Rally-eMag 010 june 2013

Acropolis rally Greece Latvala among the gods Rally d’Italia Sardegna noone has an answer for Ogier Issue 10, June 2013

The Inside view- Monthly News Wrap-up

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Rally-eMag

Your monthly dose of WRC reports, news and of course the best images of the most exciting sport on the planet.

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Rally-eMag June 2013 / Contents

VW Takes Control After the two Mediterranean rounds in Greece and Sardinia the WRC 2013 season reaches its halfway point.

Time to draw up the balance.

Without question the first half of the season has been Volkswagen’s. The German debutants started the season with modest goals. Team boss Jost Capito was quoted before the season start in Monte Carlo ‘We want to make it onto the podium through our own speed in the second half of the season’. Right. Within four days of this statement they had already surpassed their own expectations when Ogier took second behind Loeb who doesn’t do the full season this year. Between championship contenders VW already had its first win in the bag. The first genuine win came three weeks later in Sweden and Ogier has been the man to beat ever since.

This Month Acropolis Rally The Inside View Rally d’Italia - The real heroes: Engineers Sardegna Greece - Latvala among the Gods

Page 20

- Noone has an answer for Ogier Page 23

Page 10

Only Loeb (Monte Carlo and Argentina) and his teammate Latvala (Greece) have beaten the Frenchman this year. So is the new Polo R WRC simply that great, or has the competition been slacking? Reality seems to be a combination of both. The car is simply stunning, it has to be if its winning the majority of its rallies on its maiden season, with different drivers claiming the spoils. Aside from the inevitable teething troubles the Polo has been remarkably reliable too.

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Meanwhile at Citroën Hirvonen struggled to find his pace while Sordo made a bit too many errors chasing his elusive first WRC win. The Fords are piloted by young talented drivers and while Neuville’s star is shining ever brighter, Ostberg and Novikov can’t be happy with their performances so far this year. One thing is clear though, anyone wishing to challenge ‘Ze Djermans’ will have to step it up a notch!

Enjoy reading!

Steven van Veenendaal Editor

Image:Bas Romeny

Who made it?

Publisher: Rally-eMag Words: Steven van Veenendaal, Harry van Veenendaal.

Photography: Bas Romeny, Steven van Veenendaal.

Who helped?

Who we thank!

How to reach us?

Logo design: Minse Blom

PR Photography from: Peugeot Sport, Hyundai Motorsport, Citroen Racing, FIA ERC.

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Rally-eMag June 2013 / News

This month’s wrap up Meeke joins Abu Dhabi Citroën in Finland

Image: FIA ERC

R5 Tarmac Debut

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At the sixth round of the European Rally Championship around the Belgian town of Ypres two brand new R5 cars made their unofficial tarmac debuts. Running as course opening cars the new Ford Fiësta R5 and Peugeot 208 T16 got their first outing on a full rally in tarmac. Both manufacturers sent a top driver to give their cars the tarmac shakedown. Ford flew in local hero Thierry Neuville fresh from his second place in Sardinia while the 208 was piloted by Kris Meeke. The English ace set some fast times and pushed the car a little beyond its limits on the first day which resulted in some rear end damage. He managed to restart on the second to gain valuable data for the team. Neuville stayed out of trouble and would have won if he had been running in competition. Not a bad start for the new car.

Kris Meeke will replace Khalid Al-Qassimi in Finland. Al-Qassimi is unable to attend due to business obligations and has asked Meeke to take his spot. For many years Meeke has been driving various Citroëns and Peugeots (driving the Peugeot 208 T16 as a course car on the Ypres Rally for example) so his selection was no surprise. It has been a while since we saw Meeke on the stages of a WRC event. His last outing came in 2011 when he drove his Mini JCW WRC to a carreer best fourth overall. (pictured) Image: Steven van Veenendaal

King of the Peak

Image: Red Bull

As expected, Sebastien Loeb won the International Pikes Peak Hill Climb. He took his Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak to the top in 8m. 13,878s.

That’s one and a half minutes faster than the previous record. Even more impressive, the team estimated a perfect run could be completed in 8m 15s. Yes, he beat the perfect run... the man remains a legend.

Acropolis Rally Greece / Overview

Acropolis Rally Greece

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Based in: Loutraki Date: 31/05-02/07/2013 Number of stages: 14 Shortest stage: Pissia – 11.47 km Longest stage: Kineta - Pissia – 47.7 km Total stage distance: 306 km Surface: Gravel Image: Bas Romeny

Acropolis Rally Greece / Rally review

Latvala Among The Gods Everybody knows Latvala had a difficult start to the season.

But after some podium finishes he now seems to have broken the spell. In Greece all gods were friendly to him.

Consequently after ten years of competing in Greece the Finn could finally add the notorious Acropolis Rally to his palmares.

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

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Images: Bas Romeny

Acropolis Rally Greece / Rally review The rally did not get of to a good start for Latvala setting only the seventh fastest time on the qualifying stage meaning he would face an unfavourable road position on day one.

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Greece, as we said, is one of the most prestigious events on the calendar. Although the event cannot be compared to the earlier editions it is still an event that is both loved and hated by all competitors. The outcome of each new edition is totally uncertain, as we will see in this year’s event also. Man of the year Sebastien Ogier was a firm favourite with all people involved in the WRC. But Greece will always be Greece and the great number of loose rocks, stones, deep very hard ruts and other paraphernalia caused quite a few broken steering arms, bent fenders and an innumerable amount of flat tyres. And not just the backrunners were affected…

Once again Lady Luck wasn’t on Mads Ostberg’s side. The Norwegian is battling all kinds of misfortune this season. Greece proved no different.

The Rally But let’s start at the beginning at shakedown.

No surprises other than that Jari-Matti Latvala who has been on the way up the last few rally’s is not in a top position. He is three seconds behind fastest man Ogier and what is more important he is in seventh place. That means he already loses quite some virtual time to his team colleague, as starting position is very important in Greece. Dani Sordo looks promising in second place, with Evgeny Novikov following very close. That evening the action really starts with two stages, one of which will be run in the dark.

Drama on stage one The first real test is the 47 kilometre long Kin-

eta Pissia test. The Russian Ford star is cool and very fast and opens a gap of 20 seconds to Sordo and 36 seconds to third places Latvala. With Neuville, Mikkelsen and Al Attiyah in the next places we immediately miss three important names: Ogier, Østberg and Hirvonen.

Mads Østberg doesn’t have a lucky season and again he is out of luck. At the finish, some three minutes behind the leaders, he can only say: “A wheel simply broke off.” Hirvonen suffers from the same kind of ‘lack of luck’. He almost loses six minutes with a problem not uncommon on Greek roads. “ When I want to steer into a corner I have to turn the steering wheel three rounds and even then the wheels hardly start to go in the right direction,” he complains.

Images: Citroën Racing

Acropolis Rally Greece / Rally review

But the biggest victim of stage one is Sebastien Ogier. After an incredible start of the season it is for the first time that Volkswagen actually meets with a problem that throws his car out of the race. “There is something wrong with the fuel distribution, “ says Ogier alongside the roads of stage one. If a combustion engine doesn’t get fuel it comes to a stop and so that is the case for the Polo R WRC of the Frenchman. Later on at service it is proven to be a simple issue. “A cable broke and consequently there was no power supply to the fuel pump,” a VW spokesman told us. Better safe than sorry, the team must have thought and replaced the entire wiring loom of Ogier’s Polo R. But in the front of the field it is Novikov leading. With two convincing stage wins he is more than thirty seconds faster than all the others. Dani Sordo is second and Latvala is third.

Day two The next day Latvala is fully awake at the start, but Novikov is equally alert. To the tenths of a second they clock the same time on the first test of the day. But on the second test Novikov hits a huge rock and breaks his suspension. He did get back to service but lost a lot of time. His meagre reward was his second place on the powerstage at the end of the rally. At the next stage the final result of Greece is already fixed: Latvala in first, Sordo second and Neuville in third. Behind this trio there is an interesting battle between Mikkelsen and Al Attiyah. Several times they swap places but in the end it is the Norwegian rising star Mikkelsen who is quite happy in fourth. Volkswagen seems to have everything in place. If their leading driver meets with some mishap they have a replacement and then they still have another back-up. Who’ll be able to beat them at the end of this season? Oh yeah there is another thing, Ogier won the pow-

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In the shadow of Ogier, Neuville is having a breakthrough season.

erstage and scored three extra points, but that is hardly news is it?

Protests When after the finish after most WRC people were having an ouzo in a local taverna there is a message from FIA’s Press delegate Haley Gallagher: An investigations has been started regarding cars number 7, 8 and 9. You see it rightly; these are the three Volkswagen Polo’s of Latvala, Ogier and Mikkelsen. Would Latvala be robbed of his first win for his new employer?

But first what actually is the problem? It is clear Citroën lodged a complaint. They claim the two batteries Volkswagen has in all their cars are against the regulations. Volkswagen Motorsport principal Jost Capito has to explain to the judges why he does that. The first Citroën claim is rejected on technicalities but after a new protest has been introduced the judges hear what Capito as to say. “We have been talking about this,

In the Citroën camp, Sordo is starting to get to grips with de DS3 equalling his best ever finish in second.

Acropolis Rally Greece / Rally review

Manifold problems We’re not used to be court reporters but we still have to tackle one other issue. In this case it applies to all JWRC competitors. At final scrutinizing it was reported that the exhaust manifolds of all Fiesta’s R2 in JWRC were not in accordance with the homologation of the car. All Fiestas were then taken from the general results.

In the JWRC standings however they did get their points as all cars had the same problem, so no one gained from this irregularity. Maciej Woda, manager of the Polish M-Sport outfit, who is reMore protests sponsible for the development of But that is not enough yet. Mikko all JWRC cars, said that probably Hirvonen and Martin Prokop something had gone wrong at the swapped places in the final resupplier of the manifolds. “We sults. This was due to an irregudon’t look at all products our suplarity in the times on stage 13. pliers provide, we just do some Hirvonen passed Prokop there on random checks” he said. “During the leaderboard but eventually it thorough investigation we’ll go to was clear the Hirvonen time was the bottom of this,” Woda added. not correct and thus Prokop could come back in seventh, putting Hirvonen in eighth.

“According to the regulations it is allowed to carry spare parts in the car, as long as they are not connected. We have a spare battery in our car during the overnight parc fermé. But only one is connected. The other one is not.” Apparently the judges of fact agree with him because they reject the protest. Citroën doesn’t appeal but asks FIA to be more specific in future versions of the regulations. So in the end the Rally of Gods was decided on the dusty tracks rather than in a conference room.

Behind all the rock-throwing and dust-blazing action, rallying is above all emotion.

As the season nears its halfway point the faces tell all the stories.

Top to bottom: Mikko contemplates his difficulties, is the mounting pressure finally getting to the coolest of Fins?

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Sordo on the other hand shows signs of relieve after clinching a solid second place following some costly errors in Portugal and Argentina.

And finally M-Sport team boss Malcolm Wilson displays some true sportsmanship.

That smile for his former prtogee is very real.

Acropolis Rally Greece / Final results 15/32

Final result 1. Latvala - Anttila VW Polo R WRC 2. Sordo - Del Barrio Citroen DS3 WRC 3. Neuville - Gilsoul Ford Fiësta RS WRC 4. Mikkelsen - Markkula VW Polo R WRC 5. Al-Attiyah - Bernachinni Ford Fiesta RS WRC 6. Østberg - Andersson Ford Fiësta RS WRC 7. Prokop - Ernst Ford Fiësta RS WRC 8. Hirvonen - Lehtinen Citroen DS3 WRC 9. Novikov - Minor Ford Fiësta RS WRC 10. Ogier - Ingrassia VW Polo R WRC

3:31:01.2 +1:50.0 +2:14.1 +3:55.1 +4:12.6 +5:48.7 +7:22.4 +7:56.6 +8:11.8 +10:10.3

Acropolis Rally Greece / Standings Championship standings 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Sebastien Ogier Sebastien Loeb Mikko Hirvonen Jari-Matti Latvala Mads Ostberg Thierry Neuville Dani Sordo Evgeny Novikov Martin Prokop Nasser Al-Attiyah

VW Polo R WRC Citroën DS3 WRC Citroën DS3 WRC VW Polo R WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Citroën DS3 WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Ford Fiesta WRC

122 points 68 points 57 points 49 points 38 points 35 points 29 points 27 points 21 points 20 points

Manufacturer standings

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1.

Volkswagen Motorsport 154 points 2.

Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 140 points 3.

Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team 73 points 4.

Qatar World Rally Team 46 points 5.

Abu Dhabi Citroën Total World Rally Team 29 points 6.

Jipocar Czech National Team 23 points 7.

Volkswagen Motorsport 2 14 points 8.

Lotos WRC Team 12 points

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Acropolis Rally Greece / Who’s hot?

Who’s hot?

Jari Matti Latvala VW Polo R WRC Volkswagen Motorsport

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It was a no-brainer really to pick the hottest performer of the Acropolis Rally. When Jari Matti Latvala became the first this season to break the ‘Sebastien’ spell he proved the Volkswagen directives made the correct choice signing him as their second driver. It hasn’t taken the Fin that long to get to grips with the Polo. Don’t forget that Ogier had been testing the car for a year when Latvala joined the team. It was thus no surprise that Latvala wasn’t immediately up to speed with his teammate. Eventually though it only took him six rallies in the car to get his first win, a feat for which we salute the Finn!

Acropolis Rally Greece / Who’s not?

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Who’s not?

Mikko Hirvonen Citroën DS3 WRC Citroën Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

As we reach the halfway point of Hirvonen’s second season at the French powerhouse there is no denying that the move is turning into a disappointment. For both Hirvonen and Citroën that is. Although his season got of to a proper start, landing two podiums and a fourth place in the first four rallies, it has turned sour since. He bagged just 13 points in the final three rounds and is still awaiting his maiden win of the season. Ogier’s succes at Volkswagen meanwhile can’t go unnoticed. Citroën ofcourse had Ogier under contract but let him go to their German rivals when he threatened to eclipse Loeb, and signed Hirvonen instead. As understandable as it may be to not give up on the best ever, it must be painfull the witness the rise of the next great one at the Wolfsburg brand while Hirvonen is struggling.

Rally-eMag June 2013 / The Inside View

The Inside VieW By: Anna Louise Rudd Images: Bas Romeny

Anna Louise is the Press Officer of the Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team. she is the one who knows what’s going on with anyone in the team, from the drivers to the bosses, to the mechanics and the engineers. In her monthly column she gives you a peek behind the scenes of a world rally teaM Since I last wrote for Rally-eMag, we’ve travelled Elfyn too was sensational in Sardinia. A to two of what are arguably the most challenging debut in a world rally car is never easy, but events in the FIA World Rally Championship – the when you consider that this was also his Acropolis Rally of Greece and Rally Italia Sardegna. first time on the Italian stages as well as his first time with Gio[vanni Bernacchini] Looking back on both events, there are – in my behind the notes, it makes his sixth place mind – two noteworthy snippets that tower far above finish all the more impressive. the rest: the outstanding performance of Thierry Neuville (and indeed Elfyn Evans) and the exceptional work of the M-Sport mechanics in Sardinia.

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Thierry and Nicolas [Gilsoul, co-driver] have been the stars of the show recently. The way in which they have approached the previous events has been very impressive – taking a cautious approach when necessary, all the while proving that they have the pace to challenge for the top results.

They have a new, more precise pacenote system this year which makes their performance all the more inspiring. They’ve rarely shown their true speed over the first pass, rather using that run as an – extremely – high-speed recce to ensure their notes are just as they should be. Clever boys through and through, they’ve now collated three podium finishes – including a best ever second place – to lay a thoroughly-deserved third in the championship.

Rally-eMag June 2013 / The Inside View

When you consider the Loebs and the Ogiers, the Sordos and the Anderssons, everyone who came through the Junior WRC ranks, Elfyn eclipsed them all; Sordo managing eighth place on his debut and Loeb just ninth! Could this be a sign of things to come? Elfyn certainly wouldn’t listen to the hype, but the hype is that we have the makings of a new – British – champion in our sights.

But putting my patriotism and all these impressive driver performances to one side, my highest praise is reserved for the M-Sport mechanics and engineers. When Mads [Østberg] and Jonas [Andersson] rolled their Ford Fiesta RS WRC on Friday’s final stage in Sardinia, one would have been forgiven for thinking it was game over; but not our boys.

Showing dedication at its best, the mechanics worked throughout the night – even repairing the rollcage – to ensure that Mads could restart the final day and continue M-Sport’s unbroken record for the most consecutive point finishes for a manufacturer within the WRC. The car was back in the service park around 1.30am, entering parc ferme some three hours later in near-perfect condition. It was pure rallying passion from our boys in blue, and overseeing the whole operation from start to finish was Mads’ engineer, Nigel Hoogeveen.

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Malcolm Wilson oversees the work by the mechanics to get a battered Fiesta ready to get back on the stages.

Rally-eMag June 2013 / The Inside View 22/32

In my eyes, the engineers are the unsung heroes of the WRC. Their work begins weeks before the team travels out to an event – assessing the data from the previous rounds and pre-event tests to ensure the crews have the perfect set-up to optimise performance and reliability.

Once on location, they don’t have the easy first day that say, a Press Officer, would have. While I’m meeting journalists and arranging interviews over a cup of coffee, they’re doing a full route of the rally route – recceing the condition of the stages, kilometre by kilometre.

The day before Shakedown and Qualifying is reserved for scrutineering. All cars must pass the FIA’s checks for safety and conformity. Parts are sealed in accordance with the regulations – engines, turbos, transmissions, selected suspension components – and it’s the engineer who ensures everything is as it should be.

After plenty of team meetings at various levels, it’s time to start the rally, and that’s when the engineers come into their own. Each engineer is responsible for their own car – making sure the set-up is optimised for each loop of stages and ensuring that all systems are functioning correctly. On call throughout the event, they’re rarely seen without a laptop full of data and it’s their analysis that can spot a developing problem and solve it with what seems like the click of a button.

Of course there is a lot more to it than that! They assess ever aspect of the car from rally start to rally end and any driver adjustments are first discussed with them. When you hear the drivers talk about set-up changes at the stage end, that is the work of the engineers.

They’re also responsible for the car’s fuel and weight. Numerous factors are considered during these calculations which aim to bring the car

back to service just 7kg over the 1200kg limit.

Needless to say, there is no scenario more stomach churning for an engineer than waiting for the figures to appear on the official scales as an incorrect calculation can see the team incur a penalty or even excluded from the event!

After the rally, there’s more scrutineering, team meetings, and a detailed report. I’m notorious for late finishes, but these boys certainly beat me on that one!

We now have a month’s break before heading to rallying’s spiritual home in Finland. While I have the rare luxury of a week off, the engineers are already planning a week’s long test to ensure that Rally Finland is our event!

M-Sport will be lacking the local expertise of the Fins this year. Novikov however has always been one of the stars of the hi-speed rally and should do well again this year, at least at entertaining the crowds. Images: Steven van Veenendaal.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Overview

Rally d’Italia Sardegna

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Based in: Olbia Date: 20-23/06/2013 Number of stages: 16 Shortest stage: Gallura – 13.55 km Longest stage: Monte Lerno – 31.08 km Total stage distance: 303 km Surface: Gravel Image: Bas Romeny

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Rally review

Noone has an answer for Ogier At the halfway point of the season one thing seems to be clear: Volkswagen surprised everyone. They are in a league of their own. And although the opposition is not that far behind, they don’t have the answer to properly fight back. In the next issue of Rally-eMag we will go deeper into this, but first we go to Sardinia. The rally that no one wants but everybody likes.

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

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Images: Bas Romeny

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Rally review Mikkelsen found himself fighting with Sordo for fourth. Eventually a rock near the end of the rally forced him to retire.

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In all the discussions about the World Rally Championship calendar, one rally always seems to pop up as one of the events that we can do without. The usual arguments always include, the feeble financial situation, the lack of local interest in the sport and most of all it is pretty hard and expensive to get there. This is especially so for fans from Italy itself. And for the ambience it is obligatory you have a local fan base. And no matter how you look at it, Olbia is far away from Rome…

On the other hand there is the rally itself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. All teams are happy to come to the sunny Mediterranean island to do several tests. And it’s easy to understand why. Everywhere you get of the main highway you’ll find a possible location for a rally stage. And there is an enormous number of

Another fighting man was Mikko Hirvonen. The Finn was lying in second and took the fight to Ogier, unfortunately for Hirvonen ending it in a ditch.

scenic villages where you can create a photographic anachronism of a highly tuned modern rally car in front of the local village pump. Also the blue sea is never far away. So if you want to paint a picture in photos? Go to Sardinia. And the population is always friendly. They have a fairly short holiday season (July – August) and outside that timeslot everyone is relaxed. Take for example the chefs, they take their time baking pizzas in ovens using huge bundles of fragrant twigs. Once the high flames get smaller they stick your pizza, including your favourite topping, in the oven next to the burning twigs.

After some time the piping hot pizza lands on your table. It’s nowhere near what you would get at a Pizza Hut but that is the good thing about it!

So for us at Rally-eMag, Sardinia should stay on the menu. One thing that perhaps should be looked into is getting there. From mainland Europe it is almost impossible to reach the island without a very long flight. Well it’s not the flight that is long, it’s the waiting time! From anywhere in Europe (or the world, that is) you can fly to Rome or Milan and from there, there are connecting flights. But the minimum waiting time is three hours. Then you get onto a plane that only just seems to have passed the last test. I remember flying into Olbia on a very nice day with blue skies and hardly any wind. The plane that clearly had known better days, approached the runway quite wobbly and then a few feet above the runway the pilot gave full throttle and we started to go up again. Apart from the not too comforting engine noises it was completely silent in the plane.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Rally review

Everyone was holding his or her breath. We flew a large circle over a beautiful Mediterranean that no one seemed to notice at that moment, and finally we did a new approach. This time it was not much better but we did actually make it to the ground in one piece. Of course you can take a nice charter plane that brings you directly to the island, but that is usually quite inconvenient time wise because these planes tend to get there when you already would have liked to be there and leave again when you had wanted to be in the office already to meet your publisher’s deadline. So here is a chance for the organisation: try to make a deal with regular airlines to make some kind of normal fee. It should be cheaper to fly from anywhere in Europe to the island then to fly to Mexico! But for the rest Sardinia is the place to be, also for the WRC!

Volkswagen Two years ago Volkswagen came to Sardinia.

Not to compete, but to make an announcement.

They invited a lot of people to hear about their plans to be involved in the WRC. There wasn’t really much news but at least all the rumours were now official. Volkswagen will be in the championship and they will do it in the Polo R WRC. The next announcement was a disappointment to a lot of people. They wouldn’t start their work immediately. And their official competition would be no sooner than Monte Carlo 2013. That was one and a half year from the announcement. But they spent the time between the official announcement and their actual start in a very god way. As can be seen from the results. In Sardinia 2013 they aim to continue this learning year that already proves to be the success year, originally scheduled by the team for 2015!

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Novikov was right on the pace, challenging the mighty Polo, but only for a short stint as he went right off the road too.

Familiar script The scriptwriters for the next episode in the 2013 WRC saga have not been very inspired.

The qualifying stage was for Volkswagen. This time it was Latvala, Ogier being third. In between was Evgeny Novikov, giving a sprinkle of hope to the Qatar M-Sport World Rallyteam. At the same time these drivers got a virtual lead on all the other drivers as in Sardinia, like in most gravel events, starting position is an almost decisive factor on the road to victory. Here the scriptwriters introduced a small twist by giving Latvala a puncture on stage one the infamous Monte Lermo stage. Ogier takes the lead, followed by Hirvonen and Novikov. On the next stage things (not uncharacteristically) go wrong for Novikov and the young Russian rolls his car.

Unfazed by the fights surrounding him Al-Qassimi drives his own rally and is rewarded with a top ten finish.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Rally review

The Fiesta stops it’s roll on the roof and is badly damaged. The car is beyond immediate repair, so his good start ends in tears. At the end of the day a similar thing happens to Østberg. The Fiesta went over a crest followed by a tight corner to the left, but a late call from co-driver, Jonas Andersson, caused the car to roll and to land upside down in a place that was hard to reach. A large rock caused quite some damage but the M-Sport service crew did a tremendous job recreating a new rallycar overnight.

(See Anna Louise Rudd’s report on that elsewhere in this magazine). At the end of the day Ogier, Hirvonen and Neuville (in that order) make up the provisional podium.

Neuville consistent The next day Hirvonen tries successfully to gain some time back by winning the first stage. On the next stage however he misses a hairpin gets stuck in a ditch with hardly any spectators being able to help him and it’s game over for Mikko. It’s then up to Neuville to capitalize on his excellent drive and take second place. He proves to be more mature every rally now and so doesn’t make a mistake anymore. It might be that in pure speed teammate Novikov is a bit faster but Neuville seems to be more consistent. He doesn’t start chasing Ogier

but just defends his second place.

In third place it is Latvala who, after his early setback, comes all the way back to third. Perhaps helped a little bit by team orders in the Citroën team.

Sordo had to defend his fourth place and was not allowed to chase his third place, as the team desperately needs the points!

Finale Meanwhile Ogier continues his smooth ride and finishes in first place.

He feels so confident that even in the Powerstage he attacks and by winning it gains an extra three championship points. Neuville is second in both the Powerstage and the final results.

Latvala takes third, thus making it an almost perfect day for Volkswagen.

The only tiny dent in it’s harness is Mikkelsen. After a near perfect drive he loses the battle for fourth with Dani Sordo. He touches a rock, breaks a wheel and consequently is out of the rally.

Conclusion Volkswagen has been hard to beat during the first half of the season.

What are the chances for the other teams, If there are any). We come back to that in the next issue of RallyeMag, that will include a preview of the second half of the season!

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In the end Neuville felt like being the ham in a Volkswagen sandwich as he took second ahead of Latvala but behind Ogier.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Final Result 28/32

Final result 1. Ogier - Ingrassia 2. Neuville - Gilsoul 3. Latvala - Anttila 4. Sordo - del Barrio 5. Prokop - Ernst 6. Evans - Bernacchini 7. Kosciukszko - Szczepaniak 8. Ostberg - Andersson 9. Kubica - Baran 10. Al-Qassimi - Martin

VW Polo WRC Ford Fiesta WRC VW Polo WRC Citroën DS3 WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Citroën DS3 RRC Citroën DS3 WRC

3:22:57.9 +1:16.8 +1:48.0 +3:19.2 +8:34.1 +11:51.8 +11:52.7 +13:21.5 +16:47.6 +17:19.9

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Final Result 29/32

Manufacturer standings

Championship standings

1.

Volkswagen Motorsport 220 points 2.

Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 174 points 3.

Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team 89 points =.

Qatar World Rally Team 89 points 5.

Jipocar Czech National Team 39 points 6.

Abu Dhabi Citroën Total World Rally Team 32 points 7.

Volkswagen Motorsport 2 26 points 8.

Lotos WRC Team 20 points

1.

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6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Sebastien Ogier Jari-Matti Latvala Thierry Neuville Sebastien Loeb Mikko Hirvonen Dani Sordo Mads Ostberg Martin Prokop Evgeny Novikov Nasser Al-Attiyah

VW Polo R WRC VW Polo R WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Citroën DS3 WRC Citroën DS3 WRC Citroën DS3 WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Ford Fiesta WRC

154 points 90 points 70 points 68 points 61 points 59 points 50 points 37 points 31 points 30 points

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Who’s hot?

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Who’s hot?

Sebastien Ogier VW Polo R WRC Volkswagen Motorsport

Ogier made a small mistake in Argentina giving nemesis Sebastien Loeb an easy ride to victory.

Then in Greece he was struck by bad luck when his Polo suffered a problem with the fuel distribution.

It seemed that his magical run might have come to an end. In Sardinia however, Ogier quickly showed everyon why he is the prime title candidate this year.

Right at the start of the rally Latvala punctures, Novikov rolls and the rest simply can’t keep up with the man from Gap. It seemed easy going from then on as noone could really challenge Ogier anymore. It isn’t that easy though ofcourse. Controlling a rally from the front might be even more difficult than putting your pedal to the metal and going for it on every stage. Ogier had to hold back and consolidate his lead, right until the final stage, the powerstage, where he was let loose and promptly took the stage win to claim his fourth(!) maximum points haul of the season.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Who’s not?

Who’s not?

Evgeny Novikov Ford Fiesta WRC M-Sport Qatar World Rally Team

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Will he ever learn? It’s a question many people are starting to ask. Everyone agrees Novikov has the raw speed to be world champion some day. Rallying however is more than raw speed. As rallies in the WRC total anywhere from 300 to 500 kilometers you need reliability and consistency as much as raw speed.

When Ilka Minor joined Novikov as his new co-driver things seemed to go better for the Russian. She appeared to have grip on him. The points tell a different story though. So far this season Novikov’s best results are two fourth places in Portugal and Argentina. Besides those proper finishes, there have been many disappointing performances and many wrecked Fiestas, just like there was after the second stage in Sardinia.

Next issue, August, with the first half review and the second haf preview. See you there!