rough conditions, so plenty of little problems in these new cars.

Shame to see that Ford still isn't on par with Citroen on performance. Let's hope that Seb² will make the season interesting if Ford boys can't, would be boring to watch yet another Loeb domination from start to finish in every rally.
 
vompatti
Shame to see that Ford still isn't on par with Citroen on performance. Let's hope that Seb² will make the season interesting if Ford boys can't, would be boring to watch yet another Loeb domination from start to finish in every rally.
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And Petter! Been really impressed with his performance this weekend, although he may not be top, coming from 16th place or so (some issue I can't remember what it was though) and being 5th at the end of Day 2, which included spinning on one of the stages is a impressive feat. That said Ogier is mighty quick too, especially considering he's been clearing the road. As you said, the Ford's just don't seem to be on the same pace, whether that's because of the high altitude or not I'm not sure, we'll find out at the next rally I guess. :(
 
Ogier off on the first stage of the day. Now everybody is cruising and saving tires for the power stage. Petter going to attack in there, he left one spare to save weight and is now cruising so that his tires would be in a good shape. Henning also planning to attack hard on power stage, I would suspect that JML would do that too. Loeb and Mikko are a bit so so, maybe a conservative attack? Would be stupid for them to have an off on the last stage from those positions. But I wouldn't be surprised if someone would drive off on the last stage.

Interesting battle on SWRC, unfortunately the gaps seems just a little bit too big. It's possible that Prokop can catch Al-Attiyah if they keep the same pace as in first SS of the day, but Hänninen is probably too far to catch Prokop, even though he is eating that gap in every stage.

Speedster502
As you said, the Ford's just don't seem to be on the same pace, whether that's because of the high altitude or not I'm not sure, we'll find out at the next rally I guess. :(
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Yes, I believe too, that we will finally find out in Portugal. It's been for several years like this, Ford's are strong in Sweden, Citroen's in Mexico. This time Ford had hope for better result with new car and 6-gear gearbox, but they couldn't do it.


Edit: Heh, I was as wrong as possible :lol: Mikko fastest on power stage, Loeb and Petter equal second, then JML. No offs either. Good points for Loeb and Mikko from the rally. Great result for Ford in terms of manu points. 3 weeks and then it's Portugal!
 
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Really enjoyed the power stage, was certainly a interesting spectacle. Wish I could watch it all the time :lol: I was hoping Petter would have got the win for it, but sadly not. I was surprised at the lack of the cars though, do they only let a few cars on for the power stage or the full grid? I'm sure they were missing some of the other WRC cars (Matt Wilson and some others?). Was surprised at the lack of pace that Villagra showed through the stage and was disappointed that we didn't actually get to find out what was exactly wrong, for Ken Block to beat him by 38 seconds was pretty extreme (especially considering how much Mikko beat Ken!).

Overall, interesting rally, although I've still got to watch the Day 3 round-up later on on ESPN to watch. Talking about coverage; I was saying earlier on the WRC Facebook page that it seems that ESPN shows virtually the same coverage as MotorsTV (but much better quality, apart from the Power Stage which suffers worse quality probably due to it being streamed live). But, it gives me a bit of confidence in what I'm seeing on MotorsTV, perhaps they can improve the quality over time.
 
I'm subscribed to ESPN, not just for WRC but for DTM and FIA GT1. But I found that powerstage offensive to watch. The one in Sweden was very good, and this was appalling. The stage was too long and dull, and the picture quality was from the 1950's. Not to mention the fact that it sounded like all the mics where up somebody's arse.

Kinda of the expected result really aswell in the rally. If you push Mr Loeb he'll just out drive you. I'm glad Mikko is leading the championship and I hope the Fiesta is more competitive than the Focus was for the rest of the year.

I'd also like it if Solberg and Block had some better luck.
 
Duffers917K
I'm subscribed to ESPN, not just for WRC but for DTM and FIA GT1. But I found that powerstage offensive to watch. The one in Sweden was very good, and this was appalling. The stage was too long and dull, and the picture quality was from the 1950's. Not to mention the fact that it sounded like all the mics where up somebody's arse.

Kinda of the expected result really aswell in the rally. If you push Mr Loeb he'll just out drive you. I'm glad Mikko is leading the championship and I hope the Fiesta is more competitive than the Focus was for the rest of the year.

I'd also like it if Solberg and Block had some better luck.
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That's interesting to hear, seems a bit weird that the quality was so poor. The highlight of the stage seemed to be the jump, which whilst it was interesting there wasn't much else to the stage, but I also get the impression that most of the stages were like that in Mexico, just very fast with a few jumps.
 
Speedster502
I was surprised at the lack of the cars though, do they only let a few cars on for the power stage or the full grid? I'm sure they were missing some of the other WRC cars (Matt Wilson and some others?).
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There weren't that many drivers to start in the first place. Probably it's Mexico's distance as most of the teams are European. Then at least Novikov, Kuipers and Wilson were out of the rally at that point, so that's why they weren't on the power stage. Can't remember if there were other WRC drivers that were out. All of the cars do run it, but it seems that they show only top10-15 on tv. Villagra had broken shaft or something like that. It's really sad, that they couldn't even get live interviews into the stream 👎 I actually had WRR on for the interviews and sound muted from the stream. But then at the end, they did a live interview. They interviewed Mikko, winner of the power stage but they didn't interview Loeb, rally winner. Another 👎
 
Ogier apparently ripped one of his front wheels off on the first stage of the final day which is why he wasnt in the power stage. Kimi Raikonnen wasnt in Mexico at all which is another WRC spec car that was missing.
 
Rumors of VW and SAAB entering WRC 2012 or 2013 keep going on and on. Also some unsturdy rumors of Toyota joining too. Let's hope they all will, it would be great for the sport!
 
Saw that a few times already. Glad they are ok, just goes to show how safe these cars are. Guess they hit a rock which started the whole thing.
 
lalosoda
mini racing their new wrc cars. i believe they are just testing them this round?
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Yes, they were simply testing. But that's not yet their full WRC car. Engine is the same as the one in the WRC, but it's restrictor is 30mm. In WRC cars it's 33mm. Then aerodynamics are S2000 aerodynamics. So the cars they used in there were little bit in no mans land.
 
You know, I'm looking at the dates for Rally Australia this year: September 8-11. Coffs Harbour is actually pretty close to me, so I'm considering going if I can. Maybe even marshalling, if I can get out into the stages somehow. A lot of it depends on my uni timetable and whether I can have the weekend off from my duties around my college, but I like the idea. I first went to Rally Australia back in 2005 and had a blast, and since I have no idea where I'll be next year (or when the rally will be coming back), this might be my last shot at it for a while.
 
Holyyy! I just caught up on all the rally that I've missed... Rally Jordan was possibly the best rally I've seen since I've started watching this motorsport! 0.2 seconds between Ogier and Latvala for the finish?! It was kind of hard to watch Latvala lose top spot since I really like watching him, Hirvonen, and Petter.

The flying frenchmen duo are killing it this year. And Petter really looks like in tip-top shape going into every rally even so far.. But he can't seem to hold himself in order to stay there without going off the road or making a big mistake
 
MINI has shown a very promising debut into this years rally, but obviously out of championship contention. Can't wait for this weekend at Argentina. Glad to see Mikko back in form and in 2nd just under by 7 points.

And off topic - but this whole forum is flooded with people who love F1 :S

I mean I watch it too.. But that many threads?
 
Ken Block has said he will not contest longer rallies, he will only do the shorter ones like now.
 
The Monte Carlo Rally is returning to the WRC in 2012! It will serve as the opening round for both the WRC and the IRC.

The FIA have also come up with a solution to the problem of road order tactics - the shakedown stage will serve as a "qualifying" run, with the fastest driver being entitled to choose his or her starting position the next day.
 
Hollidog
Poor Petter Solberg. He has no luck at all.
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He looks like he's under stress to much, ever since i first saw him (on tv, i don't watch very much, sadly) i thought this. Perhaps because i watched him whilst he was freaking out against his co-driver. But this season he does ok (again) with a old(er then others) car. Congratulations to him, though i hope Leob wins.
Greetings stano666
 
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The route for Rally Australia has been unveiled. I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. I'm from the area so I know some of these roads, and there was a lot of potential for some great stuff that the organisers have ignored. That said, Ulong, Brooklana, Grace and Plum Pudding in particular all look good. Jetty Precinct looks fiddly, though.
 
Kimi Raikkonen has been excluded from the drivers' standings for failing to meet his obligations as a WRC entrant. All WRC teams are expected to compete in at least seven European rounds of the championship, and two non-European events. Raikkonen had previously taken part in the Rally of Jordan, but he did not start Rally Mexico or Rally Argentina, and Rally Australia was the final flyaway event. Raikkonen can still enter the last three events of the seaon (France, Catalunya and Wales), but he cannot score points.
 
Thats a bit harsh, I thought they had just excluded ICE 1 racing from the team standings since those drivers who only race on their home rally get to keep their points, I presume that Yuri Protasov got excluded from the PWRC for the same reason.

btw Kimi was the only driver other than Loeb and Hirvonen to score points in all rallies they entered before this one, he's had a better year than 2010 since he hasn't been throwing his car into trees every rally, I can't see him back again next season if he doesn't want to travel to certain rallies because they're too far away.
 

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