Rally-eMag 035 February/March 2016

Issue 35, February 2016

o o o c i x e m

sweden

mexico

Road to China

Haspengouw rally BRC /mid wales stages Rally brc

Breen, Sweden

#wrongrallyamigos

Image: Bas Romeny

Ogier, Sweden

#powerslide

Image: Bas Romeny

neuville, Mexico

#allinoneshot

Image: Bas Romeny

latvala, Mexico

#bounce

Image: Bas Romeny

Rally-eMag February 2016 / Contents

This month Who made it?

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

Photography: Bas Romeny, PR

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, Red Bull Media Pool.

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 Sweden

interview qiu zhiwei

wrc rally mexico

Belgian rc Haspengouw Rally

British RC Mid Wales stages

Got snow?

The promotor of Rally China.

VW Hits the heights

BRC Back with a Bang

Page 12

Page 26

Page 34

Opening round of the Belgian Rally Championship Page 46

Page 50

Rally-eMag / Headlines

Headlines Warm weather hindered the snow rallies of the WRC and ERC. While Rally Sweden was drastically cut short, Rally Liepaja was postponed all together. The rally will still be part of the ERC though, on a new date: 16-18 September and it will be a gravel rally rather than a snow rally....

Van den Heuvel starts 2016 in style The Dutch rallying season kicked off with a run around the Zandvoort circuit. The CPZ Short Rally is not included in the Dutch Rally Championship but does serve as the first opportunity for the Dutch drivers to shake of the winter rust and prep their machinery for the upcoming season.

Last year Hyundai WRC ace Kevin Abbring made the trip to Zandvoort for a one-off outing in a Porsche 997 but with no WRC stars around this year, it was easy sailing for the reigning Dutch champion. Even with onetime co-driver Steen Andersen (who is looking for more outings in the Netherlands this year as a driver) van den Heuvel drove to victory virtually unchallenged.

...More (snowy?) Swedish WRC action lies ahead as the the Rally Sweden organizers announced agreeing to a three-year deal with WRC Promoter. It looks like the rumours about possible moves to Canada and Japan are off the table for now. Let’s just hope the weather gods favour the Swedes a bit more in the coming years.... ... Panta power!! Panta Distribuzione becomes the officiel fuel supplier for the WRC. All priority drivers in WRC, WRC2 and WRC3 will use the Italian fuel...

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...More news from the WRC sponsorship-front as CFI Markets joins the championship to become the Official Forex Trading Partner of the WRC. What it exactly means to be the official trading partner of a sports organization remains a bit vague, but it is good to see interest in the sport and the world level in particular gaining traction!

Image: Dre Galiart

Clark and Desborough join BRC It’s not just big name drivers that are joining the new British Rally Championship. Colin Clark and Jon Desborough, both known for their WRC radio and TV work will host the recap shows on Channel 4 and BT Sport.

Clark was enthusiastic as ever: “The BRC is going to make great television this year,” enthused Clark. “We are going to have the best drivers in the best cars on some of the greatest stages in the world. The BRC will be the National series, with so many drivers able to win an event. Who isn’t excited about that?”

Headlines Hyundai i20 R5 builds momentum Hyundai’s new R5 challenger recently completed a three-day gravel test at Fontjoncouse in Southern France. With the team’s test and development driver Kevin Abbring at the helm, the new car was put to the test on the rough stages following a month of work during which the team has focused on developing the dampers and other suspension components for the car.

The homologation process is expected to begin in the summer, with the first cars to be delivered to customers shortly after. Hyundai Motorsport Customer Project Manager Andrea Adamo said: “To have another successful test of the New Generation i20 R5 is a big step towards our planned homologation date in late summer. Our testing schedule now increases its pace as we work to finalise the car for production in time to have it competing in the hands of our customers before the end of the year.” Image:PR.

Molly Taylor joins Subaru Australia for ARC return After a ten-year absence Subaru will return to the Australian Rally Championship with an Impreza WRX STi NR4, piloted by Mollly Taylor. Subaru Australia Managing Director Nick Senior was thrilled about adding Molly to the team: “It’s fantastic to be able to secure Molly as our driver and Subaru Ambassador. Her performances both here and internationally have been very strong, reinforced by the fact she is the world’s topranked female rally driver. It will be a learning curve for Molly, coming into a bigger, heavier car than the lightweight machines she’s previously been running. But she’s a perfect fit for the Subaru brand as we move to attract new customers, particularly younger ones.”

The Australian Rally Championship kicks off with the Quit Forest Rally on April 22nd. Image: PR.

Dutch WRC photographer Erik van ‘t Land releases his new calendar.

The best action from the WRC from all over the world in 12 pages.

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Rally Sweden / Review

Rally Sweden

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based in: karlstad Date: 11-14/02/16 number of stages: 12 Shortest stage: super special stage karlstad 1.90 km longest stage: vargasen 24.70 km total stage distance: 226 km Surface: snow(ish)

Rally Sweden / Review

got snow?

Sweden is supposed to be the one true winter rally of the season. But one of the key characteristics of a winter rally is snow‌ and there was a severe lack of the white stuff heading into the event. The organizers worked frantically to get the stages in as good a condition as they could, but would it be enough to run the rally?

Words: Steven van Veenendaal

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Images: Bas Romeny

Rally Sweden / Review

Go/Nogo A week before the event there was enough snow around the Swedish stages but as the rally drew nearer, the temperatures started to rise.

It became clear during the recce that there was very little snow on the roads and even worse, more high temperatures were expected in the days leading up to the event.

After each recce day a meeting was held with the drivers to get their thoughts on the conditions, and they did not go well. Enthusiasm started to slip as the conditions got worse and worse. On the final day before the start of the rally temperatures finally started to drop, but most of the drivers still felt there wasn’t enough snow to run the event. A compromise was made: many stages were cancelled, but the rally would go on.

Boycott The decision didn’t sit well with all crews. A lack of snow has serious consequences, as the bare roads are both vulnerable and destructive at the same time. Latvala pointed out the first issue “The roads are wet and soft, we will destroy them when we go on them with our spiked tyres”. Even worse was the issue of safety. The uncovered gravel would rip the studs of the tyres, leaving the drivers with very little grip on the very fast and slippery roads. It even got to a point where a boycott was hanging the air before the opening stage. Hayden Paddon said he wanted no part of it and would push. Everyone else would do the same, denying that a boycott was ever an option…

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Fixin’ a road How do you create a snow/ice surface when there is no snow?

Leave it to the Swedes. A plethora of trucks made their way around the stages to spray it with a layer of water. As the temperature dropped, the water started to freeze. It may not have looked like a proper snow stage, but most drivers were positively surprised by the road conditions. It was a massive effort by the organizers. It

looked highly unlikely that the event would even be run but their efforts paid off as the last minute ‘repairs’ worked well enough to cope with the burden of 300 BHP World Rally Cars powering through.

Perhaps the WRC Promoter recognized these efforts as shortly after the event it was announced that Rally Sweden will be part of the WRC for at least three more years.

Hayden Paddon got his first outing in the ‘New Generation i20’ and took full advantage of the opportunity.

2015 Didn’t start well for Latvala, unfortunately 2016 seems to go even worse...

Let’s go After the initial dust surrounding the controversy about starting the rally or not had finally settled down it was time to get going. After a disappointing start to the season in Monte Carlo, Jari Matti Latvala was determined to do well in Sweden. Basically anything other than a win would be a disappointment. The likeable Fin had fought through a disappointing 2015 season after dropping points early in the season and never really getting back into the thick of things. To prevent a similar experience this year Latvala opted to go for a steady approach in Monte Carlo. It didn’t pay off as he went off the road and was forced to retire from the event. Unfortunately for him, a similar fate awaited Latvala in

Sweden. A heavy landing on the opening test damaged the car and as there was no service all day, he was forced to run all stage with merely rear-wheel drive. As spectacular as the rear-wheel drifts may have been, Latvala was gutted about another bad start.

He wouldn’t take any points from Sweden, like he had been unable to do in Monte Carlo too. As a result he finds himself a massive 56 points behind Ogier already after just two events. Yes, 56 points for Ogier, it’s not too big of a spoiler to give away that the French champ won the rally and the Powerstage, right? Ogier once again had to start first and clean the roads, but it didn’t seem to hamper him too much, he again lead from start to finish and racked up another Powerstage win as well.

Record Breaker It has grown to be one the most iconic spots in the WRC: the jump on the Vargåsen stage. Huge crowds flock around it, as Mads Østberg pointed out: “You know when you are getting close to it because you can smell the hot dogs from a mile away!”

It is a spot named after on the most iconic drivers the WRC has ever seen, the late Colin McRae. It is, Colin’s Crest.

Image:PR

And every year the fight is on for bragging rights, decided by who jumps the farthest. Before the event Thierry Neuville was the record holder with his 44 meter 2015 jump. One man would outdo him this year, as Eyvind Brynildsen sent his Fiesta R5 flying for an astounding 45 meters. “I heard Thierry didn’t believe the Fiesta R5 could go that fast, but he can join me for a ride if he is unsure!”

The rest Proceedings behind Ogier were actually quite a bit more interesting. So far this season Kris Meeke has been the only one able to mount a serious charge against Ogier, speedwise that is, because roadside rocks have a tendency to impede Meeke’s progress this year. In a bizarre turn of events Meeke would, just like Latvala, repeat his Monte Carlo effort in Sweden. He was making good progress, setting a fastest stage time and closing the gap to Ogier to just over twenty seconds.

He was in a cheerful mood, especially after winning a stage an closing the gap Ogier by a massive seven seconds “I felt good, so why not?” The cheers wouldn’t last long though. On the Rojden stage Meeke hit a rock (Monte Carlo flashback) and was also forced to retire.

With Meeke and Latvala out of the way, one might assume Mikkelsen to be the prime candidate to take second, after all last year he pushed Ogier right to the final stage for the win. It wasn’t Mikkelsen’s weekend though. He was a little off the pace and small errors here and there kept him out of the podium positions. It was Hayden Paddon who took full advantage. The young Kiwi has already shown flashes of brilliance

during his short WRC career and in Sweden he was able to capitalize and give the new Hyundai i20 WRC it’s best finish yet with second. It was a stellar performance by Paddon who moved into second on Friday afternoon.

Throughout Saturday and Sunday he would have to endure heavy challenges by the (near) locals Østberg and Mikkelsen but Paddon calmly went about his business. He drove a flawless race and was rewarded with the second podium spot, nearly half a minute ahead of Mads Østberg .

That third place was enough reason for Østberg to smile though as it was his first podium finish since his return to M-Sport. It also sets him of to a very solid start of the season with strong points on the first two rounds of the championship.

TOP: Mads Østberg in a Fiesta in Sweden is guaranteed podium.

MIDDLE: Once again Kris Meeke was fast, once again he was out of the rally after hitting a rock.

BOTTOM: No catching this guy.

Rally Sweden / Round-up 18/54

Volkswagen headed to Sweden with their usual confidence.

Sébastien Ogier was in good form and mood although there was some concern about the weather situation. But he was very eager to stay on top of things, in his jargon that meant: winning. But that is easier said than done. On Friday he probably would have preferred a speedboat to his Polo. There was a lot of standing water and the spiked winter tyres had quite some problems getting the grip their driver wanted. After aquaplaning his way through day one he was where he wanted to be, in place 1, with a reasonable margin to Hayden Paddon in second. Friday night the snow finally came and Ogier had a new job, rather than cleaning loose dust, he was now sweeping freshly fallen snow.

He kept going although some spectators must really have been holding their breath when in Vargåsen he came out of fast right-hander almost completely sideways coming very close to a ditch, but his guardian angel was working. Ogier in the mean time kept accelerating and simply continued. At the end of the day he looked quite relaxed. He lost a few seconds of his lead, but was still first. Of course he

couldn’t get enough and also took full PowerStage honour, another 28 points in the bag.

Volkswagen Motorsport

For Jari-Matti Latvala things looked a lot less rosy. He did not earn any points in Monte Carlo and desperately wanted to do well in Sweden. It wasn’t to be.

His Polo thought differently and the Finn was side-lined with a broken drive shaft. Apparently that can even happen to Volkswagen. But the Finn’s WRC challenge received a serious blow. Two zero’s in a row don’t mean good news. We can only hope his self confidence can be reinstated before Mexico. A 26th place overall in Sweden doesn’t help.

Before heading for Sweden Andreas Mikkelsen was quite optimistic. This was one of his favourite events and to top it off, part of the route goes through his home country. “But,” he admitted. “I am making too many little mistakes”. Then on Rämmen he had a terrifying spin.“ I will not be able to really fight for the lead anymore so I will try to defend my fourth place.” He did just that and put some icing on the cake by being the runner up on the PowerStage.

Roun

Hyundai Motorsport

nd-up

There was a jubilant atmosphere in the Hyundai motorhome or rather the Hyundai complex, it being one of the largest structures in the service park. The first podium finish for the maiden run of the ‘New Generation i20,’ as they call their new WRC, was still in their heads.

Or as team principal Michel Nandan phrased it: “we would like to see the Hyundai Motorsport colours on the Rally Sweden podium again!” Some of this materialised, but other things did not.

Let’s begin with the last, Thierry Neuville started quite well with a top three-stage time on Röjden (stage 3) but then his rear differential broke on the next stage and this really meant game over for the Belgian as there was no midday service and the crew could not make the necessary repairs.

He did continue but he lost a lot of time. “It’s been a frustrating and difficult day for us,” he said probably putting it mildly. Having lost so much time he just continued to gather some points for his team but a fourteenth place was not what he had been aiming for.

Second man Dani Sordo was well on the way and scored some re-

ally decent times, indicating the New Gen i20 is a real contender.

At the end of the first day he was in fifth only 38 seconds from the lead. But bad luck struck him too with a puncture early on Saturday.

He dropped to sixth and a podium position seemed out of reach. So he settled for sixth and some good solid points for him and the team.

Hayden Paddon was delighted with his first drive in the new generation i20 and he immediately made good use of it. He proved he was worthy of the trust the Korean outfit gave him. The new car and Paddon form a lethal mixture.

Of course he had a good road position but he also made maximum use of it. He also showed his maturity when he came close to Ogier. He kept fighting for his second place but did not push over the limit and kept his own pace. Looking at his stage times, it seems he had a calculator in his hands after every stage and in the end it paid dividend: he finished second and the team got what they wished for: the second podium finish in two rally’s.

Rally Sweden / Round-up

The team regulars in Sweden were of course Mads Østberg and Eric Camilli, both driving the new liveried light blue Ford Fiesta’s. Mads Østberg thinks Sweden is one of his favourites and Rämmen is, he told us once, his all time favourite stage. As part of the route goes through Norway he sees this as his home event. He still is in a process of learning his new car and co-driver but he managed quite quickly to get a certain rhythm and got stuck in third place as of Friday afternoon. No worries from then on. Though his heart stopped for a very brief moment when his Fiesta was on course to a ditch, but he made it and ended in third. With this result he maintained his record of never finishing off the podium whilst piloting a Fiesta at Rally Sweden. In the championship he is also in third so when the speed comes back completely and his consistency stays, Malcolm Wilson can be content with his choice.

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We cannot say the same yet of Eric Camilli. Three weeks ago, he slid of the road in Monte Carlo on an unsuspected stretch of icy road. In Sweden he repeated this mishap when he rolled

his car on the first passing of Frederiksberg, the first Saturday stage. That is of course a pity but it was even more so as he broke his car in such a way that he could not continue. This meant the whole plan behind his first year, getting acquainted with his new rally car but more particularly getting to know the WRC rally’s, fell to pieces. Both these goals cannot be achieved when you retire from a rally this early.

M-Sport World Rally Team

Not in WRC but in WRC 2 there was another big M-Sport result.

On his campaign to attract attention to the new R5, Elfyn Evans helped by co-driver Craig Parry claimed their second victory in a row in the WRC 2 category.

It was a tough fight but their Fiesta R5 Evo seems to be a fast and solid piece of machinery as its driver fought off competition from a number of fiercely fighting Scandinavians.

Non M-Sport Fiesta’s: Ott Tanak was fifth, the best snow result for a DMack driver. Henning Solberg was a smiling seventh; and Lorenzo Bertelli did not make it to the finish as he retired Friday evening.

Roun

Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team

nd-up

This year Citroën, as we know is doing different things than driving the regular WRC stages. They dedicate this season to developing their new 2017 car. Still they will be present at several events and in that case Kris Meeke will be their frontman. In this way he tries to keep some routine. In Sweden we saw a three-car line-up under the banner of the Abu Dhabi Total World Rally team. Craig Breen also came to Sweden, being tested by the team and Al Qassimi was in the third car.

Kris Meeke started well and was almost challenging Ogier. But for some reason or other the Northern Irishman seems to have little luck, especially with passing rocks, that suddenly appear in his driving line. In Monte Carlo this ruined his chances of a (very) good result.

Imagine what would have happened, he was second at the moment of his rock encounter and he would have started the next day in a very favourable position and... but ‘what if’s’ don’t bring championship points, and 23rd positions don’t do that either. So in the end it was zero points for Meeke.

A bit to the surprise of some people Craig Breen was offered a selection of WRC drives for the 2016 season. But he has been driving

for the PSA group (in this case Peugeot) so it should not be too big a surprise, plus the fact of course that he is a very capable driver. In the days before Sweden Breen was al smiles. “I can’t believe I got this chance,” he keeps on saying. He keeps on referring to his DS 3 as a PlayStation.

He knows however that Sweden is anything but play. He first has to master his DS3 in very special conditions and has to do that in a very convincing way: he has to impress his benefactors and lure them into a long-term contract for future years. No easy task for sure!

But he did impress friend and foe.

Especially when he managed to pass the 24K Svullrya stage, 1.3 seconds faster than Ogier. In the end he could be happy as his 8th place under these circumstances showed quite some potential.

Khaleid Al Qassimi was also present in Sweden. He likes to drive some rounds every year, but this year he felt a bit ill at ease and his 19th place was proof of that.

Overall final classification 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Ogier-Ingrassia Paddon-Kennard Ostberg-Floene Mikkelsen-Jaeger Tanak-Molder Sordo-Marti Solberg-Minor Breen-Martin Evans-Parry Suninen-Markkula

VW Polo WRC Hyundai i20 WRC Ford Fiesta WRC VW Polo WRC Ford Fiesta WRC Hyundai i20 WRC Ford Fiesta WRC CitroĂŤn DS3 WRC Ford Fiesta R5 Skoda Fabia R5

1:59:47.4 +29.8 +55.6 +1:10.8 +1:50.7 +2:24.0 +2:40.0 +2:44.6 +5:17.0 +5:31.6

Rally Sweden / Standings 23/54

2016 FIA WRC Drivers’ Standings 1.

Sebastien Ogier 56 2.

Andreas Mikkelsen 33 3.

Mads Østberg 27 4.

Dani Sordo 18 5.

Ott Tanak 16 6.

Thierry Neuville 15 7.

Stéphane Lefebvre 10 8.

Elfyn Evans 6 9.

Henning Solberg 6 10. Craig Breen 4

2016 FIA WRC Manufacturers’ Standings 1.

Volkswagen Motorsport 54 2.

Hyundai Motorsport 49 3.

Volkswagen Motorsport II 30 4.

M-Sport World Rally Team 30 5.

DMACK World Rally Team 18 6.

Hyundai Motorsport N 14

the road to china ptI1

Feature / The Road to China

Qiu Zhiwei Senior Vice President LeSports

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Words and mages: Harry van Veenendaal

In our second Road to China story we talk to Qiu Zhiwei, the senior vice president of event operations at Le Sports. This company is part of the Chinese media conglomerate Leshi Internet Information & Technology (LeTV in short). It is the biggest on-line video provider of China and as such is distributing unique content to its clients via Internet. Last year LeSport became promoter for the Rally of China for a period of three years.

It also acquired all media rights for WRC in China. This means Chinese fans can now watch all WRC events via the platforms of LeSports. >>

Feature / The Road to China

We talked to Mr Qiu Zhiwei on the terrace of the prestigious Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo where he earlier presented his company’s plans for the 2016 Rally of China. But we first asked him to inform us about his company.

in China. For example we own the exclusive media rights for Formula One. So Chinese fans can only see F1 through our platforms.

Our mother company LeEco also produces smart TV’s and smart phones and we also have our applications, so from the moment you have downloaded our applications on your device, being it a Qiu: LeSport is a relatively new branch of LeTV. Our main aim is to laptop, tablet or whatever, you can watch our content. This also provide exclusive content to our customers. We now employ some applies to our smart TV’s. Last year we sold some five million sets 5000 people in all sectors of LeTv. We have four business sectors, of smart TV’s in China, so that’s huge. apart from the media streaming business, we have the content business, the event management and operations, we have intel- ReM: Why did you come to WRC? ligent hardware and we also have Internet applications and ser- Qiu: Being a new company we need to develop our own IP stratvices. egy rapidly. There are two ways to develop our IP in China. One is to partner with a strong international IP like WRC and the other Media rights way is to create our own IP’s. An example is the running business We now have media rights to more than 200 different sports events like the marathon or a lot of other running events, that we created in China. So we are the absolute number one media rights holder in China on our own.

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Rallying was the gateway for Chinese people to experience a racing event

Looking at football we partnered with the US company Relevent and with them we brought the international Challenge Cup to China. In the racing world we partnered with WRC Promoter to bring a WRC event to China. Because this is one of the top level events in that category and is not easy for us to create that on our own from scratch. So we now have several fronts with football and racing and maybe later we will add cycling events. But we will always exclusively partner with the best company in the world.

ReM: Is your focus on China or on the whole world?

Qiu: We aim globally. We have expended our business to the US and to Hong Kong. For example we hold the exclusive media rights for the Premier League for Hong Kong. Everyone who wants to show this in Hong Kong has to buy it from us. In the States we are now starting our business by selling our hardware like TV’s or smartphones. We sell the hardware for a very low price including a one or two year membership fee to our channels. So the minute you start using our hardware you start watching our content and after two years you have to pay for the membership…

ReM: So then you’re hooked..

Qiu: (chuckling) Yeah yeah…

ReM: Do you have any experience in organizing rally events, which are a particularly special kind of event to organize?

Exactly, but we have an experienced team. It’s true the company is new but the majority of our team especially the events operations team worked for large sports companies or sports brands. I for example I worked for NBA in China for 10 years and prior to that I worked for another sports related company for six years and a dedicated team. We have one man who is in charge of a dedicated team working on the WRC and that team is now working for the China rally and some other racing events in China.

In short all the teams are experienced people from different kinds of sports industries in China.

ReM: What about the Chinese people do they like rallying?

Qiu: Yeah actually it is not new to them.

In 1985 we had a rally called the Hong Kong to Beijing Rally and in 1999 we had the first WRC event here. So although this was 17 years ago it is not completely new to the Chinese fans and actually WRC was the first racing event that came to this country. Even prior to F1 so rallying was the door for Chinese people to experience a racing event so they have some inner feeling, a connection to this kind of event.

Feature / The Road to China

This year is the perfect timing to bring the WRC back to China

If you watch F1 you obviously see formula cars, but unlike in rallying, these are not the cars you may drive or actually see in the streets. Plus the fact that the China automobile market is absolutely number one in the world. The city of Beijing alone has some six million vehicles and everyone has a car and therefore people are interested and want to know more about the culture of racing events. As I said we have Formula 1 on our platform, we have other racing events on our platform so we used that content, to educate our fans how to watch that and many of them tried it, so I thinks this year is the perfectly right timing to bring the WRC back to China.

We have strong confidence that we make a great success.

ReM: What about accommodation?

Qiui: No worries at all! Actually the Huairou District, the area where we are going to stage the rally, was the same district where they held the APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Conference with presidents from all of the Asia Pacific area for example Japan, Korea but also president Obama. So the infrastructure is awesome. They have all kinds of hotels and the roads are awesome, the environment is awesome too. They have the best air condition of the Beijing area. It is very conveniently situated. From the airport to this area is only a forty minutes drive it’s al highway So I don’t see any problem there.

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ReM: Can you tell us something about the ReM: Now for something else: We have area and will you use the unique scenery? not been to China 1999 but we heard it was Qiute difficult to get there with visa, Qiu: Well we will definitely have the Great driving licences and such. How will this Wall as a background for sure and there is be this year? a beautiful lake the Yanqi Lake and I think autumn is the best season. First of all the Qiu: Actually we are working very close temperature is awesome, the sky is blue together with the Chinese government to and the other thing is that the leaves on get a special permission for the journal- the trees are turning red and yellow, so ists to apply for visa’s for this event. In that will be very beautiful. And of course China with an event of this scale we nor- some cultural elements, typical Chinese mally work with the central government cultural elements will be included. very closely. We are working with them on some special arrangements to make So the only thing I can say is: come to sure all the foreign journalists and other Rally China, you’ll have a great experiinterested people can get their visa’s in ence! time and obviously we will help all media representatives with whatever they need.

Next up

So with the words of Mr Qiu Zhiwei we learned a lot about the company behind the Rally of China. It all looks good but we also want to learn from the past. So in the next issue we will bring you back to 1999, talking to someone who has actually been there. Mark Wilford, spokesman for the Ford team at the time will share his experiences in part three of The Road to China.

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Review

Rally guanajuato Mexico

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based in: leon Date: 03-06/03/16 number of stages: 21 Shortest stage: Street Stage Guanjuato 1.09 km longest stage: Guanajuato 80 km (Longest stage in WRC history) total stage distance: 399 km Surface: gravel

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Review

VW hits the heights in Mexico Traditionally Mexico is the first gravel event of the season, the first ‘long haul’ event and it includes the swap from winter weather to the summer season. This year it also marked the 100th event of Sebastien Ogier the best driver of this era. Mexico is also one of the worst events for the championshipleader. The thick gravel does not provide the amount of grip you would like to have (or need) to win.

Ogier is leading the championship and he likes to win, so you could say he doesn’t like his role of road sweeper.

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

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Images: Bas Romeny

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Review

Everyone was happy to go back into the sunshine and somewhat higher temperatures. So the atmosphere as usual was cheerful.

There was also some anticipation on the new marathon stage: The 80 kilometres Juanajuato stage.

There has been speculation about this stage for quite some time, but now it was there, Most of the roads have been used as rally stages before but never before have they been connected to form a stage this long. As a matter of fact it is the all time longest stage in the official WRC since it’s beginning.

It took Ogier’s co-driver Julien Ingrassia over one hundred pages of his notepad to write down the notes just for this stage. Another fact about this stage is that it will be run on Sunday. That means on the Sunday anything can happen. “On

a stage like that.” Mads Østberg explained. “You can easily win or lose 40 seconds. That means you really have to compete on Sunday. Usually there are two modes on Sunday: Maximum attack if you’re close enough to the driver in front of you or just control if the distance between you and the one behind you is big enough. But with this stage you never know, so you have to continue as if it were the first stage.” We can see the smile on WRC Promoter Oliver Ciesla’s face after having heard this comment. A fight on Sunday is exactly what he wants. And for the public there is also the Guanajuato Street stage. Just over a kilometre of street stage through tunnels and streets lined by thousands of enthused spectators.

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Present for recce but not competing During the recce we saw all drivers trying to get the notes right. Still there were some drivers that did not appear on the entry list. The highest profile had Kris Meeke, who as we know will not drive in Mexico nor Argentina on his reduced 2016 programme. We even saw pictures of him on a mountain bike. We hope this was a fitness exercise and not to write notes. In 2017 he will be able to use this ex-

perience when he will be competing a full season again. The other drivers present but not competing were Juho Hänninen and Hyundai test driver Kevin Abbring. They were all there to prepare for following years. Abbring’s contract for example includes recce presence at all WRC events for this reason.

Massive crowds gathered for the start of the rally in the streets of Guanajuato.

Thursday evening was the usual set of spectator stages. On the first one the Guanajuato street stage it was Thierry Neuville who blasted fastest through the streets of the old silver town. Second, like last year was Lorenzo Bertelli. The next Super Special Stage had two runs.

Both were won by Sebastien Ogier and, made him the overnight rally leader. Thierry Neuville snatched second spot and Latvala was third, some 3,5 second behind Ogier.

Latvala flew to multiple fastest stage times early on to build a solid lead.

Ogier was trailing a huge cloud of dust tackling the morning stages.

His car, though perfectly under control, was sliding all over the place. Latvala started further back in the field from eighth place and had a considerably smaller cloud of dust.

The result on the first

run of the 54 kilometre long El Chocolate stage was a 20 second gap between him and Ogier. That was not enough for the Finn as he continued to collect fastest times on most of the following stages.

The result was a solid, Ogier like, lead of 32 seconds. Ogier still was faster than anyone but Latvala, his nearest rival being Sordo at 43 seconds! Neuville did not make it to the finish of day one. After a heavy landing he slid off the road into a bank and broke his steering.

On Saturday Latvala continued what he had been doing on Friday: winning stages. He won them all, with the exception of some of the show stages. “It’s no use attacking any more,” Ogier sighed. “So I will stop challenging Jari-Matti and focus on winning some points in the PowerStage!”

Tyre trouble Mexico is known for it’s high altitudes. This influences engine performance but equally important are temperatures, with chilly mornings and hot days. This obviously means he drivers have to carefully select thier tyre cocktail. The drivers could choose between, hard and soft compounds. The soft ones are more suited to cool weather and/or low-grip stages, while the harder variant is perfect for higher

temperatures. This sounds clear but it is not that easy. A long stage like Guanajuato does not necessarily mean a hard compound because of the length of it. Ogier is usually the master in choosing the right tyres and controlling tyrewear, but he was hampered by his starting position and Latvala was near perfect in his tyre choice. Cross mixing hard and soft compounds proved to be the best solution.

Neuville Unfortunately Thierry Neuville again failed to finish the day. He started well being second fastest on the first Ibarilla stage. On the next one, Otates, however things went wrong. “I got caught in a twisty section and had a hard impact,” he could luckily explain later. After some checks the doctors declared both him and co-driver Nicolas completely fit. But the Belgian’s self confidence must be injured quite a bit after ending the rally with two major offs.

the situation. Though Hayden Paddon showed a very promising achievement in third but he still loses 35 seconds to Latvala!

PowerStage Ogier kept his promise. He won the PowerStage, second place overall plus 3 extra points. Latvala however kept going. He won the rally and delivered second spot on the stage so also some extra points. The unhappiest man of the day was Sordo.

He was happy being third overall when after the finish he was penalized for a tyre infringement and lost third place to Mads ØstFinal On Sunday there were just two berg with less than 2 seconds! stages left. Still everyone was quite nervous. Of course Sebastien Ogier is not a man to just surrender. So though Latvala has a strong lead you never know. Especially not if the first of these two stages is Guanajuato: 80 kilometres of twisty mountain TOP: Mads Østberg is keeping his podium roads where anything can hapscoring form going, albeit with a little help pen. Plus the fact that for the from Hyundai. first time during this event OgiMIDDLE: Depite flying from time to time, er does not have to start first!

Ogier could not overcome his road posiAt the end of this stage we see tion and had to settle for second. something that we really already knew. Ogier is in a league of his BOTTOM: It’s good to see Latvala back own, but Latvala in a good frame on the top step of the podium after his dismal outings in Monte Carlo and Sweden. of mind is too and very near to Ogier’s league. OK the Finn loses 25 seconds, but he is not fully charging, he is just controlling

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Round-up

In the time between Sweden and Mexico there were some rumours VW would quit WRC at the end of 2016 but the highest authority in the VW concern confirmed the brand’s WRC presence till at least 2019. So the company’s cost reduction is not affecting their WRC efforts. So in the service park was cake. But for another occasion: the Sebastien Ogier’s 100th WRC event. The Frenchman was all smiles and even brought his wife to take part in the celebrations.

But as far as competition was concerned he was less cheerful. Mexico means a lot of loose gravel and being the leader in the championship he would have to start first on all days but Sunday. But he seems to resign to his fate and just said: “That’s the rules and we have to work with them. I will do my best, but perhaps that will not be enough.” As we know, Ogier ‘doing his best’ makes him almost unbeatable, as the rally proved again. Behind him he had a two minutes gap. So his goal: controlling the ones closest to him in the championship was reached.

has not yet been very successful in the championship with zero points behind his name. However in Mexico Latvala seemed to have found the proper frame of mind again. He did everything right. Of course his starting position helped, but he made excellent use of it, first by driving as fast as he safely could and secondly by a perfect tyre choice.

His confidence did not falter and this mixture made him invincible. He showed that by the way he drove the ‘marathon stage’, controlling his speed, knowing he would lose some time but he limited his losses. On the PowerStage he did the same. He lost five seconds to Ogier but being second, still earned him 2 bonus points. He is not a challenger yet, but his sixth place in the championship gives him a favourable starting position in Argentina, where again starting position really matters.

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Andreas Mikkelsen couldn’t cash his fastest shakedown time. On Friday, while fighting with Sordo, he had a slight off that wrecked his suspension, after that his cars handled like a snake, he said. His next day’s Otates test, Jari-Matti Latvala in front of Ogier where he missed a corner, was did not fit in this category, as he the end of his rally.

Volkswagen Motorsport

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Hyundai Motorsport

nd-up

At Hyundai everything was focussed on getting the third podium in succession. And things looked good right from the start. Belgian ace Thierry Neuville seemed to have found his groove again and on the first stage through the tunnels and crowded streets of Guanajuato he dove a scratch on the two following stages he was third so at the end of day one he was second at just under two seconds behind Ogier. The next day however things went wrong: he threw his i20 over a crest and made an awkward landing, he spun and ended up into a bank that broke his suspension. That was the end of day 2 for Neuville. On Saturday he started again only to hit even more trouble. In a twisty section he lost control and went off quite violently. Both crewmembers were taken to hospital for a precautionary check up, but both were OK. We hope these incidents will not affect his self-confidence, as we don’t want to see such a talented driver perform again as last year.

rear, a throttle that had a mind of his own and to top it all a warning light on his dashboard, indicating an overheating engine caused by a broken radiator fan. But he could relax after Mikkelsen had gone off.

In the end everything went right he could celebrate Hyundai’s third podium position in a row.

Then a report by a technical delegate came in. It stated Hyundai had used 29 (instead of the 28 allowed) tyres on Sordo’s car. Teammanager Penasse took the blame and explained: “Due to an obvious communication error this morning, Sordo’s car was fitted with three new tyres and two used ones, instead of three used and two new.

We will analyse the problem and see how this could happen, but it doesn’t change the situation that Sordo did a good job”.

The same can be said about Hayden Paddon. Like Sordo he had to overcome several glitches both in his own driving and for technical reasons. But in the end Meanwhile teammate Dani Sordo he was fifth and that was a good was in a constant battle for third position for the Kiwi. place. He almost reached it comfortably. But it was no easy ride and Sordo’s face did not always reflect his position on the leader board. Quite often we heard him complaining about a wandering

Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Round-up

At Volkswagen they had a centennial with Ogier’s 100th WRC event, at M-Sport they even had a bi-centennial with the 200th consecutive points finish of an M-Sport manufactured Ford. The first point scoring finish of this series was in 2002 when Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae were third and fourth respectively in Monte Carlo. In Mexico Mads Østberg and Eric Camilli bridged the gap to the 200th point scorer. N the history of the WRC it is the first that a team achieved this result.

Since 1997 when M-Sport started the collaboration with Ford the team gathered 51 WRC wins, 202 podium finishes and 1171 scratches on the stages. That is quite an achievement.

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Not just this jubilee was a cause for celebration. Mads Østberg’s podium finish was another one.

Still Østberg was not completely happy. He could not find the reason why there was such a gap between him and the (VW) front-runners. He had the feeling the car was performing well and he also felt his driving was OK. But the gap to the winner was more than 5.5 minute. According to his own idea that was too much. Still the Norwegian is second in the championship at this

moment and he earned that by being extremely consistent. So it was with mixed feelings he left Mexico. Of course happy with his result but at the same time being aware of the fact that Dani Sordo took over his role as VW challenger.

For Eric Camilli Mexico has not been easy as it will be his first experience on the high altitude gravel stages of Mexico. As there is so much new he wanted to introduce some familiarity back in the car and therefore former codriver Benjamin Veillas joined him again. His goal: to gain as much experience as possible to build some confidence for the upcoming European events. At least he got a small boost from an award he was presented in his French hometown Nice stating he was one of the most accomplished sportsman in the city. Though he had been matching Østberg’s times at quite a few stages he was hampered by a puncture and on Saturday he broke his steering. On the last day he finished the rally in 16th place securing four points for his team and making it the 200th consecutive point scoring finish of the team.

M-Sport World Rally Team

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The other Fiesta’s

nd-up

The major Ford Fiësta’s are of course in the M-Sport team, but there are a few other major challengers driving this popular part of machinery born in Cockersmouth.

DMack World Rallyteam Last year he was still in the factory team and he must have thought about the events that then earned him the nickname of TiTänak when he drowned his car in a lake but managed to get out unharmed.

This year he is part of the new DMack team. His car is much the same as the official M-Sport cars, but he he uses DMack tyres. And his main task here was collecting data for his employer. So he did not go flat out. And his tyre engineers must have loved him because collected the maximum amount of data they could work with to further improve the DMG+2 tyre. He himself will not be happy with this result because for the general bystander his sixth place, 10 minutes away from the fastest driver does not look very impressive. We hope the development of the tyres goes very quickly so that further in the season we can see what he really is capable of.

Jipocar Czech National Team

Everyone was happy to see back Martin Prokop after his sidestep to Le Dakar. Everyone (himself included) wondered if he would come back. Let’s hope his 7th place inspire him and his sponsors to set up an extended programme. He will start in Argentina and some events in Europe but it is not clear when and where he will compete in Europe.

Fuckmatié World Rallyteam In the beginning of this year his team became part M- Sport and in Mexico this strategy paid of. After his second time in two years on the Guanajuato street stage his rally consisted of avoiding trouble and unlike in his earlier starts this year he achieved that and survived the stages of Mexico in eighth place. His best result ever in a WRC event.

Not a WRC regular but often present in his home country Benito Guerra, after 12 months of not driving a WRC car was a bit rusty at the start. An over enthusiastic jump on Friday sidelined him. But back on the stages on Saturday he often equalled his privateer buddies and finished 13th, not bad for someone who has no routine driving at this level.

Overall final classification 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Latvala-Anttila Ogier-Ingrassia Østberg-Floene Sordo-Martí Paddon-Kennard Tanak-Molder Prokop-Tomanek Bertelli-Scattolin Suninen-Markkula Gorban-Korsia

Volkswagen Polo R WRC 4:25:57.4 Volkswagen Polo R WRC +1:05.0 Ford Fiesta RS WRC +5:36.4 Hyundai i20 WRC +5:37.9 Hyundai i20 WRC +6:22.6 Ford Fiesta RS WRC +9:59.5 Ford Fiesta RS WRC +12:58.5 Ford Fiesta RS WRC +14:09.6 Škoda Fabia R5 +18:01.8 MINI Countryman WRC +32:37.3

2016 FIA WRC Drivers’ Standings 1.

Sebastien Ogier 77 2.

Mads Østberg 42 3.

Andreas Mikkelsen 33 4.

Dani Sordo 30 5.

Hayden Paddon 29 6.

Jari-Matti Latvala 27 7.

Ott Tanak 24 8.

Thierry Neuville 15 9.

Stéphane Lefebvre 10 10. Henning Solberg 6

2016 FIA WRC Manufacturers’ Standings 1.

Volkswagen Motorsport 97 2.

Hyundai Motorsport 61 3.

M-Sport World Rally Team 46 4.

Volkswagen Motorsport II 30 5.

DMACK World Rally Team 26 6.

Hyundai Motorsport N 24 7.

Jipocar Czech Nat. Team 6

Haspengouw Rally Belgian Rally Championship

Words: Steven van Veenendaal; Images: PR

Round 1

Belgian RC / Haspengouw Rally

B Haspengouw Belgian Rally Championship

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‘Fast’ Freddy Loix kicked off his title-defence campaign at the opening round of the Belgian Rally Championship, the Haspengouw rally. Just like last year a strong driver lineup features on the Belgian stages. Defending champion Loix didn’t have it easy, but in the end he persevered to clinch his fourth Haspengouw Rally win.

The Haspengouw Rally is one of the fastest rounds of the championship, favouring Chris van Woensel who drives a previous-generation Mitsubishi Lancer WRC and thus has the benefit of a two litre powered engine. This mainly benefits him on the long straights as he has more power than his rivals in R5 ma-

chinery and in Haspengouw, there were many high speed sections. Last year the somewhat older Lancer showed his age and van Woensel found himself out of contention on most rallies due to all sorts of issues. This year his luck seemed to change. The Lancer was firing on all cylinders and van Woensel quickly moved into the lead.

Behind van Woensel a great fight developed between Loix and Princen. The two experienced drivers both had a grin on their face as they pushed each other to the max. Princen drew first blood and opened up a small lead over Loix, who’s grin got even bigger when he stated: “Kris has started really well, it seems we’ll have to add another gear this afternoon!”

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On the opening stages Philip Steveny and Jourdan Serderidis both suffered big offs and crashed out of the event, thinning out the R5 ranks.

There were still plenty left though, although none could really challenge the two up top. Vincent Verschueren should be capable of doing just that but he was struggling with the flue and made a couple of mistakes, putting him off the pace early on. Cedric Cherain was close behind Loix and Princen too but had to retire when he broke his rear suspension. Dutchman Bob de Jong took advantage of Cherain’s demise to grab fourth, although he had to forfeit it to the resurgent Verschueren on the final stage of the rally.

Woensel realizes there is no real point in trying to challenge Loix and Princen again and settles for third. He’s probably happy enough to make it to the finish again after all his misfortune last year.

Van Woensel’s run of bad luck continued when the gearbox of his Lancer failed on the second loop of stages. Fortunately he was able to continue but he also had to incur a twenty-second time penalty for checking in two minutes late. On the fast stages twenty seconds is an awful lot and van

Up front Loix and Princen continue their titanic battle. Loix seems to have the upper hand but he just can’t quite get away from Princen. Most stages are won by either Loix or van Woensel, but Princen is never far behind, ready to pounce should Loix slip up in even the slightest fashion. The mistake from Loix doesn’t come though, allowing him to take his fourth win at the Haspengouw Rally and kick-start his title-defence campaign. “After the first loop I knew I had to add another gear and I succeeded quite well.

I really had to push hard, it looks like we will be having some fun this year!”

Princen proved to be a true sportsman, and agreed with Loix “I really gave everything and when someone beats you on pace that’s something you have to live with, but I’m sure we’ll have fun (battling each other) this year.”

Kris Princen pushed hard all day to the delight of the fans. He was rewarded with second for his spectacular performance.

Finally van Woensel made it to the finish in his Mitsubishi Lancer WRC. His pace was good enough to challenge for first, but a faulty gearbox kept him in third.

Overall final classification 1. Loix – Gitsels 2. Princen – Kaspers 3. van Woensel – Snaet 4. Verschueren – Broekaert 5. de Jong – Degandt 6. Kenis – Buysmans 7. Diels – Flas

8. Boulat – de Busser

9. Benoit – de Bolle 10. Vanbellingen – Vanrijkelen

Skoda Fabia R5 2:32.53,0 Peugeot 208 T16 +1.20,6 Mitsu. Lancer WRC +1.40,2 Skoda Fabia R5 +2.34,7 Citroen DS3 R50 +2.47,3 Mini Cooper WRC +4.34,3 BMW E36 M3 +6.41,6 BMW Champion M +8.56,3 Ford Fiesta R5 +10.39,4 Mitsu. Lancer Evo X +10.42,2

2016 Belgian Rally Championship Drivers Standings 1. Kajetan Kajetanowicz 2. Craig Breen 3. Alexey Lukyanuk 4. Robert Consani 5. Jaromir Tarabus 6. Bruno Magalhães 7. Dominykas Butvilas 8. Siim Plangi 9. Jan Kopecky 10. Freddy Loix

Ford Fiesta R5 230 pts Peugeot 208 T16 185 pts Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 157 pts Citroën DS3 R5 79 pts Skoda Fabia S2000 75 pts Peugeot 208 T16 68 pts Subaru Impreza WRX STi 45 pts Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 43 pts Skoda Fabia R5 36 pts Skoda Fabia R5

35 pts

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B Mid Wales Stages British Rally Championship

After a one-year absence the British Rally Championship made its highly anticipated return at the Mid Wales Stages Rally. The revamped championship is now open to R5 category cars and has drawn a lot of attention from the fans and competitors alike. No less than twenty R5 or S2000 cars, complemented by numerous R4, R3, R2 and R1 cars made their way to the Welsh forests to go head to head and determine who’s Britain’s best.

After a very strong start to the WRC2 championship, Elfyn Evans was the clear favourite for victory on the opening round of the championship. Having been dropped from the M-Sport main team, Evans is looking for the ‘one step back, to take two steps forward’ approach. Last year he proved capable of challenging the WRC frontrunners, but lacked the consistency to do so on every round.

He’ll take on the WRC2 and BRC this year to prove his worth and with two wins out of two WRC2 starts, is doing a job so far.

British RC / Mid Wales Stages Rally

In Britain though, Evans would not have it all his way. Remarkably the championship is probably more tightly contested than its world level counterpart and Evans had a fight on his hands all rally long.

The Mid Wales Stages Rally is a compact event with just six stages making up the rally.

Mind you, these stages take the drivers to some of the most iconic rallying grounds around through the infamous forests of Myherin and Hafren and around the Sweet Lamb Rally Complex, best known for its spectator friendly arena. These roads are often used in the WRC Wales Rally GB as well, providing quite the challenge to the competitors.

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To make things even more interesting, snow started to fall from the heavens in the days preceding the event. As a result the recce was held on snowy roads and as the white stuff slowly melted away, no one really knew how much grip there was to be found. Oh, and the opening two stages of the rally? They took

place under the cover of darkness to add even more drama to the occasion.

From the off Evans proved his potential by blitzing the opposition on the opening test by nearly twenty seconds. Fredrik Ahlin struck back on the second stage but only managed to take one second back. Evans would head to the overnight halt with a comfortable 17-second lead.

Sunday morning though, Ahlin mounted his charge. He narrowed the gap on the first stage of the morning before overtaking Evans on the next. Evans had elected the first round as his joker event and was desperate to bring home the win. He turned the table on the remaining two stages to retake the lead from Ahlin and, remarkably, win the event by the same margin he held at the end of the opening day to bring home the 50 points. Evans was in command, but the opposition was even stronger than anticipated, setting things up nicely for a thrilling season of British rally action.

Elfyn Evans was on fire in WRC2 earlier this year and didn’t cool in the Welsh snow.

Overall final classification 1. Evans – Parry 2. Ahlin – Abrahamsen 3. Cave – Morgan 4. Bogie – Rae 5. Thorburn – Beaton 6. Moffett – Rowan 7. Edwards – Rogers 8. Greer – Riddick 9. Cronin – Galvin 10. Henry – Moyniham

Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Skoda Fabia R5

Peugeot 208 T16 Skoda Fabia R5 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Citroën DS3 R5 Citroën DS3 R5 Skoda Fabia R5

1:08.14,3 +17,1 +1.26,8 +1.42,8 +2.43,0 +3.24,5 +3.46,5 +4.00,4 +4.41,5 +5.29,8

2016 British Rally Championship Drivers Standings 1. Elfyn Evans 2. Fredrik Ahlin 3. Tom Cave 4. David Bogie 5. Euan Thorburn 6. Josh Moffett 7. Matt Edwards 8. Jonathen Greer 9. Keith Cronin 10. Desi Henry

Nearly all of the Britts fell victim to a Swede, Fredrik Ahlin took a splendid second.

Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Skoda Fabia R5 Peugeot 208 T16 Ford Fiesta R5 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Citroen DS3 R5 Citroen DS3 R5 Skoda Fabia R5

50 pts 15 pts 10 pts 8 pts 6 pts 5 pts 4 pts 3 pts 2 pts 1 pt

B

see you next time...