Rally-eMag 028 May 2015

the VW Train

latvala ogier portugal

Issue 28, May 2015

italy sardinia

Aรงores Plus: ELE Rally, Sezoens Rally, The Dutchies, ForMyFriends

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Rally-eMag

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Rally-eMag May 2015 / Contents

This month Who made it?

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

Photography: Bas Romeny, Erik van ‘t Land, Andy Crayford

Who helped?

Logo design: Minse Blom Backcover artwork: Dam Charles 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?

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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

WRC Rally de Portugal

WRC Rally d’italia

erc Sata Rallye Acores

NRK ELE Rally

brc sezoensrally

Latvala is back

Ogier vs Paddon 1-0

Half a century

Dutch Championship

Belgian Rally Championship

Page 12

Page 25

Page 38

Page 46

Page 47

Rally-eMag May 2015 / News 9/51

This month’s wrap up

Comeback for Makinen and Hirvonen No they will not be driving a WRC car themselves but they have been employed

by Toyota to coach two future WRC drivers for the Japanese manufacturer.

These drivers were the winners of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Challenge. A series to find and further develop young drivers from different motorsports disciplines.

This year’s laureates were Toshi Araï’s 21 year old son Daiki Arai, 21, and Takamoto Katsuta, 22, who is also ‘the son of...’ in this case Norihiko Katsuta – who was Japanese rally champion six-times. As part of their learning programme they will enter the Rally Poland and some other Finnish and Polish events. They will be coached and trained by

Tommi Mäkinen and Mikko Hirvonen, two drivers with a wealth of knowledge that the two Japanese youngsters can definitely benefit from.

Yaris The Gazoo Challenge is not directly linked to the development of the new Toyota WRC by Toyota Motorsports. As we know Toyota has it’s own Young driver’s programme and they hired Teemu Suninen from Finland and Frenchman Eric Camilli. Together with the experienced test drivers Sebastien Lindholm and Stéphane Sarrazin, they will further develop the new Yaris WRC that will join the ranks of the other WRC teams in 2017.

Images: PR

Rally-eMag May 2015 / News

Great Orme is back again!

Wales Rally GB presented its plans for the final round of the championship this year. It incudes (almost) all the well-known stages of the event but there has been a change of schedule. On Friday the 13th (!) of November the cars will do their rounds of the southern stages of Hafren, Sweet Lamb and Myherin. On Saturday drivers have to get up very early for the service at

5am for the longest day of the rally, including the Dyfi and Gartheiniog stages. The start of the event returns to the most northern part of Wales in Llandudno where The Great Orme stage makes its comeback. This short yet epic stage consists of a narrow tarmac road, lining part of the coastline in Northern Wales. The finish of the rally is in the Deeside service park to ensure that there is some action there on Sunday.

Job swap for Oliver Ciesla?

Some time ago we saw WRC Promoter boss Oliver Ciesla, in a completely different roll. He was co driving Marcus Görig in a 1958 Porsche 356 at the Kitzbüheler Alpenrallye. We know Ciesla is a firm Porsche fan but we don’t think he will leave his post at the WRC Promoter. Also around in Austria was Sebastien Ogier. He was driving a Volkswagen Beetle and his codriver was his wife Andrea Kaiser.

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The Great Orme is one of the most scenic stages in the world and always a fan favourite.

Image: Steven van Veenendaal

Rally de Portugal / Overview 12/51

Rally de portugal

Based in: Matosinhos Date: 21-24/05/15 Number of stages: 16 Shortest stage: Lousada, 3.36 km Longest stage: Fridao, 37.67 km Total stage distance: 352 km Surface: Gravel Image: Bas Romeny

Rally de Portugal / Revieww

latvala is back After three rallies in a row of not scoring any points, Latvala was not in the best of moods.

Being a true sportsman he wants to win. In Portugal, he (and his team!) got their act together and the Finn could finally laugh again. Though some people think the best driver did not win‌

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

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Images: Bas Romeny

Rally de Portugal / Revieww

Coming home In the old days Rally Portugal was one of the highlights in the championship. Who does not remember the epic battles of the drivers fighting with each other, the elements and the spectators? Portuguese fans notoriously were the most enthusiastic, but also the most dangerous fans!

This was one of the reasons why Portugal was taken out of the championship in 2001. The first Rally Portugal dates back from 1967, and since the start of the official World Rally Championship for drivers in 1973 it had been on this calendar. However in 2002 it had to make way for Rallye Deutschland. Crowd management (or the lack of it) was an important reason for the demise of Rally Portugal. After a lot of work, started in 2004, not in the last place by Carlos Barbosa the president of the Portuguese Automobile Club

ACP, Rally Portugal returned in 2007, this time in the Algarve region. Due to the rotation system in 2008 Portugal was not included in that year’s WRC calendar but in 2009 it was back again and stayed there until last year. But the North kept on pulling. Lots of people could not forget the battles that took place there. The famous Fafe Rallysprint a relict from the old days became more and more popular and now it is included in the rally that, starting this year will be back in the most famous region of the earlier edition of the rally.

The teams In Portugal we got quite a few novelties with the teams. The first set of improvements for Citroën this year, already had been introduced in Monte Carlo. But in Portugal they finalized their pro-

gramme by adding the aero pack that had to give the car more down force and stability but also a minimal aerodynamic drag and an improved air intake for cooling. To accentuate all the new things the livery had also been changed giving the car a new look.

At M-Sport they have been working hard too as they had to prepare no less than five new cars.

Obviously the first two for their own drivers Evans and Tänak but also the ‘client cars’ of Robert Kubica, Martin Prokop and Lorenzo Bertelli had the latest specs. At Citroën you can clearly see the differences, at M-Sport most changes should be looked for under the bonnet, the most important item being the engine that has been completely developed and produced in the M-Sport workshops.

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Both Citroën and M-Sport presented new evolutions of their cars. The Citroën was equipped with a new aero package, the Fiesta’s changes were mostly under the skin.

Rally de Portugal / Revieww

At Hyundai and Volkswagen there is not so much news. Hyundai’s Evo 2 will not arrive before Monte Carlo 2016. For now the Korean’s are focussing on that car and recently gave it a thorough test on tarmac.

At Volkswagen they already finished their new evolution in Monte Carlo but now it was also available to Mikkelsen who until now had to make do with the ‘old’ car. They did however change something to the car and that was the fuel injector that sidelined two cars in Argentina. Together with their parts supplier they developed a completely new injector that should end the problem. As the fuel injection system is a homologated part, VW had to use one of its jokers to legalize the adjustment.

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Now let’s get started!

The weather had been very nice in the weeks before the start of the rally; consequently the danger for forest fires was high. That was the reason one of the stages had to be cancelled partially because of such a fire. For the second running it had to be cancelled completely. Elfyn Evans had a bad start. All of the sudden his brand-new Fiesta did not answer anymore to the Welshman’s polite requests to go faster. Somewhere in the fly-by-wire system that should make a connection between the throttle pedal and the fuel injec-

tion there was a glitch. So the car came to a stop. Driver in the field and mechanics in the service park were talking frantically via telephone, and they finally found a solution but by then Evans was over time and had to retire for the day.

Ogier This might be good news for Ogier who can’t stop grumbling about the ‘regulations that are not fair’. At least one driver will start before him on the second day. But on Friday he still had a miserable day the extremely dry dusty roads he had to clean did not give him the grip he wanted and to make things worse he had to endure a puncture throwing him back a little further. At the end of the first loop of stages he is seventh, not a classification we see him in very often. In the second loop he gains one spot.

The total distance between him and Jari Matti Latvala, the proud leader of the moment, is ‘only’ 25 seconds.

So his rally is far from over yet. But our Finnish friend Latvala is leading the rally, so he found his groove again. He is tied up in a battle with Kris Meeke and Andreas Mikkelsen who was leading the rally for a while.

Dani Sordo, who also briefly led the rally, is in fifth. In front of him we find Ott Tanak who feels at ease in the new car and is on course for a season’s best.

Rally de Portugal / Revieww

And now for something completely different…

Eh well no, not really, because the Saturday morning starts with a fire again. The victim is Evans, who must be running the worst rally of his career. In front of the live camera’s of Portuguese television he turns into a corner a bit to deeply and spins his car. While turning back he hits a hidden rock and breaks his suspension.

In an attempt to bring the car out of the driving line of the other drivers, Evans steers his car off the road but the front wheel goes into a different direction than the car and a broken pipe sprays some flammable liquid on a hot surface in the wheel arch. Soon large flames come from under that wheel arch and the crew suddenly have to show their skills as fire fighters. With the help of the on-board fire extinguisher and some sand from the environment the fire is quickly stopped, but Evan’s race, before he could get into a nice rhythm, has stopped too.

Hyundai ace Neuville doesn’t even make it to the live cameras when he rolls his car in a narrow section. Ogier in the meantime is broken loose and in the afternoon wins some stages. His blistering pace brings him in second place nine seconds behind Latvala.

Ten seconds further adrift we find the battling duo Meeke-Mikkelsen, separated by just one second.

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May the best man win…

The final day consists of three stages: the Fafe stage is run twice with the

second running acting as PowerStage. In between we find the 32 kilometre Vieira do Minho stage. That is enough for Ogier, a lot of people say. Well not quite, relieved from dust sweeping duties the Frenchman is playing very hard to get and starts closing the gap between him and Latvala by 1.7 seconds. But the Finn is in great spirits and retaliates by winning back 2.6 seconds on the long stage. The PowerStage is for Ogier (of course…) but Latvala keeps the gap wide open by losing only 2.2 seconds.

That is enough for him to win the battle fair and square. It is therefore a bit strange that Ogier reacts in such a peculiar way. He jumps on the roof of his Polo and acts like he won the rally. His acid comment comes later. “I think there are a lot of people who are happy now because the best driver did not win here, they think the best driver is boring…” Of course this was said at a time Ogier’s veins were still full of adrenaline but it does not do justice to Latvala’s achievement. Latvala does not feel offended he said.

That might be true but it is a pity that the best driver of the moment thinks he needs to resort to such words. On the other hand we may not like it but this attitude is exactly what makes him the perfect driver he is: he is fast, he knows how to take care of his tyres like no one else and he is ruthless, he wants to win, no matter what. “I may lose a few friends, but I will not change I will also say what I feel and I will always fight for a win!”

Rally de Portugal / Revieww 17/51

Round-up Volkswagen World Rallyteam Jari-Matti Latvala almost started to despair after his first part of the season.

Three zero points scores don’t boost your self-confidence. Especially not if your name is Latvala. In speed JML definitely can equal his teammate but the self confidence of Ogier is matched by no one! Both p¬oints become clear after Portugal. Latvala was fast and won. Ogier of course was hampered by his road cleaning duties but at penultimate stage of the rally he beat Ogier who was then in a straight fight for the lead. Ogier later showed his self- (over?) confidence by claiming that the best driver did not win the rally.

He was criticized a lot but Latvala said he was not offended. Meanwhile Ogier

drove a near perfect rally ending in a second place and a power stage victory.

Latvala summarized it perfectly: Of course Ogier was handicapped, but I think we could say that on the last day we were equal and I won. This is a payback for all the people who kept on believing in me, where at a certain point, I was not so sure myself.”

Andreas Mikkelsen was also a happy man. For the first time he also had a Polo R with all the latest specs and he couldn’t stop telling how happy he was with the new car. He won his first stage in the car here and ended up on the third step of the podium.

Hyundai Shell World Rally Team

Although very strong rumours said something Thierry Neuville was going to M-Sport next season, the Belgian denied all these rumours.

We don’t know if this distracted him, but it was definitely not his rally. He started on day one with a wrong tyre choice, then on the first stage of day 2 he rolled his car so his ride was just a matter of survival ending up in 39th position…

Dani Sordo started his rally really good by winning stage 2 on Friday. But on the next day he never found the right balance anymore.

On the final day he found it again and successfully kept Mads Øst-

berg at a (marginal) distance to gain sixth place.

Hayden Paddon was very fast in relation to his follow Hyundai drivers. Six times out of fourteen he was faster. And he achieved that in the older spec car. His biggest problem was that he could not get a grip on the cross over tyre combination used a lot on these roads a bi rock that touched his gear box did not help either so it was ‘up and down’ weekend as the Kiwi said himself. But he did finish the rally and ended up in eighth place.

Rally de Portugal / Revieww

Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT

Kris Meeke obviously wanted to repeat his Mexico achievement. He started well and was the only driver to challenge the VW drivers. However he lost his fight for third place with Mikkelsen after a broken anti roll bar but his fourth place was still a good result.

Mads Østberg has not been very happy with the mechanics in his car and again in Portugal it was a turbo problem that slowed him down. He needed a lot of revs to get any boost and therefore he hd to drive in lower gear. Also his championship position did not get him the right road position. On Sunday when everything was right he started to challenge Dani Sordo but just missed out and ended in seventh.

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Khalid Al Qassimi initial retirement was a unique one. On the start of stage four he wanted to release the handbrake, but it got stuck. By the time he could free the brakes he had ran out of time and had to retire for the day. Consequently he had to open the road on the following days and struggled with the difficult conditions. His 24th place overall was not what he wanted.

M-Sport World Rally Team

After a busy spring for the Cumbrian team, the engineers, mechanics and test drivers could present a brand new Fiesta. “This has been the biggest upgrade of the Fiesta WRC ever”, said Malcolm Wilson. “Though the car does not look much different there has been a complete redesign under the bonnet. For the first time the completely new engine has been designed and developed in-house by M-Sport and I’m very proud of that!

M-Sport produced no less than five new Fiesta’s WRC. The first two of course were for Elfyn Evans and Ott Tänak, the official M-Sport drivers. Robert Kubica, Martin Prokop and Lorenzo Bertelli had ordered the other cars. So the client teams also could use the latest specs.

So how successful have all five drivers been?

This was not the kind of result Evans was looking forward to for the inaugural rally for his new car. Already on the first stage on Friday the Fiesta came to a standstill. The ironic thing was that his car was stopped by a problem in the fly-by-wire throttle system. This was a part that had remained unchanged during the renewal process and had never produced any problem in the past. It threw him out of the rally, but the mechanics could repair it and so Evans could start under Rally2 rules on day 2. He did not come far however.

On the first stage on Saturday he went into a corner a bit to deep in the adja-

cent ditch. The car spinned and in the process of getting back onto the road the car hit a hidden rock breaking the suspension When parking the car off the stage some fluid leaked from some broken pipe and started to burn. Under the eyes of the live TV camera’s the crew succeeded to extinguish the fire but of course they had to retire for the day. The next day they started again but this was just an extended test. He finished 69th and last After a not particularly successful stint in two long haul events Tänak was keen to deliver again. One thing was good for him. He liked his new machine that is a start. But after one stage he was the lead driver of his team as Evans left the rally. He then adopted a somewhat conservative approach. He wanted to bring home the car in one piece and at the same time try to score some points, both for himself and for the team. But Ott’s ‘conservative approach’ was enough to bring him a well-deserved fifth place.

Rally de Portugal / Revieww

Jipocar Czech Rally Team The team has been working hard building the new Fiesta for Martin Prokop this was partially done in the M-Sport workshops. During the rally Prokop had to work hard too. Driving the new car, we hear from all the other drivers is different from the last edition. So you have really got to get used to the car before you van be fast with it. Prokop agreed with his colleague and was happy to arrive at the finish and even grabbing a point but there is still some margin for improvement.

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RK World Rally Team Robert Kubica said good-bye to his former team A-Style. This was the result of the ‘restructuring’ he did during his absence from Argentina. Although he still runs his own team, the technical support comes from M-Sport. The first result of this new cooperation was a brand new Fiësta WRC built according to the latest specs by both M-Sport and his own mechanics. He did however not get the chance to properly test his new car, so he had to get used to it during shakedown and the rally. Just like Tänak he did not go flat out. An attitude we did not know Tänak possessed. We know him as fast but accident-prone. But the new approach paid dividend, he not only finished but his ninth place even gained him his first points for the season.

Fuckmatie World Rally Team Lorenzo Bertelli was not lucky he crashed and was taken to hospital. While leaving the road he bumped his head against the roll bar and felt a bit dizzy. However Rally HQ did not think it was necessary to close the stage. Which induced some angry remarks from the team, especially as it took more than three hours before medical support arrived at the scene. He was taken to hospital for tests but was released the next day, fully fit. The whole incident was taken a bit out of proportion when Carlos Barbosa the president of the Portuguese Automobile Club and also the head of the FIA Rally Commission joined the discussion by stating that there had been no medical need to stop the stage and that the situation was monitored on a regular basis. If he had stopped there, he would have been right but then he started to comment the situation in words that were a bit provoking and therefor did not help the situation. We trust the organizers if they adequately explain that procedures have been kept. We don’t need them to react in a way that in social media nowadays seems to be normal but that in normal factual reporting is uncalled for.

Rally de Portugal / Results 20/51

Overall final classification 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Latvala-Anttila Volkswagen Polo R WRC 3:30:35.3 Ogier-Ingrassia Volkswagen Polo R WRC +8.2 Mikkelsen-Floene Volkswagen Polo R WRC +28.6 Meeke-Nagle Citroën DS3 WRC +48.7 Tanak-Molder Ford Fiësta RS WRC +1:56.8 Sordo - Martí Hyundai i20 WRC +2:27.9 Østberg-Andersson Citroën DS3 WRC +2:32.2 Paddon-J. Kennard Hyundai i20 WRC +2:54.3 Kubica-SzczepaniakFord Fiësta RS WRC +4:39.1 Prokop-Tomanek Ford Fiesta RS WRC +7:31.2

Rally de Portugal / Standings

2015 FIA WRC Drivers’ Standings 1.

Ogier: 105 pts 2.

Mikkelsen: 63 3. Østberg: 57 4.

Meeke: 47 5.

Latvala: 46 6.

Evans: 41 7.

Sordo: 38 8.

Neuville: 35 9.

Prokop: 27 10. Tanak: 23

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2015 FIA WRC Manufacturers’ Standings 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Volkswagen Motorsport: Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT: Hyundai Motorsport: M-Sport WRT: Jipocar Czech National Team: Volkswagen Motorsport II: Hyundai Motorsport N: Fuckmatie WRT:

146 103 94 81 51 30 13 3

points

Rally-eMag / Dutchies

the dutchies

As we are based in The Netherlands, we’ve got to show some love for our Dutch compatriots tackling the WRC!

Words: Harry van Veenendaal; Images: Erik van ‘t Land

Three Dutch teams came to Portugal to compete in the country’s WRC qualifier. Two of them were competing in the D Mack Drive Fiësta Trophy (DDFT). For them everything was new the rally was new, the car came straight from the M-Sport workshops and it was the start of their DDFT adventure. As these two drivers may be new to our readers, we take the opportunity to introduce them to you.

Mats van den Brand/Martijn Wydaeghe thought; “Hey I have no experience whatsoever in a car like that. What if I crash at the first corner? I still don’t have experience then and no one will know me. What if I do a full DDFT season?

I then get a wealth of experience of driving rallies at the top level. He started talking to M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson who was soon sympathetic to the idea and so with the help of his own sponsors he managed to get a full DDFT programme for 2015. Portugal was his first round. It was even his first ever event on gravel, so he was really thrown in into the deep end.

On the first day he had engine problems and a puncture. That all together caused quite a bit of time loss. On Saturday he broke his suspension after hitting a rock. On the connecting road between stages 11 and 12 he therefore had to retire.

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This young Dutchman has already been driving in a Fiesta R2 during several DDFT events last year.

He did not have a complete season and therefore was not an official entrant. However he did drive some fast times and earned himself a place in

On Sunday he started again using Rally 2 regulations. Eventually he finished 7th in the DDFT classification. “This classification does not really justify the merits of our performance,” the ‘Dutchy’ the end-of-year shootout and won. His prize was said. “From the ten stages we competed in, we a drive in a Fiesta R5 during a European WRC finished in the top five, eight times. The best result was on stage 6, where we were runner up event in the official M-Sport team. behind Max Vatanen, who later won the rally!”

The young Dutchman obviously was happy, but

Rally-eMag / Dutchies

Kevin van Deijne – Harmen Scholtalbers Kevin van Deijne also has some experience in the Fiesta R2 and last year we saw him amongst other events in Poland in the Fiesta so he can at least boast on some gravel experience. But the 2015 car is quite different from the 2014 car, so for him it was a learning curve too. In Portugal his focus was as he said: “stay on the road and keep the car healthy”. He then continued: “After some time things gradually got to go smoother and we were

scoring times in the top three range. But we also suffered from the rough and rocky terrain.

This is especially the case for the drivers with the higher start numbers like we in the DDFT. The people driving in front of us loosen up all kinds of stones and these stay behind for us. So we too lost some time from a puncture. But in the end we are not unhappy with our 5th place I the trophy!”

Kees Burger (or Juusto Hampurilainen as we nicknamed him) The third ‘Dutchy’ is Kees Burger. He is really Dutch as he lives in the Netherlands and he owns a company there, but his second home is Finland where he does the major part of his rallying. He therefore has a Finnish co driver. He is a real gentleman driver who has a lot of fun but is very serious about improving his driving too. In Portugal he got a penalty for a jumpstart but he did finish the rally in his Subaru in 40th spot in the general classification, just before Kevin van Deijne who was 41st

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Up next The next DDFT event is Poland starting on the 2nd of July all DDFT competitors will continue their quest for glory again. At this rally another driver from Holland will join the Dutchies: Kevin Abbring. He will hopefully be competing in a higher part of the leader board, as he will be driving his second (out of five) event for the Hyundai team.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Overview 25/51

rally d’italia sardegna

Based in: Alghero Date: 11-14/06/15 Number of stages: 23 Shortest stage: Citta di Calgiari, 2.50 km Longest stage: Monte Lerno, 42.22 km Total stage distance: 394 km Surface: Gravel Image: Bas Romeny

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Revieww

ogier vs paddon 1-0 Rally Italia Sardegna already secured it’s (provisional) spot in next year’s WRC. But for this year they changed quite a bit in anticipation of next year. A small sentence in the WRC Promoter message namely said ‘Subject to this year’s running of the event.’ So they listened to criticism form the drivers.

One thing did not change is that it is still one of the toughest events of the year.

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

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Images: Bas Romeny

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Revieww

Before the event

Before the actual start of the rally there was some discussion about the Ogier comments at the end of Rally Portugal. Kris Meeke said: “He should have looked more at the other Seb. He also had to start first at a lot of occasions. He did not complain, he just won.” Ogier promised he wouldn’t stop airing his feelings. “It’s just the way I feel and I want to win, that is what I’m paid for”. As we stipulated earlier that is perhaps why Ogier is winning so much. He does things his way, that for him is the only way and it proves to be the winning way. We however will stop quoting him in this kind of remarks. We do like Ogier the driver; we do not like Ogier the acid cynic.

The rally ‘Jumping in the dust’ is the subtitle of the rally.

And it pretty much summarizes the character of the event. As always the rally route is a string of narrow bumpy roads with a layer of dust on

bedrock and millions of loose rocks that can get stuck somewhere in your machine or can break suspensions, tyres, and other vital parts of your machine. Add to that, that 75% of the roads have not been used in the rally recently and the fact that on-going high temperatures have made the roads even drier and consequently dustier and you have the perfect recipe for quite a heavy challenge.

Endurance All organizers tend to add an endurance aspect to their rally and Italy was no exception to this rule. With just under 400 kilometres it’s not only the longest rally of the year up till now but they also included the longest day in the World Rally Championship since the Safari Rally in Kenya in 2002. According to the official schedule of that day, the first crew had to take their car from Parc Fermé by six in the morning. After 212,83 of gru-

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Kris Meeke had some harsh words for Ogier pre-event. We’re not sure how much the champ really cares though...

elling kilometres divided over nine stages this first crew had to be back at parc fermé at 09:40 pm. That is 15 hours and 40 minutes without any real rest. The previous day they were back at parc fermé around the same time so the rest between the end of Thursday and the start on Friday was less than 10 hours and that includes getting something to eat, going to your hotel and try to slow down the adrenaline rush under a shower, get some sleep and later breakfast, then drive back to parc fermé, get back into your rallycar and go go go! And on Saturday night it is not much different. In the old days this would have been quite a relaxed programme, but nowadays with all necessary safety measures and extremely fast cars it is quite a challenge. But in our view it is an essential part of the game. It certainly adds to the drama if you see tormented faces and sleepy eyes that nevertheless run most stages as if it were the first one of the day.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Revieww

Hayden Paddon was the surprise of the rally, snatching an early rally lead.

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Let’s start the rally!

During shakedown it was Dani Sordo who drew first blood. He was marginally faster than Kris Meeke. Mads Østberg was next. Volkswagen filled up the top five with Ogier and Latvala. After shakedown the cars went to Cagliari in the south of the island. Just like last year, there was a short Super Special in the harbour of the picturesque city of Cagliari. In character there was not much similarity with the stages to come, but for the local population and the tourist trade it was a nice start of the event.

On top of that the Cagliaris got a surprise winner in Martin Prokop, who blitzed over the 2.5 kilometres of quayside 1,3 seconds faster than Dani Sordo in second.

The BIG surprise Martin Prokops early stages win was a small surprise but finding Haden Paddon leading the rally after the first Friday stage was a bigger surprise. Well you could say: it’s a one off stage win, while taking advantage of the situation. But three stages later the Hyundai driver is still winning the stages and leading the pack. Of course Sardinia is one of the worst places for being first on the road. Paddon, being 11th in the

Robert Kubica’s competitive rally didn’t last very long after another off.

championship, can start 10 cars later than championship leader Ogier, but during the second loop, when the stages had all been swept, it was still Paddon leading at the end of the day.

Carnage Meanwhile things did not go so smoothly for other drivers. Kris Meeke was the first victim, when coming out a very long fast corner went a bit wide and was caught by the undergrowth that made his car roll several times. Day over for the DS3 driver. Next one is Robert Kubica who comes bouncing off a downhill section. Just when he touches his brakes, the car bounces up, making him loose all braking power. When only seconds later all wheels touch the ground again, there is still too much speed in his Fiesta. Although he desperately tries to steer the car into the left hand corner coming up, he under steers into the outside of the corner where a rock plays havoc with his suspension. Andreas Mikkelsen breaks a shock absorber mount and successfully finds a temporary solution for the loose part. On the road towards the next stage however the Polo’s engine suddenly falls silent. No more fuel pressure. We have to wait for the last stage for the last victim of the day.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Revieww

This time it is Dani Sordo. He had a good run, bringing him to fourth place until the last stage when he breaks his rear wheel suspension. That makes I t a quartet of drivers who will start tomorrow using Rally 2 regulations.

Good news for Sebastien Ogier who will not have to start first tomorrow.

Four cars will take over dust sweeping duties for him.

Followers The afternoon loop being over Ogier, Latvala and Tänak are following just within a minute of the fast Kiwi. The others follow at a humble distance.

The biggest threats for Paddon come from Ogier at 8.8 seconds; Latvala is already at 25 seconds and Tänak at 57.

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The longest day Though Friday was quite a day, Saturday had been promised to be the ‘tough one’. But Paddon did not cringe. On the motocross track Ittiri Arena, the rally leader loses 1.4 seconds to his rival but at the end of the morning Paddon increased his lead by half a second to 9.3 seconds.

Towards the end of the day things go wrong. On stage 17 Paddon spins and loses the lead then a gearbox mount comes lose and he has to nurse the car over the last stage. By driving as carefully as possible without losing too much time the Hyundai number 20 reaches the finish on Saturday. His victory chances have all but gone, but he managed to keep a

good margin to Østberg in third, who also had a bad last stage as he suffered from a slowly deflating tyre.

Finale “On Sunday we did took a cautious approach,” said later runner up Paddon. “We just wanted to hold on to our position.” Well on the opening stage of the day that did not apply as the New Zealander too another stage win, widening the gap to Østberg. But Østberg on the same stage made a mistake and lost over a minute. With a margin of just under two minutes to his teammate Thierry Neuville, the new third placed driver. So from the he took things easily and just finished on the WRC podium for the first time in his career. Ogier was excelling again. He drove to the finish at a (for him) moderate speed. He was fastest only on the first running of Cala Flumini, but that was because he was fine-tuning his notes for the second running where he wanted to win PowerStage points. And when Ogier does that, he does it right. He won the PowerStage and was just over 20 seconds faster than the first time through the same stage!

After a rather quiet event, Neuville somehow found himself in third at the end.

It’ll be some time before this grin disappears from Hayden Paddon’s face after his spectacular performance that earned him second overall.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Revieww 30/51

It was a bit harder this time around, but really, we all knew who was going to finish on top in the end, didn’t we?

Epilogue What can you say about a man who wins his fourth event of this season? Well he is the best driver around. But we said that before and it is always nice to see him fly over the stages.

Completely determined and always knowing what he is doing. He is a master in tactics and tyre preservation. You know that someone like that will win. Is that boring? No it’s sheer bliss to see him do that in such a perfect way and like we also said before as a sportsman he is absolutely ruthless and he wants to win.

If a competitor is in the way, he takes care of that. If it’s the regulations that he feels rob him of his victory he says so, without any politics. The rules will not change and usually Ogier will win anyway. But at least, because of these rules, it took him a little bit longer in Sardinia and it made the rally more attractive to watch. But everyone knew Ogier would win in the end, and he will win the championship again as he adequately side-lines the competition. But we keep on enjoying the spectacle.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Revieww

Round-up Volkswagen World Rallyteam Another Volkswagen victory is not big news, but it wasn’t a 1, 2, 3 this time.

The best driver won again: Ogier. He had to struggle his way through, sweeping the roads as championship leader, but he managed again without any technical glitches or driver’s errors.

Jari-Matti Latvala was doing relatively well and was just poised for an attack on rally leader Paddon when he hit a bank after going into a chicane a bit too fast.

The impact took the tyre off the rim and that was just one of the incidents. Another flat tyre and a broken suspension, after hitting a rock in the racing line, cost him quite some extra time

but he kept on fighting and won seven special stages, more than anyone else. On the Power Stage he did not drive bad at all but he had to give in to Master Ogier.

This was simply not Mikkelsen’s rally. He exited the rally twice with broken parts on his Polo R. But in the end there was a positive note: he gained one point on the PowerStage, so a VW 1, 2, 3 after all. This was the 55th time Volkswagen took PowerStage bonus points in 31 PowerStages they tackled.

Also the Polo won 14 stages in Italy and won 406 stages out of the 592 stages, they tackled since Monte Carlo 2013.

Hyundai Shell World Rally Team It was an exciting weekend for the Korean team. Right from the start their third driver, Hayden Paddon, was leading the rally, a position he is not yet familiar with. Still Paddon kept on going and fending off attacks from people like Latvala and even Ogier. Halfway the second loop on Saturday he faltered and made a small mistake. But in these regions of the leaderboard small mistakes have big implications.

He dropped one place but had to struggle to get to the day’s finish because of some structural failure in a gearbox mount. Very carefully the team crawled to the end of the rally and could retain the runner up spot. The next day they secured 2nd position and for the first time in their WRC career reached a podium spot. “Words can’t really do justice to how I’m feeling right now,” he commented. We hope to often see him back in this position.

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A puncture, an engine stall and a loose pipe on his turbo were the things that slowed down Thierry Neuville. The last issue had to be repaired by the crew themselves.

Eventually some fast times propelled him into third place on Sunday, handing his employer the second double podium.

Dani Sordo was well on the way to secure a good fourth place when he encountered problems with an anti roll bar that resulted in an off and a broken rear wheel that threw him out for the day. The next day he was forced to retire because of a fuel leak. So in the end he could not do more than try to finish and collect some manufacturers points, which he did.

It’s nice to see the Korean outfit is not too far away from the competition. Only two points separate them from the enormously experienced runner up Citroën. And the team’s drivers all prove to be competitive.

We’re also very much interested to see what their new driver Kevin Abbring will bring them.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Revieww

Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT The result in Italy brought both the team as well as Mads Østberg in second spot for the constructor’s and driver’s title respectively. This was the good news. But Meeke rolling off in the second stage was not good news. The mechanics found a way of repairing the battered DS 3, but Meeke could not do much after his Friday disaster. Still he enjoyed himself on the Saturday stages: “My times were pretty good, especially in the afternoon”, he said at the end of the day. On Sunday he was less cheerful: “Today was just about getting around and collecting some points for the team in the Manufacturers’ World Championship”.

Khalid Al Qassimi was also complaining about the demanding timetable and the lack of rhythm in his driving: “I was struggling to get the right Mads Østberg had been complaining about feeling and so I couldn’t really push. Having the lack of sleep for a greater part of the rally. said that, it was perhaps just as well I didn’t M-Sport World Rallyeam At M-Sport they can definitely be proud of their new Fiesta’s power and agility. On the reliability side there might be one or two things however.

Evans was the highest placed driver but Tänak initially had the best position on the leaderboard. A heavy landing and the following technical problem caused him to drop down the leaderboard.

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But he did manage to reach a podium classi- push on such a brutal course for the cars and fication. On the first Sunday stage he went off the tyres.” Eventually the DS3 driver made it to and lost at least a minute and dropped to fifth place. “I simply made a mistake and it ended up costing us a podium spot. It happened in a very tight corner and I ran wide into a rock hidden behind a bush. We damaged the rear right-hand suspension and the brakes when we hit it. We then spent our time repairing the car and trying to nurse it to the finish. So I’m pleased to have made it to the finish.”

Elfyn Evans had his first WRC drive over the Sardinian stages in 2013 when he had to stand in for Nasser Al-Attiyah. Though having no prior knowledge of the circumstances or co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini he finished sixth. A year later he was back behind the wheel of his ‘own’ car and with regular co-driver Daniel Barritt he reached fifth place. This year he again improved his result in a typical Elfyn Evans rally.

He had some issues, but generally kept out of problems. He did not fight for the lead but

he was always there and in the end he found himself in fourth: an improvement again! Evans summed it all up: “After the issue with the driveshaft on Friday morning I just couldn’t seem to get into the flow of it. But on Saturday we had a fairly solid run and could profit form Østberg’s problems to end the rally in fourth. The last few events have been a bit difficult, but I think I found my rhythm again and I’m looking forward to Poland, one of my favourites.”

Tänak was doing well but did not get the deserved result. He was philosophical about it: “Obviously it’s a big disappointment for us be-

cause we’ve put in a really big effort and we really needed a good result. But then again these things happen. We’ll learn from it and just push harder in the next rallies.”

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Revieww

Jipocar Czech Rally Team The rally started very well for MartinProkop. After SSS1 he was the surprise winner and so he was leading the rally. Towards the end of Saturday however, he had to retire, suffering from an oil leak.

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Fuckmatie World Rally Team After their accident in Portugal, Lorenzo Bertelli and co driver Giancarlo Bernacchini separated. “There is no connection to the accident,” Bertelli hastens to say. “But in a car at high speed you have to have ‘a click’. In our case tis click was not there. Giancarlo is a very experienced and professional co driver. But in our case it did not work.” The team grabs back to former co-driver Lorenzo Garai, with whom Bertelli has a lot of experience. The Italian heir to the Prada fashion brand had his share of problems and retired on the last day with an unstoppable oil leakage.

RK World Rally Team Robert Kubica unfortunately had his usual problems. He was fast again but was caught out by the Italian landscape.

Some bumps made him miss his braking point and threw him out of contention.

On Saturday he had to retire with gearbox woes. Two Rally 2 restarts brought him back to a 30th position.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Results 34/51

Overall final classification 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Ogier-Ingrassia Volkswagen Polo-R WRC Paddon- Kennard Hyundai I20 WRC Neuville- Gilsoul Hyundai I20 WRC Evans- Barritt Ford Fiesta RS WRC Østberg-Andersson Citroën DS3 WRC Latvala-Anttila Volkswagen Polo-R WRC Protasov-Cherepin Ford Fiesta RRC Andreucci-AndreussiPeugeot 208 T16 Kopecky-Dresler Skoda Fabia R5 Al Qassimi-PattersonCitroën DS3 WRC

4:25:54.3 +3:05.4 +4:22.5 +5:51.8 +7:50.1 +8:06.7 +14:57.7 +15:03.3 +17:41.7 +19:12.0

Rally d’Italia Sardegna / Standings 35/51

2015 FIA WRC Drivers’ Standings 1.

Ogier: 133 pts 2. Østberg: 67 3.

Mikkelsen: 64 4.

Latvala: 56 5.

Evans: 53 6.

Neuville: 50 7.

Meeke: 47 8.

Sordo: 38 9.

Paddon: 32 10. Prokop: 27

2015 FIA WRC Manufacturers’ Standings 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Volkswagen Motorsport: Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT: Hyundai Motorsport: M-Sport WRT: Jipocar Czech National Team: Volkswagen Motorsport II: Hyundai Motorsport N: Fuckmatie WRT:

179 pts 115 113 99 51 31 31 3

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Sata Rallye Aรงores / Overview 38/51

Sata rallyE Aรงores

Based in: Lagoa / Ponta Delgada Date: 04-06/06/15 Number of stages: 17 Shortest stage: Grupo Marques, 3.95 km Longest stage: Sete Cidades, 28.92 km Total stage distance: 217 km Surface: Mixed Image: FIA ERC

Sata Rallye Açores / Review

half a century This year marked the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most iconic rallies in Europe, the Rallye Açores. Despite being on one the most remote parts of the European continent (the Azores are basically located halfway between Europe and America, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean) the event has always lured in big names.

It’s most notable winner being four time World Champion Juha Kankkunen. Apparently the event has a special attraction, after all, who doesn’t want to run a stage around the edge of a volcano?

Words: Steven van Veenendaal

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Images: FIA ERC

Sata Rallye Açores / Review

Serious competition The fiftieth running of the rally did not feature any world champions, but did boast the cream of the crop from the current European Championship.

The battle between Craig Breen and Kajetan Kajetanowicz raged on on the Portguese island and there was plenty of local competition to put up a fight. Multiple winner Bruno Magelhaes had a Peugeot 208 T16 at his disposal and Ricardo Moura (who hails from the island itself) upgraded from his group N Mitsubishi Lancer to a fully fletched Ford Fiesta R5. The Irish Moffett brothers also found the funds to join the event in their Fiesta’s and despite not running a full championship can be considered outsiders for victory.

The challenge Back to the event itself. As we mentioned earlier, the event always draws big names, so there must be something special about it. The lush green island provides some of the most picturesque stages in the world, but don’t be fooled by its gorgeous looks, these stages pack a punch. The slippery roads wind through the countryside and around the various volcanic mountains, with the pinnacle being the Sete Cidades stage that runs right at the edge of the caldera, with sheer drops on either side of the road. Many of the roads are very tight and lined with walls or hedges, making it impossible to see the end of most corners.

Throw in the changeable weather conditions (it’s a small island in the middle of the ocean so rain

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Another ‘Battle Royale’ was on the cards on the Azores: Breen vs Kajetanowicz, Round 4.

and fog freely cross the island) and you have one of the most formidable challenges of the ERC. The battle so far Craig Breen’s season got off to a disappointing start when he retired from the season-opening Jännerrallye. Ever since his season has been near perfect. He racked up consecutive wins in Latvia and his native Ireland, gaining him the lead in the ERC. Kajetanowicz meanwhile won the Jännerrallye and slotted into second behind Breen in Ireland. After three events there are just three points separating the two up front, setting a great battle in the Azores and probably for the remainder of the season.

Sata Rallye Açores / Review

We’re not even started… …And there are already some crews in trouble. Both local heroes struggle to get through the qualifying stage.

Magelhaes’ car was down on power without any clear indication as to why it would be and only managed seventh fastest. Moura meanwhile put in a good performance to set the second fastest time, but crashed in right hand corner after the flying finish. He damaged his ex-Kajetanowicz Fiesta and was unsure as to whether he would be able to start the actual event. No trouble though for Craig Breen. The championship leader powered through the qualifying stage to set the fastest and get the first pick for road position. Kajetanowicz wasn’t far behind though, just two seconds, and got to pick third.

First blast The rally got started with a short blast of three stages. Breen opted to start as the final ERC front runner in fifteenth but couldn’t capitalize on it on the first stage. Kajetanowicz caught him to take the first lead.

Breen fought back on the second stage to close the gap and took the lead on the third and final stage of

the day. The difference between the two? Just 1.4 seconds, game on! Ricardo Moura managed to fix his Fiesta to end the opening day in a fine third place. Fourth in was Josh Moffett who had to pass Charles Martin in stage 3 who was suffering technical problems in his Peugeot 208 T16.

Robert Consani had a scary start to the event when he took a tight corner in sixth gear on stage three and went off the road.

The stages bite back On the opening stage of the second day Josh Moffett crashed off the road after the flying finish of the stage. The incident ripped off his rear wheel, and ended his great run to fourth in the process. A few more stages passed without incident, until the Sete Cidades stage. Craig Breen started it in the lead but was in trouble halfway through. “I had zero grip on the second half of the stage – it was like someone flicked a switch to the back end of the car,” said Breen. “I had one complete spin and stopped three or four times.” This promoted Kajetanowicz into the lead of the event.

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Three unlucky dudes! Ricardo Moura had an off after the qualifying stage’s flying finish but managed to finish third. Roberto Consani had a high speed off on the third stage but Josh Moffett was worst of when he exited the rally from a solid fourth place.

Sata Rallye Açores / Review

Not only Breen was in trouble though, almost all front-runners suffered some kind of issue. Third placed Ricardo Moura lost the brakes on his Fiesta R5, Bruno Magalhães overshot a junction in his Peugeot 208 T16 and had to reverse, Giacomo Costenaro (Peugeot 207 S2000) and Antonín Tlusťák (ŠKODA Fabia S2000) both spun and Jean-Michel Raoux, who finished third on SATA Rallye Açores last year, parked his Ford Fiesta R5 near the start of the stage.

Second by second Craig Breen admitted he came to the Azores with one objective in mind only, to win. After his mistakes on Sete Cidades he was left in second trailing Kajetanowicz. He picked himself together though and rather than mounting a frantic challenge to retake the lead, he took a more cautious approach. “We took no silly risks and just kept the car in the middle of the road.” By doing so he was able to reel in the Pole second by second.

He passed him before the end of the second day and took a very slender 2.3 second lead into the final day’s six stages.

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Continuing where he left of Breen kept on setting fastest times to expand his lead over Kajetanowicz to 11.4 seconds after the opening loop. Kajetanowicz realized he wasn’t going to catch Breen unless some small miracle happened and decided to take a gamble. Regardless of Breen’s tyre choice, Kajetanowicz would fit a dif-

ferent compound in a final charge to snatch the win. It didn’t pay off though as Breen extended his lead to a very healthy margin to take win number three in a row. Ricardo Moura is still chasing his first win on the island and had to settle for third again, although he did take the honours of being the first Portuguese. The Colin McRae Flat Out trophy was awarded to Chris Ingram who took his Peugeot 208 R2 to a sensational win in the Juniors category.

Sata Rallye Açores / Results 43/51

Overall final classification 1. Breen – Martin Peugeot 208 T16 2. Kajetanowicz – Baran Ford Fiesta R5 3. Moura– Costa Ford Fiesta R5 4. Magalhães – MagalhãesPeugeot 208 T16 5. Consani – Vilmot Citroën DS3 R5 6. Fontes – Ramalho Citroën DS3 R5 7. S. Moffett – Atkinson Ford Fiesta RRC 8. Butvilas – Heller Subaru Impreza WRX 9. Orsak – Smeidler Skoda Fabia S2000 10. Martin – Salva Peugeot 208 T16

2:45:59,6 +1.02,1 +2.14,3 +3.04,9 +5.54,2 +6.38,8 +8.01,4 +9.18,3 +10.55,9 +10.55,9

Sata Rallye Açores / Standings 44/51

2015 FIA ERC Drivers Standings 1. Craig Breen Peugeot 208 T16 2. Kajetan Kajetanowicz Ford Fiesta R5 3. Robert Consani Citroën DS3 R5 4. Alexey Lukyanuk Ford Fiesta R5 5. Siim Plangi Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. X 6. Dominykas Butvilas Subaru Impreza WRX 7. Ricardo Moura Ford Fiesta R5 8. Jaromir Tarabus Skoda Fabia S2000 9. Josh Moffett Ford Fiesta RRC 10. Sam Moffett Ford Fiesta RRC

117 pts 103 pts 55 pts 43 pts 28 pts 27 pts 26 pts 26 pts 24 pts 24 pts

Rally-eMag / Shorts

ELE rally

Third round of the Dutch Rally Championship

Words: Steven van Veenendaal (source: Emiel Brinkman); Images: Erik van ‘t Land

Before the start of this year’s ELE Rally the talk of the town was the battle between the two WRC cars of Jeroen Swaanen (Ford Fiesta WRC) and Erik van Loon (Subaru Impreza WRC S14). Surely one of these drivers with their beastly cars would win, right?

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Jasper van den Heuvel had different ideas though. In his Mitsubishi Lancer he managed to set the early pace and keep the WRC’s behind. On Friday the weather played into van den Heuvel’s cards. Wet conditions gave him an excellent opportunity to do battle with the more powerful WRC’s. Erik van Loon’s rally didn’t’ last very long as his Impreza developed an engine problem just two stages into the rally. It meant that championship leader van den Heuvel had just the one WRC of Jeroen Swaanen to contend with. After the opening six stages he had opened up a 24 second lead.

On Saturday morning Swaanen was starting to get to grips with his Fiesta more and more and the stage times were showing.

He started nibbling away at van den Heuvel’s lead and took back a little bit of time on every stage. Then on stage 14 an uncharacteristic mistake by van den Heuvel spoiled the fight. Van den Heuvel went off and ripped a wheel of his car, ending his hopes of victory. This paved the way for Jeroen Swaanen to power to victory, his second at the ELE Rally. Behind Swaanen, van Hoof brought his Makinen-look Lancer Evo IV home in second ahead of Michiel Becx and Antoine van Ballegooijen. Van den Heuvel eventually finished fifth.

Final result: 1. Swaanen – van Barschot Ford Fiesta WRC 2. van Hoof – Jacobs Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV 3. Becx – Botson Ford Fiesta R5 4. van Ballegooijen – Findhammer Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 5. van den Heuvel – Bakker Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 6. de Koning – Verbaeten Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 7. de Jong – Hagman Citroën DS3 R5 8. van Iersel – Schop Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 9. Vossen – Smeets Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 10. Schapers – Gillis Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X

1.56.54,1 +50,6 +2.20,8 +3.54,4 +4.03,8 +4.04,0 +4.30,1 +5.41,8 +6.22,9 +7.20,3

Rally-eMag / Shorts

Fifth round of the Belgian Rally Championship

Sezoens Rally Words: Steven van Veenendaal; Image: PR

Fast Freddy bids Fabia Farewell Well not altogether, just his S2000 version. Loix will use the new R5 version of the car from the Ypres Rally onward and was looking forward to giving the car that brought him so much success a fitting farewell.

Although dark clouds loomed over the early stages, conditions were dry and Loix knew this would hamper him in his pursuit of victory. The more powerful R5 and WRC cars would be able to maximize their power advantage. Loix: “I knew very quickly that in these circumstances van Woensel (Mitsubishi Lancer WRC) and Kris Princen (Peugeot 208 T16) would be very difficult to beat.” Indeed it would be van Woensel who snatched an early lead and continued to extend it throughout the day.

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While van Woensel and Princen are slowly but steadily increasing their advantage up ahead, Loix is praying for rain. It is his only chance of through the stage with only the first gear available and after the stage beating the R5 and WRC up front. On stage 12, the rain finally comes it jams altogether, game over. And just like that, Loix is promoted from and things change very quickly. third to first in a span of just two stages. It may not have gone the way he would have wanted with his two main rivals retiring from the event, Van Woensel suffers a high speed off to end his rally as soon as the rain but he’ll take it. The win is the 40th of his carreer and the 13th with Fabia falls, handing the lead to Princen. He would have very little time to enjoy S2000, making for a fitting end of the car’s carreer. it though as on the very next stage his gearbox starts to falter. He crawls Final result: 1. Loix – Gitsels 2. Verschueren – Broekaert 3. Wright – Smeets 4. Allart – Surson 5. Faes – van der Rijsen 6. Snijers – Bruneel 7. Serderidis – Miclotte 8. Van Iersel - van de Ende 9. Dilley – Louka 10. Becaerts – Geerlandt

Skoda Fabia S2000 DS3 R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Skoda Fabia WRC Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. 9 Porsche 997 GT3 DS3 R5 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. X DS3 R3 Max Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. X

1:30:52,5 +1.12,4 +2.51,7 +3.03,5 +4.04,5 +5.19,8 +5.28,7 +6.31,6 +7.46,2 +8.06,7

Rally-eMag / For My Friends

for my friends When travelling the world to snap the WRC, our photographer Bas Romeny comes across many interesting scenes, both rally related and not-so rally related. Here are his finds from Portugal and Sardinia.

No words..

Refill Miikka?

Many fires in this area. One day even Porto was in the fog.

So Jean Todt is not allowed here.

Hah! (Lousada Super Special

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For My Friend

As if a nuclear war had started

Time for a hair dresser?

Oops the podium is the other way!

Extra downforce for these Italians

Uhh what’s this??

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Girls will be girls...

Easy to tell who was out in the field or at service...

see you next time...