Rally-eMag 016 Feb 2014

Volkswagen in charge

WRC Sweden Mexico

Issue 16, February 2014

ERC Liepaja

Monthly News Wrap-up & For my Friends

Kris Meeke cam

e to Sweden to

get more exper

ience

Image: FIA ERC

Juho Hanninen w

as fast but had

Image: Bas Romeny

a difficult Rally

Sweden

Volkswagen sco

red two doubles

Image: Bas Romeny

, Fiesta time!

hyundai is begin

ning to fly

Image: Bas Romeny

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Rally-eMag February 2014 / Contents

This month Who made it?

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

Photography: Bas Romeny, Timo Anis

Who helped?

Logo design: Minse Blom Distribution: Issuu.com

Who we thank!

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

How to reach us?

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Email: info@rally-emag.com Web: www.rally-emag.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ emagrally Twitter: @emagrally Issuu: www.issuu.com/rally-emag

Monthly News Wrap up

WRC Rally Sweden

ERC Rally Liepaja

WRC Rally Mexico

For my Friends

Springtime in Sweden

Ice Masters Round Two

Faster than Speedy Gonzalez

The ‘other’ shots

Peugeot 208T16 debut

Page 11

Page 21

Page 39

Page 9

Page 32

Rally-eMag February 2014 / News

This month’s wrap up

A new cub starts to roar

Hyundai to start second team

The Korean Manufacturer is taking things more and more seriously. “In order to obtain the maximum amount of data in competition circumstances,” said teamboss Nandan. “We decided to start a second team, This N team will start in Portugal with Dani Sordo at the wheel. In the regular Hyundai Shell World Rallyteam we find lead driver Thierry Neuville and Juho Hänninen.

Sainz changes seats

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After spending some time in the Volkswagen team, the Spaniard followed his heart and will change the executive office seat for the bucket seat of a racing machine again. Next January the five times Dakar winner and double World Rally Champion will be part of the Peugeot team that will compete in Le Dakar.

Image: Hyundai Motorsport

Image: Peugeot Sport

Just two weeks ago Paolo Andreucci took the new Peugeot 208T16 to a podium finish on its debut. The next stop for the car was the third round of the European Rally Championship, the Acropolis Rally in Greece and their they achieved the first win on their ERC debut.

and is feeling confident ahead of this new challenge. “I’ve done quite a lot of driving in the 208T16 already. I know what it’s capable of and I‘m very happy to be to be the person who picks up its first victory.”

Especially since the Acropolis is a true car-wrecker, it hasn’t been easy to give The official Peugeot Rally Academy team the car its first ERC win. fielded two 208T16’s for Peugeot factory driver Craig Breen and new addition to the Abbring earned his spot in the team by team, Dutchman Kevin Abbring. winning the French 208 Rally Cup last year. In Greece he initially led the rally but Breen already had a lot of mileage under had to retire with a broken radiator. In our his belt in the new car albeit all in tests next issue you‘ll read all about.

Rally Sweden / Overview 11/42

Rally Sweden

Based in: Hagfors Date: 02-05/02/13 Number of stages: 24 Shortest stage: Superspecial Karlstad, 1.90 km Longest stage: Vargasen, 24.63 km Total stage distance: 328 km Surface: Snow

Rally Sweden / Rally review

Springtime in Sweden “The only winter rally” it says in all publications of Rally Sweden but apparently Karlstadt and Hagfors are not located enough to the north. Well at least this year. There was snow it’s true, but temperatures were not low enough, causing the snow to melt and the studs to fly! But that didn’t make the rally less interesting! Let’s see why.

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

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Images: Bas Romeny

Rally Sweden / Rally review

The Volkswagen boys once again dominated the standings, left Ogier and Latvala, right Mikkelsen

On day one everyone feared a Volkswagen procession. And in a way it was. Only it was far from being boring. The three Polo drivers individually wanted to prove who was the best.

Mikkelsen started by being fastest on the first stage. Ogier passed him pretty soon, but especially when the young Norwegian arrived on home soil he was cheered loudly and this clearly gave him wings.

seconds. (So it was really close: Mikkelsen lost nearly all of these six seconds on the last Torsby stage.) Behind Mikkelsen was Jari Matti Latvala who, as he said, drove a steady drive and felt good.

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The other batlle But behind this notorious threesome another interesting battle developed. It featured people like Ott Tanak, Henning Solberg and WRC regulars like Østberg and Hirvonen. Right behind them In a direct fight with his number one team col- the two Hyundai drivers showed good pace with league Ogier he clawed back to first place, but at Neuville in seventh and Hänninen right behind the end of the first full day of rallying Mikkelsen him. was behind Ogier again.

Tanak Ogier, enjoying the fight, had gained some six But most interesting was Tanak, rejected last

year from the official Ford Team but back on track again. He created himself a mixed programme with three Fiesta RS WRC appearances and a full programme in WRC2 in a Fiesta R5.

In Sweden he proved again he can be very fast.

M-Sport already recognized that, but blamed the Estonian for being inconsistent. On the first day in Sweden however, he was the only one to challenge the Volkswagen trio. “I did not expect to be able to match the speed of the WRC regulars,” he confessed. “Seventy kilometres of testing proved to be enough after all,’ he smiled. At the end of the day he was still fourth behind the complete VW team, but before Østberg and Hirvonen.

Rally Sweden / Rally review

Drama on day two The next stage was Lesjofors a famous stage that claimed two topclass casualties. The first one was rallyleader Sebastien Ogier. In an unfamiliar spell of reduced concentration he slipped into a snowbank and lost more than 4 minutes.

“It was a stupid mistake,” he commented, and I can only blame myself”.

ment scheme of the i20.”

Hyundai’s development scheme The second driver to get caught by Lesjofors was Neuville. He banged his Hyundai into a rock and broke the suspension in the process. He did reach the end of the stage but could not continue after that. “This is no surprise to me,” admitted the Belgian. “I took a chance when I joined the team. I knew the car was not fully developed so this was to be expected. It’s part of the develop-

Suspension problems The engineers responsible for the suspension of the Hyundai have themselves a job to do. It looks like the suspension assembly is not yet strong enough for the kinds of impacts a World Rally Car has to endure. It’s hard to prove but apart from the Monte incident where Sordo had an electricity problem all other incidents were related to the suspension, a problem Volkswa-

Not much later Hänninen followed on the retirement list. It was on the second run of Lesjofors when there was a similar incident to what happened to Neuville. “I clipped a rock,” said Hänninen. Then the right hand front wheel came lose.”

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Ogier made a rare mistake, ended up in a snowbank and lost 4 minutes.

gen also encountered in the early stages of last year’s championship.

The second day continued with the VW boys fighting for the honours. Ogier won nearly all stages, apart from the first running of the Hagfors sprint and the Karlstadt Superspecial. Henning Solberg won the first one. He thoroughly enjoyed himself being back again on the WRC stages.

Another Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen won the other stage. For him this was not enough to secure the provisional lead in the rally. Fellow VW driver Latvala had passed him on the Østberg favourite Rämmen. Østberg was also doing well.

He preceded Mikko Hirvonen who was fourth.

Hyundai is fighting through teething troubles, but making progress.

Rally Sweden / Rally review

Final stages On the last day the competitors had to tackle another 8 stages. Latvala was flying and won the first 5 of these.

Number 6 was for Østberg, number 7 for Ogier and the last one (the power stage) was for Østberg again.

Thierry Neuville scored a runner up position on one of the stages but had a puncture on one of the others. Mikkelsen’s hopes for his first VW win evaporated when he got stuck in the snow. This cost him some 25 seconds and the chance to catch Latvala.

Spring is near The stages were particularly tricky as the approaching spring caused the snow that covered them to rapidly disappear. Prokop and Kubica found out the hard way and went off into a snowbank and a ditch respectively. But for the rest the top contenders kept their pace. Latvala and Mikkelsen brought VW another one, two finish. Østberg was glad to be on the podium for Citroen, and Hirvonen was reasonably happy to finish in fourth.

Surprise Once again Sweden proved to be a rally for the Nordics. A nice surprise was the classification of Ott Tanak.

He celebrated his come back by finishing fifth.

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After settling in Ostberg found his speed to win stage six. There was no stopping Latvala though who went on to win.

Rally Sweden / Round-up 16/42

Round-up Volkswagen Ogier wanted to repeat last year’s performance when he gave the Polo R it’s first victory, but it wasn’t to be. On day one we saw something we think we will see more often this year. We baptised this phenomenon the VWRC. It is a special class that runs before the normal WRC’s.

Well the three competitors in VWRC were changing places all the time. Especially Mikkelsen was battling constantly with Ogier. But at the end of day one, Ogier was leading the rally.

him some four minutes to get his VW moving again. Latvala took over and won the 15 kilometre long Lesjöfjors stage.

Mikkelsen kept his overall lead on the leaderboard, but 0,5 seconds is not much.

The battle continued all day and in the end Latvala was in charge again, with as little as four seconds. This proved to be enough. Mikkelsen went flat out to diminish the gap but made some mistakes. So in the end it was Latvala first and Mikkelsen second. Ogier back in sixth did not make it a clean sweep, but it brought The next day however things the German manufacturer changed, Ogier lost some some extra Manufacturer’s concentration and slid of the points. road into a snowbank. It took

M-Sport World Rallyteam

Sweden is ‘Mikko-country’ so the Finnish driver was optimistical. After the rally when he was just outside a podium position, he claimed: “I’m more confident with the car again,” he said. I feel we now can build back our strength to weher it was when we left M-Sport. The other official driver Elfyn Evans was doing what he came for: gaining experience. He did this till the end but did not make it completely.

A small mistake threw him out of the rally. Our question is: how well does the tandem Mikko/ Elfyn work. Malcolm Wilson clear-

ly drew Mikko into the team as a kind of mentor to Elfyn. This seems a good choice. Hirvonen has a wealth of knowledge and experience and his usual way of dealing with people makes him an excellent choice for his job.

But the problem is that Hirvonen is struggling a bit. Either with the new car or with himself, that is not clear yet. Let’s hope his relatively good result in Sweden can help him get to grips with the situation today. And that is that he is not a championship contender anymore.

Rally Sweden / Round-up

Citroën World Rallyteam After Monte Carlo all eyes were on Kris Meeke again and also Østberg could enjoy quite a bit of interest, if only because part of the Rally Sweden runs into his home country for some stages.

Meeke was just gaining experience in Nordic conditions.

It’s a good thing that Østberg was happy. His podium finish is very important, both

for himself and for Citroën.

Meeke did a reasonable job.

After an excursion that cost him some seven minutes he came back and gained some points. It seems Yves Matton found himself a good team with possibilities. If they can really challenge Volkswagen? We doubt it. But they are definitely a good team to beat the rest.

Hyundai Shell World Rallyteam

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For Hyundai WRC life is all about getting experience in competitive circumstances. Their test season last year comes nowhere near what Volkswagen did in the build up to their WRC quest so Hyundai now have to find out how good their car and their team are.

To start from the positive side, the car seems to be fast. Reliability is still another factor.

The same seems to apply to the team. We’re mainly talking about the drivers now. Neuville is a good driver there is no doubt about that, but his very early off in Monte Carlo is at least partly due to his eagerness to show how good he is. He has to bear in mind that he already proved

that and that, in signing for Korean manufacturer; he has to wait a bit.

Next is the car. It seems to be quick; we already said that so there is potential. The whole operation doesn’t lack potential but we cannot expect them to be winning rally’s after such a short period. Though the drivers make mistakes, both in Monte Carlo as in Sweden the wheels seem to snap off a bit too easily, but that could just be a coïncidence. And the alternator problem of Sordo in Monte Carlo is a typical example of a thing that happens to a new car. Our conclusion: there is a lot of work to be done, but Hyundai will get there.

Rally Sweden / Final result 18/42

Final Result 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Latvala-Anttila Mikkelsen-Markkula Østberg-Andersson Hirvonen-Lehtinen O. Tanak-Molder Ogier-Ingrassia Solberg-Minor Tidemand-Floene Breen-Martin Meeke-Nagle

Volkswagen Polo R WRC Volkswagen Polo R WRC Citroën DS3 WRC Ford Fiësta RS WRC Ford Fiësta RS WRC Volkswagen Polo R WRC Ford Fiësta RS WRC Ford Fiësta RS WRC Ford Fiësta RS WRC Citroën DS3 WRC

3:00:31.1 3:01:24.7 3:01:30.6 3:02:58.0 3:03:31.6 3:05:01.0 3:05:18.6 3:06:09.3 3:09:26.5 3:11:49.1

Rally Sweden / Standings 19/42

Championship standings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Jari-Matti Latvala 40 Sebastien Ogier 35 Mads Ă˜stberg 30 Andreas Mikkelsen 24 Bryan Bouffier 18 Kris Meeke 17 Mikko Hirvonen 13 Ott Tanak 10 Elfyn Evans 8 Thierry Neuville 0

Manufacturer standings 1 Volkswagen Motorsport 72 2 Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT 56 3 Volkswagen Motorsport II 26 4 M-Sport WRT 22 5 Hyundai Shell WRT 8 6 Jipocar Chech National Team 0 - RK-M-Sport WRT 0

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Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Overview

Rally Guanajuato Mexico

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Based in: Leon Date: 06-09/03/2014 Number of stages: 21 Shortest stage: Monster Street Stage Guanajuato 1.01 KM Longest stage: Guanajuatito – 55.92 km Total stage distance: 402 km Surface: Gravel

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Rally review

Faster than Speedy Gonzales Winter was not so cold in Sweden, but the summer heat of Mexico was there all right. That coupled to the extreme altitudes and the special rock strewn roads always makes Mexico into a special event. An event that is impossible for rookies to shine in. Unless your name is Elfyn Evans‌

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

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Images: Bas Romeny

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Rally review

Not a lot of competitors in Mexico, but the fans make up for that. They are out in force and always show their enthusiasm for the sport.

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The teams Unfortunately Mexico has another tradition and that is the number of competitors. This year there were just 29 teams on the entry list. Of course all manufacturer’s teams were present. Hyundai had selected Chris Atkinson as second driver this time. In the M-Sport tents we also saw local hero Benito Guerra. Every year he tries to get sufficient funds to start here and this year he selected M-Sports’ Fiesta WRC as his weapon.

Also in Fiesta’s were of course Robert Kubica for the RK-M-Sport WRT and Martin Prokop in his Jipocar Czech National Team car. Eight teams were competing in WRC 2, including Yuri Protasov, provisional leader in the championship,

Chris Atkinson made his return to the WRC in his first outing for Hyundai.

and Ott Tanak, who started his WRC 2 season in Mexico. The rest of the entry list consisted of a handful of local and regional drivers. But for the championship this small number doesn’t matter and the fans don’t seem to bother either. Mexican fans are always there in abundance. They line the dusty roads in their most colourful outfits.

Happy This really has its effect on the drivers and teams.

They all seem to be happy and don’t seem to mind to wear sombrero’s or other paraphernalia and get photographed. This is simply the most colourful and joyful event of the season. Perhaps the fact that the sun is there again after the European winter has something to do with it too.

The stages But then the stages, they are something completely different. Before we move into the countryside and up the mountains. We first have the Monster Street Stage Guanajuato. It runs through the narrow streets and tunnels built by silver miners in the seventeenth century. This made the town into a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The famous saying: ‘You can’t win here but you can lose a lot’, definitely applies to this stage. It’s only just one kilometre long but the roads all have very nasty curbs that can break your wheels and the walls of the tunnels do stop you if you get off the driving line, but they do that in a way that usually makes continuing the rally quite a challenge.

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Rally review

But the fact that the rally runs through a busy town makes it a real Fiesta. And the drivers therefore like it. Ogier was 0,3 seconds faster than second man Ott Tanak, who made clear he was there and a force to be reckoned with even in an R5 specs car.

Atko The only driver with problems here was Chris Atkinson. Just one hundred metres into the stage his Hyundai i20 came to a halt. “I had to reset the car and then it started again. I have no clue as to what it was, because after that the car ran normally again, but it cost well over 20 seconds to get rolling again,” the new Hyundai recruit said.

No further drama’s this stage so the drivers could prepare themselves for the real rally to start tomorrow. On the menu they found 10 stages on

the mountain roads east of Léon.

Problem Friday The first day of real competition was drama packed. It started with dust problems on the first morning stage. Visibility came to almost zero and that caused for example Mikkelsen to lose some time after hitting a rock. Ogier was fastest but was threatened heavily by Mads Østberg who took over the lead after stage three, only to lose this position again after the second passing of the El Chocolate stage. He lost quite some time there because Ogier simply was too fast. “I couldn’t find the right rhythm,” he explained.

Casualties As we said earlier Mexico is no terrain for debutants.

Not so smart Mikkelsen was the first one to notice that: on the third The distance between him and Ogier is now just stage he went off and broke his suspension. That under 17 seconds but this could have been less. meant his first day of Mexico was over depriving him This time co driver Jonas Andersson was to blame from gaining the ever so important experience.

Ostberg‘s car suffered from overheating forcing him to slow down a little.

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as he forgot to take off the protection shield of the radiator. This shield is used during road sections to keep the engine at the right temperature for the stage to come. However during stages you don’t want that on your car because the engine might overheat. “He told me just before we were to start the stage,” Østberg said. “So I decided to take some precautions by driving a bit slower. It was only a short stage so the time loss would be bearable. When we finished I told him he was not too smart (in different words though...) and that was it. We have to carry on now.”

Hyundai splashed their way to their first podium finish with the i20 WRC.

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Rally review 25/42

But he wasn’t the only casualty of the day. Chris Atkinson could continue the whole day but he was hampered by all kinds of woes.

Mikko Hirvonen was doing all right and was in third until he lost quite some time on the long El Chocolate stage.

He didn’t speak to stage- end reporters and just moved on. This is something very unlike the Finn. On the next stage the cause of his time loss turned out to be a faulty alternator. And deprived of electricity the engine stopped. The unhappy Hirvonen just had to wait until his mechanics arrived and consequently had to retire for the day.

The same applies to Kris Meeke. Although he started carefully he was in fourth when he hit a stone and broke his suspension. He too had to retire for the day.

The next one on the retirement list was Robert Kubica. He banged into a concrete bollard on the first running of the Super Special and his Fiesta rolled. After rescue marshals had put the car on its wheels again he proceeded to the finish. He wanted to continue on the next passing of the super special but the marshals did not allow that on safety grounds. (His windscreen was completely broken and also the front of his car was in a strange shape).

lowed by Mads Østberg who is now some 26 seconds behind. Latvala is in third. Elfyn Evans is the sensation of the day. He defies the expression that Mexico is no land for novices. But he shows that, if you drive with your head, rather than with your heart you can come far. Neuville in fifth is doing well too. Local hero Benito Guerra, eager to show his benefactors that he is worth their investment, is in seventh and on his way to reach his goal of being in the top five.

Saturday’s Viking fix The Saturday proceedings did not start well for runner up Mads Østberg. On the first stage of the day he hit a bank and broke part of his rear suspension.

Both driver and co-driver started to work frantically on the wheel and they seemed to succeed. At the stage end he told the reporters it was going to be OK. “It’s a Viking fix!” he smiled. On the following road section however he had to redo his Viking fix and then at the start of Otates one of the over 50km stages of the rally he had to throw the towel.

That is a problem less for Ogier. He did not slow down however and ended the day with an advantage of just more than a minute over teammate Latvala. Neuville was three minutes further back, Meanwhile at the top but still comfortably in third. A position But let’s not forget the leaderboard. he wanted to nurture until the finish. So Number one was Sebastien Ogier, fol- the battle for the top was over.

Top to bottom: - Hirvonen started well but was stopped by a faulty alternator - Kubica learning WRC the hard way - Ostberg the “Viking Mechanic”

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Rally review

Another few rolls That doesn’t mean the drama was over. The drama was starring, as earlier in the rally, two drivers: Kubica and Mikkelsen. Both rolled their car (again). For Kubica this meant the end of his rally.

The roll cage was damaged too much. Mikkelsen did not gain the wanted experience as he did not complete more than three Mexican stages up till that moment.

Guerra Things went better for Benito Guerra. He had an off road excursion too but he ‘just’ smashed the door in his side. This makes getting in and out of the Fiesta a bit awkward. Also he hit his shoulder against the door. But this did not bother the Mexican too much. Like a good rally driver he preferred to talk about the condition of his car: “I think the car is ok,” he smiled.

At least he could continue and defend his position That however cannot be said from Kris Meeke’s well within the top ten. problem. On the PowerStage he stopped his car in the middle of the road after he hit something.

Meeke in trouble With a TV helicopter hovering overhead everybody The final day ended in the way everyone predicted. could see both driver and co-driver running around All top drivers defended their positions, as there the car. But in the end a tow truck had to remove was no room to move up. Still there were some the stricken DS3 from the stage. Mexico was not issues. Latvala felt some strange trembling in his a good rally for Meeke. The PowerStage was won suspension after the monster Juanajuatito test, by Ogier, followed by Latvala and Hirvonen. with over 55 kilometres the longest test of the rally, but he could not find a problem.

Speedy Ganzales and Happy Hyundai Neuville had some issues with his wipers, that For the second consecutive time Ogier won the were needed because of an enormous amount of rally. “This proves he now officially is faster than rain that fell overnight and Mikkelsen complained Speedy Gonzales,” his teamboss proclaimed. Latof an intercom problem just before Juanajuatito vala was second. and both Guerra and Prokop spun their cars. But On the podium’s third step we saw Neuville. Not the in the end not one of these problems caused real first time we saw him there, but it was the first time drama. in his Hyundai suit and that was a huge achievement for the Korean manufacturer.

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Despite flying high Mexico wasn’t Meeke’s event.

Local fans cheer their hero Benito Guerra.

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Round-up 27/42

Round-up Volkswagen In Mexico Volkswagen did well again. Even the two retirements of Mikkelsen can be seen as a proof of the fact that the Polo R is almost like a tank. It can’t be destroyed.

On the first occasion a rear wheel got knocked off and on Friday a roll of the car ended on four wheels again. All kinds of fluids leaked from the car so they could not continue but in the overnight service period, the Volkswagen mechanics rebuild the car and Mikkelsen could continue. At this moment Volkswagen seems to be unbeatable. The car is good but the tem is too. Ogier is absolutely the fastest man in town but Latvala is right behind. Both drivers seem to

be faster than the rest. Mikkelsen shows all the signs of a champion in the making.

He is a bit over enthusiastic at times, causing him to get off the right path quite often, but he is terribly fast and that cannot only be ‘blamed’ to the fast car. Knowing Volkswagen they will take care of the psychological form as well as his physical form so we can see him on the podium more often in the near future. For the championship it would be a pity because if VW starts to realize clean sweeps on the podium where all of the steps of the podium are in VW colours, other teams might lose inspiration.

M-Sport World Rallyteam In the M-Sport camp we nominate Elfyn Evans as their topman for Mexico. Mikko Hirvonen definitively was not doing bad until he was stopped by an electrical glitch. But still Elfyn Evans came out of Mexico as our favourite driver. It was his first time here and he laid down a remarkable performance. He succeeded in getting around all loose rocks and potholes and still went pretty fast. He seemed to be doing his own rally at his own comfortable pace and gained a load of experience for next year. Mikko as we said wasn’t lucky and he wasn’t happy either. He demanded from the team they would do something about the problem with the alternator. Malcolm Wilson promised he would get to the bottom of this. Just after the

rally he told us, they were working very closely together with the manufacturer of the faulty part.

He also mentioned the fact however that earlier problems with the part were drivers’ errors. For example in Monte Carlo Mikko had not switched off enough power consuming elements after he went off the road and stood still for a while. But that doesn’t mean we don’t take the problem seriously and we even have a test planned to look into this problem more deeply. Roberto Guerra, also in an M-Sport prepared car, was reasonably happy. His sixth place was just a step lower than his original goal and he hopes this result will convince his backers to provide the means to go to Argentina.

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Round-up 28/42

Citroën World Rallyteam

Hyundai Shell World Rallyteam

At Citroën there must be mixed feelings. It was Meeke’s task to drive carefully and gain as much experience as possible. But at two occasions we saw that the Northern Irishman has not completely changed yet. In Monte Carlo he was doing perfectly by just awaiting his chances, He was doing that in Mexico too and succeeding (in fourth!) before his first problem. Then a wheel came loose, bad luck? In the last stage of the rally he again had to stop. This time he had cut a corner a bit too much and broke his suspension. Bad luck again? We hope so but we also hope it is not simply because Kris Meeke… is Kris Meeke. Mads Østberg is doing well but he too seems to be to inconsistent to be able to knock on the door to really challenge the VW clan. In Mexico he tried and in the beginning even succeeded, but mistakes, both from the driver as the co-driver ruined their chances. We have not given up hope however. His rally pace stays promising.

In our Swedish roundup we claimed Hyundai might have a problem with the suspensions of their i20’s. In the country that is infamous for its ability to break any suspension, the Korean cars only had a relatively small problem in this field. This enabled them to reach the excellent result in Mexico. After their third attempt in the WRC they reached a podium position, a feat that cannot be underestimated.

That Neuville is a capable driver, we already knew. That he could score points with the car doesn’t surprise us, but that it would happen in his third rally in the car, we didn’t foresee.

This doesn’t mean they will be this year’s champions. There is quite a job ahead. Just look at Chris Atkinson who had a host of problems with the car. But none of these problems permanently stopped one of the cars. Not only both cars reached the finish after having completed all competitive kilometres, but both cars finished in the points too. Neuville was really happy with this result: “Of course this was a real team effort and I’m proud of being a member of this team.” Team principal Michel Nandan added: “We achieved quite a bit today and will appropriately celebrate this result but there is much more to come and therefore our learning curve has to continue despite this good result!”

RK M-Sport World Rallyteam Robert Kubica is confused. “In my heart is a racing driver, I stil have to learn to be a WRC driver.” Malcolm Wilson is still confident about his driver. I’m prepared to help him in every possible way, because I know that in the end Kubica will be an asset to any WRC team. If necessary I will enlist another co-driver. But it is till early days. In our opinion the first thing to be done is put an experienced co-driver beside him. He started the season with Maciej Szczepaniak, an experienced co-driver who drove with Tomasz Kuchar and Michael Kosciuszko. But with all due respect, these drivers are in another league. But we can leave it to Wilson to find the suitable solution.

Rally Gunajuato Mexico / Final result 29/42

Final result 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Ogier - Ingrassia Latvala - Anttila Neuville - Gilsoul Ostberg - Andersson Mikkelsen - Markkula Prokop - Ernst Sordo - Del Barrio Evans - Barritt Ketomaa - Suominen Higgins - Williamson

VW Polo WRC VW Polo WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Ford Fiesta WRC VW Polo WRC Ford Fiesta WRC CitroĂŤn DS3 WRC Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5

3:03:36.7 +21.8 +1:24.5 +1:48.2 +2:03.4 +7:37.5 +8:26.9 +11:13.1 +12:16.2 +13:21.0

Standings Rally Guanajuato Mexico /

Championship standings 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Sebastien Ogier VW Polo WRC Thierry Neuville Ford Fiesta WRC Jari-Matti Latvala VW Polo WRC Mikko Hirvonen Citroën DS3 WRC Dani Sordo Citroën DS3 WRC Mads Ostberg Ford Fiesta WRC Evgeny Novikov Ford Fiesta WRC Sebastien Loeb Citroën DS3 WRC Martin Prokop Ford Fiesta WRC Andreas Mikkelsen VW Polo WRC

290 176 162 126 123 102 69 68 63 50

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Manufacturer standings 1.

Volkswagen Motorsport 425 2.

Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 280 3.

Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team 190 4.

Qatar World Rally Team 184 5.

Jipocar Czech National Team 65 6.

Abu Dhabi Citroen Total World Rally Team 63 7.

Volkswagen Motorsport 2 50 8.

Lotos WRC Team 20

ERC: Rally Liepaja / Overview

Rally Liepaja

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Based in: Liepaja Date: 31/01-2/02/14 Number of stages: 12 Shortest stage: RallyofChampions.com – 10.29 km Longest stage: Kuldiga – 32.03 km Total stage distance: 241 km Surface: Gravel/Snow Image: FIA ERC

ERC: Rally Liepaja / Rally review

Ice masters round two Bryan Bouffier was mighty impressive in Monte Carlo, leading early to eventually finish second overall. Esapekka Lappi hails from neighboring Finland making the Liepaja rally practically a home rally for him. Craig Breen is the only top driver to have driven this rally last year. You can never rule out Vasily Gryazin and Kajetan Kajetanowicz either, so what’s it going to be? Predicting a winner may be near impossible, but one thing is for sure, Rally Liepaja will provide one heck of a fight!

Words: Steven van Veenendaal

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Images: Timo Anis

ERC: Rally Liepaja / Rally review Just before the start Bouffier secured the necessary funding. Just after the start his raly ended after a small off.

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Where’s the snow?

In the days leading up to the event there was a severe lack of snow around Liepaja. The recce was done in almost completely dry circumstances and left the drivers wondering how to tackle the gravel stages on their gravel tires. Out of nowhere however the snow came. And when it did come, it came in bunches!

At the pre-event press conference Bryan Bouffier was optimistic but cautious about his chances “It’s the first time I will drive on tires with spikes, but I have an excellent car and am happy to be here.” As soon as the rally got underway though, he made his intentions very clear by winning the opening stage. Perhaps a bit too

Surprise of the rally was the impressive pace of Vasily Gryazin.

enthused by this initial performance it took only three corners of the second stage to end all his hopes of a good result. He ran wide and bumped his car nose-first into a straw bale. This damaged the radiator resulting in an, ironically given the wintery surroundings, overheating engine.

Started from the bottom The last of the official ERC entrants to start the rally was Vasily Gryazin who ran seventeenth on the road. This gave him a sizeable advantage as his rivals had cleared the road in front of him.

This meant there were tracks to follow and less of the slippery snow. Gryazin capitalized on this opportunity and took stage wins on the next two stages. In doing so he opened up a big lead of

over thirty seconds despite suffering from small gearbox issues. After the midday lunch break Esapekka Lappi started to find his groove. The young Finn feels at home on these stages which are quite similar to those he finds at hom in Finland. Running the stages for the second time meant that Gryazin’s advantage of running as last of the priority drivers was diminishing and Lappi took full advantage. He won the first two stages to half the gap to Gryazin to just over fifteen seconds. An awe inspiring performance on the final stage of the day even put him in the lead of the rally and put a smile on his face “It’s enjoyable when there is a clean line and wide roads, you can push, and this is nice!”

ERC: Rally Liepaja / Rally review

Back and Forth During the second part of the opening day Lappi had clearly shown that he was faster than Gryazin by winning the final three stages. Gryazin had only been faster due to his better road position on the morning stages, right? Wrong! On the very first stage of the second day Gryazin retaliated and showed the world that his pace on the opening day was no fluke. He beat Lappi to snatch back the lead, although it would be short lived. On the next stage Lappi countered as the lead ping-ponged back and forth between the two. Unfortunately gearbox woes ended this great fight. They were suffered by Gryazin who had to let Lappi slip out of his grasp. Still the young Russian impressed many with his performance. He was eventually rewarded with

a fine second place, just over half a minute behind now three-time ERC winner and new joint championship leader, Esapekka Lappi.

Signs of age Behind the two leaders Craig Breen was uncharacteristically out of contention. The age of his 207 S2000 clearly starting to show. He will be happy it will be replaced by the brand new 208T16 which will debut in Greece. Breen was struggling with his set-up throughout the event and never really got going. Being the gentleman that he is though, he would not blame his lack of pace on anything other than himself “The car was performing quite well, it was the soft squidgy bit on the inside of the car that wasn’t working so well, which was me”.

The Fast Life With looks that steal the hearts of men Inessa Tushkanova made a name for herself as a model. She grazed the cover of Playboy magazine and was named the 2012 Ukrainian Playmate of the Year. (Yes, you might want to Google that…) In Liepaja though, she proved to be no one-trick pony by winning the ERC Ladies’ Trophy in 28th overall. Image: PR

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Feeling right at home in the snowy forests around Liepaja, Lappi powered to victory. The last time in the 207, Craig Breen got on the podium.

ERC: Rally Liepaja / Rally review

Juniors Behind the top flight boys, the young guns participating in the ERC Junior Championship put in an equally spectacular performance.

No less than six different drivers took stage wins in four different car makes. In the end it was the Czech Jan Cerny who took the spoils and finished an impressive tenth overall, placing his underpowered 2WD Peugeot 208R2 firmly between a Lancer Evo X and a Fiesta R5. Not bad at all! Risto Immonen (Citroen C2) and Petter Kristianson (Skoda Fabia R2) completed the junior podium. It’s great to see these young guys entangled in such close fights on the stages, proving there is a lot more ‘Serious Competition Ahead’ in the future.

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The ERC Junior victory went to Czech Jan Cerny after a good fight.

(No) Ice Master The second round of the ERC was also the second round of the ERC Ice Master challenge. Due to the cancellation of the third and final round of the series, Sibiu Rally Romania, the trophy would be decided right here in Latvia. This was somewhat of an anticlimax as drivers can score points on each stage and the other qualifying round was the Jännerrallye which boosted 18 stages compared to Liepaja’s 12. This made it impossible for anyone who had not competed in Austria to overhaul challenge leader Robert Kubica as he had already scored 122 points and a maximum of 120 point were to be gained in Latvia. This left Ka-

jetan Kajetanowicz as the only (somewhat) serious threat, but he would have to score a whopping 87 points out of 120. In the end the Pole only managed to add 23 points to his tally leaving him in fifth overall. Rally winner Esapekka Lappi scored a healthy 93 points to move up to third overall but could not compete with the Jännerrallye’s top scorers of Kubica and Pech who finished first and second respectively in the challenge standings. A disappointing end than to an interesting idea, although of course there was nothing the ERC organizers could do about the downpours in Romania that caused the cancellation of the event.

ERC: Rally Liepaja / Final Result Final result

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1. Lappi - Ferm Skoda Fabia S2000 2. Gryazin - Chumak Ford Fiesta S2000 3. Breen - Martin Peugeot 207 S2000 4. Kajetanowicz - Baran Ford Fiesta R5 5. Wiegand - Christian Skoda Fabia S2000 6. Vorobjovs - Malnieks Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 7. Pushkar - Mishyn Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 8. Travnikov - Bashmakov Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 9. Samuitis - Ramunas Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 10. Cerny - Kohout Peugeot 208 R2

2:13:11.5 +34.7 +1:36.8 +2:35.5 +3:16.1 +5:42.6 +6:50.8 +7:15.9 +7:23.2 +8:37.2

ERC: Rally Liepaja / Standings 38/42

Championship standings 1. Robert Kubica Ford Fiesta RRC 2. Esapekka Lappi Skoda Fabia S2000 3. Vasily Gryazin Ford Fiesta S2000 4. Vaclav Pech Mini JCW S2000 5. Craig Breen Peugeot 207 S2000 6. Raimund Baumschlager Skoda Fabia S2000 7. Beppo Harrach Mitusbiishi Lancer Evo X 8. Kajetan Kajetanowicz Ford Fiesta R5 9. Jaromir Tarabus Skoda Fabia S2000 10. Sepp Wiegand Skoda Fabia S2000

39 pts 39 pts 37 pts 30 pts 25 pts 24 pts 20 pts 19 pts 17 pts 17 pts

Rally-eMag / ForMyFriends

Bas’ ForMyFriends

Bas Romeny travels the world to watch the WRC. Between his eyes and the rest of the world he usually holds a camera. You can see the results of that throughout this magazine.

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300 Stage wins! KEDENGG! Cheers! (I like Jost his humor) p.s. the photographer left missed all the fun..

During events he often he sees ‘other things’ than rally cars going over crests. He decided to send a selection to his rallyfriends. And this section he shares them with all his friends at Rally-eMag. Here he shows you his observations and his thoughts at the moment he took the pictures.

Top: F%##$^ Missed him!

Top: Nandan pulled out the fire

Bottom: Petter is still very popular, here in a classic MK 2

Bottom: Mayday! Mayday!

Rally-eMag / ForMyFriends

Guanajuato, colorful houses, shady plazas, fine restaurants, lively, but a disaster for traffic.

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Top: Yes, Mads Ostberg should eat more vitamins, he looks pale.Bottom: This is the way to combine a pick nick and a rally outing!

You know what is going to happen...

Exactly

Top: The ‘Plus’girls..at the ceremonial start.

Bottom: 150 meters from HQ Leon: just married and already caged..

Rally-eMag / ForMyFriends

You are way faster than I am, Seb, my engine is not as powerful as yours, huh?

Please say yes...

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Jost and Seb: Practicing the Waltz.

Ciaobas

Next issue features the ERC Acropolis Rally and the WRC Rally Portugal. See you there!