VW keeps on rolling Issue 18, May 2014
WRC Argentina Italia Sardegna
ERC Sata rally Acores Monthly News Wrap-up & For my Friends
gorillas in the m
ist... Image: Citroen Motorsport
In sardania, ther e was a different kind o f mist Image: Bas Romeny
Image: Bas Romeny
Elfyn ‘jumping in
the dust’
Khalid felt right
at home in sard
inia
Image: Bas Romeny
Rally-eMag
Your monthly dose of WRC reports, news and of course the best images of the most exciting sport on the planet. We strive to bring you the best possible emag about the WRC. To be able to do so we need your support!
Check out our advertisers, without them, there can be no Rally-eMag! Sign up by sending us a mail with ‘subscribe’ in the subject at info@ rally-emag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @emagrally. Also make sure to give our Facebook page a like, http://www.facebook.com/emagrally. Interested in advertising? Mail us at info@rally-emag.com to discuss the various possibilities.
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, Volkswagen Motorsport, M-Sport..
How to reach us?
8/44
Email: info@rally-emag.com Web: www.rally-emag.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ emagrally Twitter: @emagrally Issuu: www.issuu.com/rally-emag
WRC Rally Argentina
WRC Rally Italia Sardegna
erc RAlly de Azores
For my Friends
The Comeback Kids
It’s getting hot in here
Dance on the Volcanoes
Page 41
Page 12
Page 22
Page 33
The ‘other’ shots
Rally-eMag May 2014 / News
This month’s wrap up
Bouffier gives Hyundai i20 maiden win The Hyundai Shell World Rally Team took to French Alps to run their i20 WRC on tarmac in competitive circumstances. The main purpose was to garner information for the upcoming WRC events on tarmac but in the mean time, Bryan Bouffier made sure the team took home their first silverware too.
No Sibiu Rally in 2014 ERC Sibiu Rally Romania was scheduled to be the third rally of the ERC season and promised some exciting snow covered stages on the iconic Transfãgãrãan highway in Romania. Unfortunately, it will not be so.
To ensure that the event provided valuable feedback for future WRC events the team ran on its regular WRC tyres and fuel, which differ somewhat from those eligible in the French championship. This did not stop Bouffier from winning the twelve stage event, although this obviously was not the main objective. “I’m really happy to win Rallye Antibes. We did a good job this weekend and focussed on Hyundai Motorsports’ key objective for coming to the event, giving the team a lot of feedback and information to develop the Hyundai i20 WRC on tarmac.”
The Rally Antibes - Cote d’Azur is no easy stroll through the park. It contains infamous roads as the Col de Blaine, Col de Braus and Col de Turini which also regularly feature on the Rallye Monte Carlo. This provided the team with an excellent opportunity to test the car on proper stages in proper competition. Still for a competitor like Bouffier taking the win was very welcome icing on the cake.
The event was initally postponed as heavy snowfall made the running of the event impossible. ERC Promotor, Eurosport Events, worked with the organizers to reschedule the event to a mid October slot but was unable to finalize the deal.
9/44
Consequently it was decided that the rally will be dropped from this year’s ERC calendar. No replacement rally will be added, meaning the number of events drops rom 12 to 11.
Image: Hyunday Motorsport Image: Hyundai Motorsport
Rally-eMag May 2014 / News
VW Remains in WRC through 2019 Volkswagen claimed the title for both drivers and manufacturers in their debut season. This year, they are once again virtually unbeatable and currently on a 10-rally winning streak. Ogier and Latvala are far out in front of the rest again and the opposition doesn’t really seam to be gaining too much ground.
they dropped out. A similar scenario loomed or their WRC efforts. Being the dominant force from the get-go is nice, but to pride yourself on your winnings, you need tough competition as well. On top of this, VW is the most critical team with regard to the current TV ‘situation’ and has on several accounts lashed out to the promotor indicating that the current situation is When Volkswagen joined, we all not good enough. thought back to their Dakar efforts. After struggling in their early years, Somewhat surprising then, but no less they went on to dominate the event welcome, that they announced their and win it three consecutive times. Af- continued involvement in the WRC ter that, the challenge was gone and untill at least the 2019 season. Image: Bas Romeny
A Change is gonna come
Thus the second placed driver can still take the win, while the tenth placed driver can move up to ninth, etc. The idea is that the concept brings much more excitement to the final stage allowing for proper live televised events. VW’ Jost Capitio has been pushing the idea for The most significant change is the much years and seems to have won over his debated ‘Shoot-out stage’. The concept is hesitant fellow team bosses and now the simple. After two days of regular action, FIA as well. Details are still to be decided, the top ten drivers will go head to head so stay tuned... in fair pairs to decide the final outcome. 10/44
VW’s continued involvement in the WRC indicates that, at least unofficially, various changes have been approved to be implemented in next year’s WRC. The ERC quickly followed suit and announced they willl implement changes as well.
Image: Bas Romeny
Rally Argentina / Overview 12/44
Rally Argentina
Based in: Villa Carlos Paz Date: 08-11/05/14 Number of stages: 14 Shortest stage: Super Especial Parque Tematico, 6.04 km Longest stage: Ascochinga-Agua de Oro, 51.88 km Total stage distance: 405 km Surface: Gravel
Rally Argentina / Rally review
Argentina goes to comeback kids One thing is certain: Argentina will have a new winner this year! After eight wins in a row, it’s not Sebastien Loeb who will be spraying champagne on the Argentine podium. The other Seb (OK we promise we won’t call him that anymore) is very eager to take over Loeb’s crown. But will he be able to? Let’s see what happened in this rally of the comeback kids.
Words: Harry van Veenendaal
13/44
Images: PR
Rally Argentina / Rally review
A stellar performance in Portugal earned Dani Sordo an extra drive in Argentina.
14/44
Giulio Cesare and El Condor are just two of the (in-) famous stages that are on the menu in Argentina. But the country has more to offer. Everything from soft sandy to hard rock roads can be found here. A mistake usually means a broken wheel or more. Landscapes also vary. The organizers even promised a trip to the moon referring to the vast open plains of Punilla Valley. Some forty drivers had found their way there, including 11 regular teams in WRC and 17 in WRC 2. Dani Sordo drove the second car for Hyundai. He was rewarded for his good results in Portugal where, although a technical issue prevented him from finishing, he gave the Korean outfit their first stage win and (temporary) lead in a WRC
Latvala jumped into the lead after the opening day.
Rally. Team principal Michel Nandan explained: “We initially planned to start here with Juho Hänninen in the second car but after Sordo’s very good performance in Portugal we felt it only to be fair to hand him a second consecutive drive. We talked it over with Juho and offered him Sardinia as his next rally. However Hänninen will be in Argentina doing the recce to gain valuable information. Unfortunately it has not been possible to enter a third car here. We have tried but it proved to be impossible, in the time left between Portugal and Argentina, to organize everything especially this being a long haul event. But as we said Hänninen will be present and he will still have an important role.”
And we’re off! In shakedown Sordo was fastest making clear that Nandan made a good choice, selecting the Spaniard for Argentina. Mikko Hirvonen and JariMatti Latvala were following closely. But the next morning the rally really started and it looked like a Volkswagen cup rally. Ogier first took the lead. And at the halfway point of the day it was a Volkswagen 1, 2, 3 Ogier, Latvala Mikkelsen. But Latvala grabs the lead in the last stage of the day, the second running of the almost 52 kilometres long Ascochinga - Agua De Oro stage being more than 18 seconds faster than his teammate. So he could have a good nights rest with a lead of just over 17 seconds.
Rally Argentina / Rally review
Some good results, some less so… Mikkelsen dropped out of the top classification after an alternator belt slipped off, and ended in seventh place by the end of the day. So before the Saturday start the situation was as follows. Latvala in the lead followed by Ogier. The good news was for Kris Meeke. A bit to his own surprise he was in third place. The following drivers also had something to prove and were doing that. Elfyn Evans was back after his roll in Portugal holding fourth, Robert Kubica was in sixth. “I need to finish here so I’ve released myself of some stress”. Just before Mikkelsen we find Martin Prokop. But hey we’re missing some people. First both Hyundai drivers were hampered by all kinds of technical issues. Sordo was the first to be bothered and Neuville followed later in the day. Mikko Hirvonen was amazed how he could have made such a mistake, but he was out of the rally after hitting a wall. Another one we miss is Mads Østberg. Early in the day he went over a crest, landed heavily and was thrown of the road against a rock, damaging a front left wheel including the suspension.
15/44
Saturday: advantage Latvala! Winning three out of five stages, Latvala was the man of the day. He increased his lead to 31.2 seconds, making him very hard to catch for Ogier in second. Of yesterday’s carnage Sordo came back, only to retire in the beginning of
Saturday. Hirvonen’s car was doing better. The Finn quickly found back his pace scoring top times bringing him to 11th place in reach for some points. Latvala, Ogier and Meeke managed to stay in place before the last day in Argentina. Finale: Hirvonen charges but Latvala wins Three of the four last stages went to Hirvonen. He was a man with a mission: I’m still here! Only on the last stage sly fox Ogier crept in and won the PowerStage earning him three extra points in the championship. Hirvonen took two and Latvala one. But the winner was Jari Matti Latvala in a straight head to head fight he ‘crushed’ his teammate with almost 1.5 minutes! Comeback kids The amazing thing about Argentina is that people with a lot of problems in the previous rallies now succeeded in finding back their confidence. Latvala and Evans both went off in Portugal, which did not prevent them from scoring good points. But more significant perhaps were Meeke and Kubica. After initial success for Meeke in Monte Carlo and for Kubica in the ERC opening rally the Jännerrallye they had a score of problems usually ending on the side of the road, quite often with a car on it’s roof. But now they seem to be back let’s hope for some time to come.
VW again on top, but this time Latvala claimed top honors with Ogier in second. Kris Meeke rounded out the podium with a solid third place.
Rally Argentina / Round-up
Round-up M-Sport
Jipocar Czech National Team Better times have not come for Martin Prokop he has not been able to equal his best ever WRC result (being fourth in Argentina 2012) and has been struggling the whole rally. His eighth place was only a feeble reward for his work, or as his team said: ‘both crew and car are messed up after this extreme rally’. Hopefully they’ll be fully ‘unmessed’ in Italy.
“I can’t believe I made such a mistake,” said Mikko Hirvonen after he went off the road. The mechanics did an incredible job and repaired the Fiesta overnight. From 19th place the Finn climbed back to 9th, including some scratch times. He did this to show his gratitude to the mechanics, but also to show that he is still a force to be reckoned with. Elfyn Evans found back his pace and did exactly what he came for: gaining experience in the car and the event and scoring solid points doing this.
Volkswagen
16/44
Argentina was no different from other rallies this, and last year. The VW team was leading. A significant change however was Latvala; he seems to have found a new confidence. He is now working with Christoph Treier who used to ‘brainwash’ Marcus Grönholm. His advice was simple. Don’t worry too much about things from the past, don’t over analyse your performances. Just get in the car drive and enjoy it. Sebastien Ogier is probably the best driver we have right now. He knows how to
go fast, he knows how to preserve his tyres he even knows how to enjoy his driving and talk about it to journalists. But most importantly he knows when NOT to go fast and to grab good points rather than chasing some extra points from someone who is (temporarily?) faster than him. Mikkelsen was on track for a Volkswagen 1, 2, 3 when his alternator belt broke and threw him back. There were just not enough kilometres left to steal back third place from Meeke.
Rally Argentina / Round-up 17/44
Citroën
RK M-Sport World Wally Team
Meeke’s the man again! They must have thought at Citroën. After having scored one point in the last three rallies he is now back on the podium again. In Argentina he learned a valuable lesson, one he must have membered form Monte Carlo. Go as slowly as you can to get the results! Normally the Northern Irishman has only one modus and that is going as fast as I can. Unfortunately on several occasions he proved that that was faster than he actually could in that situation. Mechanics can do wonders on a car, but the ‘human mechanic’ (in this case the physiotherapist of the Citroën team) could not do anything else than to tape in Mads Østberg’s thumb, injured in the early crash. He did restart but had to throw the towel at the end of he day.
“I’m still learning to walk,” Robert Kubica must have thought. Or did someone tell him? Anyway before reaching running speed, he still has to come to grips with a World Rallycar and in Argentina he did. It was his first rally in such a car that he did not crash. Both he and we think he can go faster, but we said it before and it may seem not too original but to finish first, you first have to finish. That is especially appropriate to Kubica. He now reached the end of a rally, he has to do that some more and then the next step can be to finish first. We think Poland is a bit too close for that, but hey why not? A home win would be nice for local publicity.
Hyundai Thierry Neuville again proved his value for the team and proposed some changes in the settings of the i20 that made he car much more drivable. But both he and Dani Sordo had a host of other problems making it impossible for them to score big points. But, we keep on saying it this year: Hyundai is already fast, now they ‘only’ need to become reliable.
It cost Volkswagen a year of testing out of the limelight. Hyundai are doing it on centre stage for everyone to see. That is a choice they made and for us it gives us a chance to see how complicated it is to build a fully-fledged World Rallycar from scratch. From what we saw until now we have every confidence they will succeed.
Rally Argentina / Final result 18/44
Final Result 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Latvala-Anttila Ogier-Ingrassia Meeke-Nagle Mikkelsen-Markkula Neuville-Gilsoul
Volkswagen Polo R WRC 3:33:20.4 Volkswagen Polo R WRC +1:26.9 CitroĂŤn DS3 WRC +5:54.7 Volkswagen Polo R WRC +6:18.3 Hyundai i20 WRC +8:25.8
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Kubica-Sczcepaniak Evans-Barritt Prokop-TomĂĄnek Hirvonen-Lehtinen Al-Attiyah-Bernacchini
Ford Fiesta RS WRC Hyundai i20 WRC Ford Fiesta RS WRC Ford Fiesta RS WRC Ford Fiesta R5
+10:08.0 +10:32.2 +12:03.9 +19:54.8 +23:10.2
Rally Argentina / Standings
Championship standings (Drivers) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Ogier Latvala Ă˜stberg Mikkelsen Hirvonen Meeke Neuville Evans Prokop Solberg
112 points 88 48 48 40 32 31 26 22 22
Manufacturer standings
19/44
1. Volkswagen Motorsport 187 points 2. CitroĂŤn Total Abu Dhabi World RallyTeam 90 3. M-Sport World Rally Team 68 4. Volkswagen Motorsport II 55 5. Hyundai Motorsport 52 6. Jipocar Czech National Team 24 7. RK M-Sport World Rally Team 12
Rally-eMag Advertise your business in Rally-eMag too! Contact us at info@rally-emag.com for more info.
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Overview 22/44
Rally Italia Sardegna
Based in: Alghero Date: 05-08/06/14 Number of stages: 17 Shortest stage: Citta di Cagliari, 1.3 km Longest stage: Monte Lerno, 59.7 km Total stage distance: 364,5 km Surface: Gravel
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Rally review
Sardinia: It’s getting hot in here The organizers of Rally Italia Sardegna keep on doing their best. In 2014 they revised the route and even found another Rally HQ. For the drivers it meant another airport but the rally stayed what it was, a very challenging event over bumpy roads with lots of protruding rocks that can break your car. Temperatures are usually very friendly, but this year, Mikko Hirvonen might disagree with this statement.
Words: Harry van Veenendaal
23/44
Images: Bas Romeny
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Rally review
The remote service in Budduso’s grandstand provided ample viewing opportunities for the fans.
24/44
Since the rally originated on the Italian island of Sardinia, the rally centre including central service and rally HQ was based in the Mediterranean port of Olbia in the east of the country. In it’s port we could see the many ships connecting the island with mainland Italy. Apart from that the town had an airport catering nicely for the extremely well to do citizens of nearby Porto Vecchio. The real action was central and southern part of the island. Now the rally was moved 136 kilometres to the west, (that is as far as you can go west if you want to stay on the island. There Rally HQ has been set up in Alghero. This town can also boast on an airport, but this one far more caters for tourists and their charter planes. The route
Kiwi Hayden Paddon made his debut for Hyundai in Sardinia.
(according to the organizers has been changed for over 40 %. To start the event the drivers had to go all the way south to a nice superspecial in the city of Cagliari. For shakedown the competitors had to go east not very far from Alghero. On the first proper day of rallying the whole circus went to the east. All stages were in the direct vicinity of the remote service in Budduso. On the second day the stages were not to far away from the stages of day one, but this time the cars had to travel back to Alghero for the midday service. On the decisive (Sun-)day the all new stages were north east of Alghero near the coast, with a midday service in Alghero.
Teams and Drivers Some 57 drivers came to the Italian island. Among the manufacturer’s teams there were hardly any surprises. Hyundai had a three car entry again, with, of course, Neuville, supported by regular teammate Hänninen. New to the team was Hayden Paddon making his debut for Hyundai. Khalid Al Qassimi was back again at Citroën and another welcome addition to the field is Henning Solberg who is expected to drive all European WRC rounds this year. For the second time this year Jaroslav Melicharek sat behind the wheel of his Fiesta WRC from the Slovak National Rallyteam. In Monte Carlo he had a relatively good result by finishing in 8th position.
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Rally review
Mikkelsen At Volkswagen we recognized a new, though familiar face: Ola Fløene. Not long before the Italian WRC round, news came out that Andreas Mikkelsen and Mikko Markkula parted company ‘in mutual understanding’ “We did great things together,” commented Mikkelsen. “But we are different people and our different personalities meant we were not able to develop a really close personal relationship.” It’s always difficult from the outside to judge what is happening in close personal relationships, bur being very close together like in a rallycar and that for long hours, demands a relationship that goes beyond a professional one and apparently that did not happen for the pairing and as teamboss Jost Capito said: “The driver can, and must, make his own decision regarding which co-driver he works with.” Enough said about this, we go back to the new co-driver. For many years Mikkelsen and Fløene
25/44
Mikkelsen and Floene having fun at their reunion.
have been working together and as Fløene said capital of Sardinia. Mikko Hirvonen beat Thier“Andreas and I were just meant to be together in ry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier by a mere 0.2 a rally car.” Only time will tell if this is true. seconds and was therefore the first leader in the rally. So at least he had some nice feelings goFilm of the rally ing all the way back to Rally HQ in Alghero. For During shakedown Robert Kubica set fastest time, Kris Meeke the Cagliari test provided a big scare his first one in WRC on a gravel stage, Most driv- when he landed heavily after a jump. He seemed ers only did the compulsory two runs, only Hen- to have broken a pipe in his radiator. Luckily for ning Solberg who did not have a pre event test him the team was able to repair everything in here, did four runs. Mikkelesen and his new co- time. driver had a scare when their VW Polo R came to a halt at their first run. An electrical failure proved Hyundai Day? to have stopped the car. But during the second The next day starts a Hyundai day. Neuville and pass everything was OK again. Hänninen win the first two stages and after three stages Neuville leads the rally. Latvala is comMikko in front plaining about his brakes. He even has to make After a long trip from the north to the far south of emergency repairs. “It seems we’re losing fluid the island the drivers had to tackle the 1.3 kilo- and I had to tighten a loose screw where the fluid metre Citta’ di Cagliari test as the name indicates was coming out. I hope this was the problem,” this was a shot through the streets of Cagliari, the commented the Finn.
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Rally review
Fire! However Mikko Hirvonen produced the biggest news on his way to the first passing of the Coiluna-Crastazza stage. “We just had a normal stop to change tyres,” explains the Finn. “And everything was normal when we set of for the following stage. Then I noticed some flames and we got out of the car. We emptied several fire extinguishers on the flames but we could not prevent them from taking over and in no time the car was completely ablaze.” All the two drivers could do was to walk away to a safe distance and see the car change to a charred wreck. It was immediately clear they would not be able to do Rally 2 tomorrow. This car would never drive again.
26/44
Volkswagen charge The Hyundai Day was over at the end of the morning loop at the Loelle stage. First Neuville had to stop with suspension problems. He was able to get the car going again but lost a considerable amount of time there. It was worse for Hänninen. He rolled of the road and damaged his car to severely to think about restarting. “We made a mistake during recce,” explains Hänninen. Meanwhile Latvala does a remarkable job. Of course his road position being second was not helping and his earlier brake problems did not add to the “relaxed feeling’ he had before the start. However during the day he managed to
get to grips with the situation and catapulted himself into the lead. Ogier on his turn also climbed the ladder of the leaderboard and at the end of the day he found himself in second. Østberg, Mikkelsen and Kubica made up the provisional top five after Friday’s battles. Latvala vs Ogier The rest of the rally really was a battle between the two Volkswagen drivers Latvala and Ogier. Latvala opened the second day by being seconds faster than his rival. But Ogier retaliated and won back eleven on the next one the infamous Monte Lerno stage. “That could have been more,” fumed Ogier at stage end. “I heard on the team radio that Latvala had stopped. So I slowed down a bit. Then I heard he was moving again. So I had to build up my speed again.” Latvala’s co-driver Mikka Anttila later explained that an overheating warning was showing in the car. “I informed the team by radio and told them we maybe had to stop. Then the car went into road mode and the temperature dropped again. So we could continue.” At service a faulty sensor seemed to have caused the problem. The second passing of the Monte Lerno stage again brought trouble for Latvala. “I went wide and got a puncture,” said Latvala. He had to change the tyre and lost over two minutes. Virtually handing victory to his teammate.
Ogier was on form again, while Hänninen started when but finished badly when he rolled out of the event. Latval was on the pace untill a puncture slowed him down.
Another one in the bag The last day of Rally Sardinia 2014 did not bring much change. He top of the leaderboard did not change anymore. Mikkelsen won the PowerStage and Ogier the rally, another victory on the path to being champion again for him. Shoot out PowerStage In this situation it is perhaps an idea to look into the Shoot out PowerStage that is proposed. We will talk about it in more detail in the next issue of Rally-eMag but what would it have changed in the final results here?
first see the results before the PowerStage, according to the present regulations. They are in this case the same as the final classification After the PowerStage the final results did not change. We Normal Result 1.Ogier call them Normal result.
2. Østberg 3. Latvala If we look at the result in the PowerStage: Ogi- 4. Mikkelsen er has been faster than Østberg, so Ogier stays 5. Evans where he was. Mikkelsen however was faster than 6.Prokop Latvala so Mikkelsen would have been third and 7. Solberg Latvala fourth. Evans and Prokop would hold their 8. Kubica 9. Bertelli places. The next pairing would swap places again 10. Al Qassimi
Shoot-out Result 1.Ogier 2. Østberg 3. Mikkelsen 4. Latvala 5. Evans 6.Prokop 7. Kubica 8. Solberg 9. Al Qassimi 10. Bertelli
as Kubica has been faster in the PowerStage than Solberg. The same goes for the two last drivers in the top ten. Khalid Al Qassimi was faster than We don’t draw any conclusions from this, we just Lorenzo Bertelli. So Al Qassimi would have been wanted to show the possible impact of this rule. ninth and Bertelli tenth. There is a lot of criticism about this system, but when in Poland we will talk to as many people as possible and will tell you the Looking at the two lists further down this page we result.
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Round-
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Rally review 27/44
At the end of the day Robert Kubica went of the road and broke a wheel. But he would make it into Rally 2 for the next day. Mads Østberg promoted to second after Latvala’s misfortune.
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Round-up
Round-up M-Sport Team boss Malcolm Wilson got a heavy financial blow on the Italian Island when Mikko Hirvonen’s Fiesta for no apparent reason went ablaze in the early stages of the rally. Wilson agreed. Even with a very heavy crash you can sill salvage quite a of parts that you can reuse. But with a fire like this everything is damaged beyond repair. We
Jipocar Czech National Team take back the wreckage to Britain, but that is to find out what caused this fire. But even that will probably be very hard as all the tell tale signs have been burnt too. A small consolation for the team was the improvement of Elfyn Evans’s sixth place in Last year’s rally. A solid and sensible drive earned him a well-deserved fifth place.
28/44
Volkswagen Motorsport
Henning Solberg scratched together some budget and found himself at the start without any prior tests. “I can test during shakedown,” he smiled. The everoptimistic Norwegian ended 7th we hope this will be enough to convince his benefactors they made the good choice to support him.
Ogier was sulking loudly about starting positions and of course Ogier was handicapped by his road position. However teammate Latvala was just behind him on the first day so the loose gravel slowed him too. Still Latvala managed to stay in front of his most important rival on the road to fulfill his championship aspirations. Luckily for Ogier
however, the cool approach he managed to keep for a fairly long time was assaulted by Ogier’s perseverance. Although the Finn was able to stay ahead, he felt the pressure. At the end of Saturday this resulted in a momentary loss of concentration. The result was a broken wheel that had to be fixed on the stage. Both he and co-driver Anttila managed to do this very
Martin Prokop fully used his good road position in the beginning of the rally and found himself in third place overall. Though the advantage of road position changed the following days he persisted in driving good times and ended up in sixth place.
quickly but it still cost them some two minutes and the lead and finally, quite possibly, victory in the rally. The championship battle still continues but Ogier managed to widen the gap again.
new co-driver Ola Fløene. It seemed they quickly found back their rhythm as, like in the last two rally’s the Norwegian was fighting for third/ fourth place again. Unfortunately a broken damper stopped Volkswagen him and his fellow Motorsport II countryman Østberg could relax a bit. Still For Andreas Mikkels- there was some saten Sardinia was all isfaction for the team about the reunion with in winning the Powerhis former and now Stage.
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Round-up 29/44
Citroën This rally Mads Østberg was Citroën’s ‘man of the match’. His sore thumb (a reminder from Rally Argentina) did not bother him anymore and he fought his own fight with fellow Norwegian Mikkelsen. The gap was never very big but Østberg managed to stay in front, when his rival struck bad luck he could relax a bit and wait for things to happen. So when Latvala made his mistake he was ready to change places and was confident enough to hold off the Finn’s attack through the last day. After two bronze medals in Sweden and Portugal, silver in Italy was his best result for the Citroën team. Next stop
gold? We wouldn’t be surprised, as he seems to feel a whole lot better than this time last year! Meeke started with a scare by going over a jump a bit too fast. Luckily it did not jeopardize his chances too much, but technical glitches threw him back and all he could do was using the rally as an extended test-drive. Third Citroën driver Khalid Al-Qassimi gathered his first championship point of this season, but he lacks the experience and therefore it took him some time to find a set up that suited him. After this had been achieved he could enjoy his drive again and end his rally in the points.
RK M-Sport World Rally Team His reasonable result in Argentina, gave Robert Kubica some more confidence. This confidence got a minor blow when on Saturday’s penultimate stage. In a nice battle with Elfyn Evans he bumped into a rock and broke a wheel lying in a good fifth position. The last day he came back to 8th place a result that brought a faint smile back on his face. His next event is his home rally, so hopefully his local fans there will inspire him! Hyundai
Both Thierry Neuville and the Hyundai team are doing the best they can. After showing their value by leading the rally for some time the Belgian was thrown back again by technical things. But he made good use of the rally to do a lot of testing. But like M-Sport, at Hyundai they also got a serious blow when Hänninen threw his car in off the road rolled it and ended the rally on his roof. Unlike M-Sport, Hyundai will be able to use a lot of parts of the car but the i20
bearing start number 8, can be considered to be a write off. Hyundai Motorsport N No Dani Sordo in the second Hyundai team, this time. Hayden Paddon took his maiden trip in the i20. He was not completely confident yet. Still he performed well until his 8th place as drowned in a water splash at the end of Saturday. On Sunday he could start again and finished in 12th.
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Final result
Final Result
30/44
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Ogier-Ingrassia (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) Østberg-Andersson (Citroën DS3 WRC) Latvala-Anttila (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) Mikkelsen-Floene (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) Evans-Barritt (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
4:02:37.8 +1:23.1 + 1:32.8 + 2:39.3 + 4:41.8
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Prokop-Tomanek (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) Solberg-Minor (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) Kubica-Szczepaniak (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) Bertelli-Dotta (Ford Fiesta RRC Super 2000) Al Qassimi-Patterson (Citroën DS3 WRC)
+ 6:05.3 + 7:15.8 + 12:19.0 + 15:22.1 + 16:49.3
Rally Italia-Sardegna / Standings 31/44
Championship standings (Drivers) 1. Ogier 2. Latvala 3. Ă˜stberg 4. Mikkelsen 5. Hirvonen 6. Evans 7. Meeke 8. Neuville 9. Prokop 10. Solberg
138 points 105 66 63 40 36 32 31 30 22
Manufacturer standings 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Volkswagen Motorsport 227 points CitroĂŤn Abu Dhabi WRT 109 M-Sport World Rally Team 78 Volkswagen Motorsport II 64 Hyundai Shell World Rally Team 57 Jipocar Czech National Team 32 RK M-Sport World Rally Team 18 Hyundai Motorsport N 4
Rally-eMag Advertise your business in Rally-eMag too! Contact us at info@rally-emag.com for more info.
ERC: Sata Rallye Acores / Overview
Sata rallye AZores
33/44
Based in: Ponta Delgada Date: 15-17/05/2014 Number of stages: 17 Shortest stage: Grupo Marques 3.45 km Longest stage: Sete Cidades – 23.90 km Total stage distance: 217 km Surface: Gravel
ERC: Sata Rallye Acores / Rally review
Dance on the volcanoes In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean the Archipelago of the Azores provides the last stop for sailors attempting to cross the ocean from Europe to the Americas. The islands are small and remote but their location and volcanic nature make them green havens in the vast blueness of the ocean. Far from mainland Europe and with only a small local market, why would the ERC want to rally there? Well, the islands boost some of the best and most picturesque stages in the world.
Words: Steven van Veenendaal
34/44
Images: FIA ERC
ERC: Sata Rallye Acores / Rally review 35/44
Plenty of talent around, even when Lappi and Bouffier aren’t there.
Who’s there? Neither Esapekka Lappi nor Bryan Bouffier made the trip to Sao Miguel to compete on the Portuguese island. The absence of the two regular front runners cleared the way for Peugeot aces Craig Breen and Kevin Abbring to duke it out with the experienced (although not on these roads) Pole Kajetan Kajetanowicz, early season surprise Vasily Gryazin and the local boys Bernardo Sousa, Bruno Magalhães and Ricardo Moura. The latter of the three is not just Portuguese, but actually hails from the Azorean island of Sao Miguel and is the firm fan favourite. Moura usually pilots a group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX but made the step up to the Ford Fiesta R5 just in time before his home event. Although he knows these roads like no one else, it is surely not the
You never know what danger might loom beyond those crests...
easiest place in the world to get to grips with a when there is no vegetation on one side, this is new car. usually because there is a massive drop-off instead. Pick your choice. The final challenge of The rally the Rallye de Acores comes from the weather. Various pitfalls make the Azorean round of the The islands are literally located in the middle ERC a treacherous endeavour. The stages are of the Atlantic Ocean and with no landmasses narrow and made up of soft dirt, which can be- around them to break the winds, the weather can come very slippery when wet but also contains and will change in an instant. There are virtually well-hidden rocks that can rip off both tyres and no fully dry days in the Azores. Sunshine at 9 in wheels in an instant. On top of the deceptive na- the morning does not give any indication of fine ture of the roads themselves they also weave weather at 10 o’clock, really, it changes that fast. around volcanic mountains and to go up and The two volcanoes which make up most of the down quite a lot. This makes large parts of the landmass of Sao Miguel rise up high and tend to rally ‘blind’ as it is impossible to see what is go- trap clouds around them, allowing for sudden fog ing on behind that crest you are powering on. to appear on the stages and this year would be The thick vegetation, often on either side of the no different in that regard. road, doesn’t help with visibility either. Oh and
ERC: Sata Rallye Acores / Rally review
We’re off Three stages formed the short opening loop on Thursday evening. After two proper stages the crews tackled a fiery spectacular Super Special stage before returning to Ponta Delgada for the overnight halt. Craig Breen drew first blood by winning the opening stage but was delayed on the second when he had to stop twice (!) to avoid boulders that had rolled into the stage. Main beneficiary was Kajetan Kajetanowicz who finished the day in second, just under a second behind Breen. Local hero Ricardo Moura quickly got to grips with his new Fiesta R5 and was up in fourth already, ahead of his compatriots Sousa and Magalhães.
Shakeup It didn’t take long for the drama to start once the second day got underway. On the first stage of the morning a single corner caught out both Ricardo Moura and Kajetan Kajetanowicz who apparently ran over the exact same rock which destroyed both of their cars’ suspension. Rock 2, Ford Fiesta 0. With two of the main contenders out already the attention shifted towards an internal Peugeot fight between Breen and Abbring. Neither of them however would make it through the day without incident. Electrical problems forced Breen out of the event just after the midday break and Abbring barely made it through due to some ingenuitive repairs. The power steering on Abbring’s 208 failed on the penultimate stage and with another full stage until the final service Abbring and codriver Seb Marshall had to improvise. Some ca-
36/44
Small mistakes frustrated Bouffier who felt he should have done better.
ble ties eventually proved useful to complete the fix and allow them to continue. Abbring realised he was lucky to have made it “I am not really a mechanic so it is a miracle I am here.” Turnaround Emerging from the battlefield was Bernardo Sousa who had his share of bad luck early on, but now kept a steady pace to overtake all those who were in trouble in front. Sousa was not without issues of his own though. The launch control system on his Fiesta had malfunctioned all event long, but that didn’t stop him from taking advantage when others hit trouble. “The bad luck cannot happen only to me,” said Sousa. “Of course I would like to be winning on the road, not for the mechanical problems of the others. But they had some benefits from my problems.”
Finns are never really at home on tarmac, so when the gravel came Lappi was happy.
ERC: Sata Rallye Acores / Rally review 37/44
Battle Royale On the final day the stage was set for an epic battle between Sousa and Abbring for victory. After Abbring’s powersteering troubles Sousa held on to a 16.3 second lead going into the final six stages. On the first loop of stages Sousa held his own and even slightly increased his lead over Abbring to 19 seconds. The stages had been new for Abbring and he fancied his chances on the second run once he had done them on speed before. Abbring took 8 seconds and then 6 more to reduce the gap to just 5.1 seconds with just the final stage to go.
Running in reverse order Abbring was the first of the two to tackle the stage and his split times were much faster than anyone else up to that point. He seamed a certain winner until Sousa’s times were starting to come in, even faster than Abbring! At the finish line Sousa was just over a second quicker than Abbring and thus took a well-deserved victory, his first in the ERC. After pushing his car for a kilometre out of the qualifying stage on Wednesday due to sensor problems, being number one at the end of it all was more than he ever could have wished for.
Live TV The WRC world is currently buzzing about format changes to accommodate live TV coverage. Rallies are decided over three days, not just a single live televised stage and that makes it difficult to understand for the mainstream audience. Also, it can happen that one driver holds a massive lead going into the final stage, taking away the necessity to push and thus making for uninteresting television. That may very well all be so, but the coverage Eurosport provided from the Azores was no less than spectacular. Four stages were broadcasted live on Eurosport with three more live on the website fiaerc.com. A combination of
on-boards, helicopter and road-side cameras made for a great mix and even when the helicopter shots were impossible due to heavy fog, the nearly all greyed-out on-boards made for fascinating TV. The sheer epicness of the Sete Cidades stages, which runs all the way around the Caldera edge helps to provide some stunning images as well of course. The final day battle between Sousa and Abbring was also perfectly televised and included two spectacular spins by Abbring, right there, live on TV. Perhaps as lovers of the sport we are not entirely objective, but we feel television just cannot really get any better than this. Well done Eurosport!
ERC: Sata Rallye Acores / Rally review 38/44
1. BREEN (IRL)-MARTIN (GBR) PEUGEOT 208T16 R5 2. BOUFFIER (FRA)-PANSERI (FRA) CITROËN DS3 RRC 3. KAJETANOWICZ (POL)-BARAN (POL) FORD FIESTA R5 4 .LAPPI (FIN) FERM (FIN) SKODA FABIA S2000 5. MAGALHÃES (PRT)-MAGALHÃES (PRT) PEUGEOT 207 S2000
2:21:20.2 + 8.1 + 44.1 + 1:33.0 + 4:40.0
6. GRYAZIN (LVA)-EREMEEV (LVA) 7. ORSÁK (CZE)-SMEIDLER (CZE) 8. RAOUX (FRA)- MAGAT (FRA) 9. TARABUS (CZE)-TRUNKÁT (CZE) 10.CONSANI (FRA)-LANDAIS (FRA)
FORD FIESTA S2000 SKODA FABIA S2000 PEUGEOT 207 S2000 SKODA FABIA S2000 PEUGEOT 207 S2000
+ 6:11.8 + 7:51.2 + 9:08.6 + 9:18.4 + 9:52.9
ERC: Sata Rally Acores / Standings
Championship standings
39/44
1. Esapekka Lappi 2. Craig Breen 3. Vasily Gryazin 4. Sepp Wiegand 5. Kajetan Kajetanowicz 6. Robert Kubica 7. Robert Consani 8. Bernardo Sousa 9. Kevin Abbring 10. Bryan Bouffier
Skoda Fabia S2000 Peugeot 208 T16 Ford Fiesta RRC Skoda Fabia S2000 Ford Fiesta RRC Ford Fiesta R5 Peugeot 207 S2000 Ford Fiesta R5 Peugeot 208 T16 Citroen DS3 RRC
98 69 53 48 48 39 37 37 31 31
ForMyFriends / Rally-eMag
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.
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.
Do not go there, Mikko!
The racing horse and the working horse. Or the clever one and the less clever one. Or..
At least, he drew the attention..
41/44
Bibendumisses.(thx Erik)
ForMyFriends / Rally-eMag
Ever noticed that people who work together, copy eachother? In Danmark they have one girl on a rock, here 3!
The twin journo’s, 405 and 406. They probably do stereo interviews.
44/44
Willy, Willy, Willy.(thx Erik)
ForMyFriends / Rally-eMag 43/44
Pizza, lekker!!
Callistemon Citrinus, that’s the name.
Meaning: Body bag..huh?
On the flight back. Remember? Ajaccio..
see you next time