Rally-eMag 039 July/August 2016

(s)weep no more Issue 39, July/August 2016

the king is back

finland

DJI WRC drones

eric camilli

the road to china - Dead end / rally estonia ERC / rajd rzsezsowski ERC / omloop van vlaanderen brc

Jost capito, germany

#thanks Boss

Image: Erik van ‘t Land

paddon-kennard, germany

#learningtheart

Image: Erik van ‘t Land

life, finland

#lifeisbeautiful

Image: Erik van ‘t Land

neuv

ille/

#rea

mikk

elen/

abbr

dingr

Image: Erik van ‘t Land

ing/o

stber

g/br

ally-

een, f

inlan

d

emag

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Rally-eMag July/August 2016 / Contents

This month Who made it?

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

Photography: Erik van’t Land, Andy Crayford, Harry van Veenendaal, Steven van Veenendaal, 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 finland

INTERVIEW eric camilli

wrc Rallye Deutschland

The future of possible

Meeke fastest ever

Rookie of the year?

Tanak in Tears

DJI’s WRC Drones

Page 8

Page 20

Page 26

Page 40

other championships - ERC Estonia - ERC Poland - BRC Ulster - BRC Flanders Page 50

Neste Rally Finland / Review

neste rally finland

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based in: Jyväskylä Date: 28-31/7/16 number of stages: 24 Shortest stage: Harju 2.31 km longest stage: Ouninpohja 33,00 km total stage distance: 334 km Surface: Gravel

Neste Rally Finland / Review

Meeke fastest WRC driver ever When going to Finland there is always a feeling of anticipation among the WRC community. The rally has been part of the WRC since it’s beginning in 1973 (with the exception of the 1995 event when, due to the infamous rotation system, Finland was part of the WRC, but ‘only’ as a Formula 2 qualifier). But more importantly it brings the very essence of rallying: spectacular speed. Kris Meeke proved it again this year and WRC Promoter agreed, emphasized by signing a new contract (see boxed text).

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

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Images: Erik van ‘t Land

Neste Rally Finland / Review

Finland is Latvala country. He won the last two editions and also the one in 2010. So he was the all time favourite, although Jost Capito, his team boss doubted that. “If Meeke doesn’t make a silly mistake he should win here easily” (see boxed text). Is that really true? because first you have to drive all stages.

Doing that in the blistering speeds Finland demands is a miracle in itself. Doing that not, being a “non nordic’ driver, is another achievement. Only very few drivers actually succeeded in winning the event: Carlos Sainz, Didier Auriol, Sebastien Ogier and Sebastien Loeb (who won it even 3 times), and perhaps Markko Märtin, though the Estonian roads are fairly similar to Finland’s roads so we might consider him to be a Nordic too.

Anyway Kris Meeke is the next one

on his list and as said before that’s an achievement in itself. Let’s see how he did it.

Pre event tests All top drivers had pre event tests.

Dani Sordo can tell you even there it can go wrong. He ended the test in hospital with, as came out later, a broken vertebra. It prevented him from competing in Finland and Kevin Abbring was called to the rescue. At a reasonably late date Hyundai told him he should drive the new gen i20 in Finland. “First of all ‘m sorry Dani can’t compete here,” said Abbring. “And I hope he’ll recover quickly. But of course I’m happy with every chance I get, though in this case it is a chance you love and hate”.

“It’s a rally everyone really wants to drive”.

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Finland is here to stay (at least until 2018) During this year’s running of the event, negotiations have been successfully concluded by the signing of a new contract between Finland organiser AKK Sports and WRC Promoter. This means that Rally Finland will be a qualifying round in the World Rally Championship until 2018. The signatures under the contract are from Tatu Lehmuskallio, who as Managing Director represented AKK Sports and Oli-

ver Ciesla, managing director of WRC Promoter. Signing this iconic event for future years seems a logical step. Everyone involved in the sports in any way feels Finland has been one of the classic rounds in the WRC since it’s beginning in1973.

Ciesla adequately expressed it when he commented the new contract: “the blistering speeds and dramatic rollercoaster roads give the event its infamous reputation.”

Kevin Abbring was called up to replace the injured Dani Sordo.

After the disappointment in Poland Tanak was a bit too eager to prove his pace in Finland.

“But my experience here”, the Dutchman continues. “Is in a twowheel drive Renault Clio some seven years ago. That’s quite a difference with a fully-fledged WRC of today, plus the fact that it’s my competition debut in the New Generation i20. Of course I’m familiar with the car from testing duties, but I have not driven it in competition.

But I’m really motivated to do my very best. My goal here is to get a lot of experience and after I get my rhythm I hope to show some good times and preferably a top ten finish.”

Apart from Sordo, Craig Breen also had a big crash during the PET. He rolled his car, but luckily escaped without any injuries.

land mode’ and flies over Harju the initial stage right in the heart of host town Jyväskylä. But Mikkelsen is equally fast. Meeke is fifth, knowing he can’t win the rally here. On Friday things really get started. Meeke is fastest on the first two tests of the day and overtakes Tänak on the leaderboard. His lead is 1.4 seconds. On Jukojärvi (stage 4) Tänak comes back to 0.7 seconds, on Surkee (stage 5) however Tänak drops down the leaderboard to tenth.

“On a long straight I felt something snapping in the suspension and I went into a spin”. Unfortunately the Estonian couldn’t make repairs and had to struggle first through stage 6 (Horkka) and then to the service.

After service Tänak comes back by winning two tests climbing back to Tänak vs Meeke seventh but then he gets a puncture Ott Tänak is still in ‘Po- and is thrown back again.

Starting order Again VW Boss Jost Capito criticised starting order. This time he went a bit further than usual criticising Citroën for the way they are dealing with the 2016 season. “Kris Meeke is not doing a complete championship so he will not be high in the championship standings. Therefore he can start lower down the starting grid”.

Capito claimed. He may have a point there as the idea behind the

starting order was that it would liven up the battle for the championship but Citroën locks this by putting a good driver in a good starting position making it impossible for the top runners to keep the same pace. The battle for third place was now much more interesting. “This should have been the battle for first place,” Capito told everyone willing to listen.

Meanwhile Latvala climbs the ladder and is now second, leading Neuville, Mikkelsen and Breen.

We don’t see Ogier in the top.

We have to go all the way to 56th place to find him. His drop down the leaderboard was caused by a very rare off in what he called “The slowest bend of the rally.” It took him 16 minutes to get going again.

Ouninpohja decides Meeke really went wild on Ouninpohja and smashed Latvala’s (second) time by more than 13 seconds. On the second running Latvala improved his own time by 17 seconds. Meeke topped that by an unbelievable 20 seconds!

This increased Meeke’s lead by 31 seconds. Other drivers did not make it so far. The exit with possibly the highest profile was Bertelli’s roll on the first passage of Ouninpohja. Both driver and co-driver Simone Scattolin were airlifted to a hospital. Scattolin had been unconscious for some time but is recovering now. On Päjäla, the next stage, it was Eric Camilli’s turn to leave the road at high speed. A bent roll cage meant his rally was over too. Meanwhile Tänak was quietly approaching again and ended the day in fourth! In front of him it was Craig Breen who was amazing friend and foo. He was third and desperately trying

to stay there. Nine seconds separated him from a charging Tänak.

Final Sunday Tänak came within striking distance by winning the first Sunday stage. But failed to continue his quest when he went off shattering a possible podium. Neuville replaced him in trying to kick Breen off the podium. He too came close but even a PowerStage win was not enough for the Belgian. He stranded some five seconds behind a brilliantly performing Breen.

So Meeke won with a record average speed of 126.6 km/h.

Top to bottom: Latvala was looking for gold on his home event, but couldn’t handle Meeke.

A grin that says it all.

Craig Breen landed his best ever WRC finish and maiden podium in Finland.

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Neste Rally Finland / Round-up

We know Sebastien Ogier, to put it mildly, doesn’t like the starting order system. However in the past this usually didn’t stop him from scoring any points. Not even in the PowerStage. This, for a former Finland winner and the best driver of the moment is a rare thing to happen. Still it did.

The ‘normal’ Ogier-cleaning-the road-results came on the boards and brought him to third. Then halfway on Friday afternoon he made, he said himself, a silly mistake. “In perhaps the slowest corner of the rally, I went a bit too fast and ended up in a ditch,” he explained. “It was entirely my fault but that can happen when, like you constantly have to be on the limit to make up for the disadvantage of the starting position.”

The next day after a glitch in his braking system his fighting spirit uncharacteristically left him and for only the fifth time in his 47 events Volkswagen career he did not score any points. But he is still leading the championship standings with a 45 points gap to Mikkelsen and 56 to Latvala.

With three asphalt events coming up, guess who is going to be champion this year?

match Meeke’s pace. A flat tire in the beginning did not help, but the final blow was when Meeke won Ouninpohja. For Latvala to be beaten on this ionic stage was more than he could handle.

He settled for second. “I think I did not push hard enough”, he said. Then something happened that hardly ever happens to him and certainly not in his own Finland. Latvala went from “maximum attack” mode to “calculation mode”. Rather than chasing his own victory with the chance to lose it all, he ‘simply’ drove to the finish and scored the maximum amount of points for his employer. As Citroën is no championship contender this year he got the full 25 points, so from a team perspective it had been a good run for Latvala. ‘Well fought’ the caption for the Volkswagen press release therefore read.

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Andreas Mikkelsen experienced what roadsweeping means, when Ogier was late after his visit to a ditch. After sliding off the road in Päijälä Mikkelsen simply could not come back and had to settle for 7th, but it brought him a bit closer to teammate Ogier in As you can see from our Finland the championship. report Latvala simply couldn’t

Volkswagen Motorsport

Roun

Hyundai Motorsport

nd-up

Hyundai is doing well, holding second place in the WRC manufacturing standings. In Finland they were struggling with traction. But the final result is still quite reasonable.

it: “my driving was a bit untidy at times.” Still he wasn’t unhappy.

“We were second on the road for much of the weekend, so to come away with a top-five result is not too bad.”

Will this be enough to lure Thierry Neuville into a new contract? If we may believe very persisting rumors there are quite some employers willing to hire the Belgian whose contract expires at the end of this year. Citroen’s Yves Matton openly admitted that he is high on his ‘wanted’ list for next season. It is a good thing for the Belgian that he seems to be back on track again. After a very mediocre first half of the season he now scored some good points. In Finland he was complaining just like Paddon about a lack of traction. This however did not prevent him from challenging Breen for the last step of the podium. His PowerStage winning charge was not enough. But with 4th place he equaled his best result here.

Dani Sordo’s injury was a chance in a lifetime for Kevin Abbring.

His test and development duties with the new R5 and the 2017 car don’t leave much room for competition. Though the Dutchman is quite happy doing this job and is appreciated by his bosses he is a sportsman and a sportsman wants to compete. So he was very happy with this chance. But at the same time he realised, getting this chance in a rally like this is not a guarantee to success. He should find a good mix between getting acquainted to the new i20, he never competed in before, getting as much mileage as possible to gain more experience and while staying on the road to go as fast as these circumstances allowed. He found this balance and the smiles on his and Seb Marshall’s faces showed it. “I am happy with how this weekend developed. We haven’t made any mistakes and we reached our goal: a top-ten result”

Only a few seconds behind Neuville we found Hayden Paddon in fifth.place He doesn’t dislike sliding his car in a crowd-pleasing manner. But sliding on straight roads doesn’t bring the speed to win here. Or as Paddon said

Neste Rally Finland / Round-up 16/70

The pace was there for the M-Sport team, but it didn’t bring results to get excited about. The big question mark is still Mads Østberg. As ever he seemed relaxed, and there were reasonable times. But why can’t he, like in the beginning of the season, hook up to the top drivers and why do we always see him in the second half of the top ten?

He doesn’t know either. He nearly always feels good about his drive, he is enjoying himself, but he is always surprised about the times of his fellow competitors. This time it Ott Tänak even made things worse as he was outpacing him completely. Tänak is driving the same car with, as now becomes clear, tires that are improving. But these tires cannot explain the difference in speed. It’s a pity but Mads perhaps should worry about his WRC future. Speculations already put Tänak in his place. Of course it is Malcolm Wilson who decides but he seems to find it harder and harder to find positive words about his Norwegian employee. One stage win and a sixth place overall is not making that easier. For Mads’ sake we hope he can find back his beginning of the season form again.

Eric Camilli, let’s not forget it, is in his first WRC season. His task is to learn the rallies at top level. In this process every no and then you have to stumble. The motto being: if you haven’t gone off the road, you haven’t been fast enough. In Finland Camilli initially wasn’t fast enough (he said so himself) so he added some ‘pluses’ in his notes.

On Päijälä this went frighteningly wrong. He found out the hard way that the line between ‘not fast enough’ and ‘too fast’ is terribly thin. As said this is all part of the learning process.

M-Sport World Rally Team

DMack WRT Malcolm Wilson must be wondering, seeing Tänaks results, ‘why did I kick him out of the team?’ Well in the end Tänak was unlucky again and retired only seconds from the podium, but the way he came back after earlier mishaps was amazing.

He proves the Fiësta is a very fast machine and, in fast rallies, he is equally fast.

Fuckmatie WRT Another crash and another trip to the hospital for Bertelli and Scattolin didn’t make Finland a happy rally for the Italian pairing.

Roun

Abu Dhabi WRT

nd-up

Citroën not being a championship contender this year the Abu Dhabi World Rally team is not the official team. Still Yves Matton is monitoring the results of the DS3 drivers very closely. They might be driving an ‘old’ privately run car but they are the ones he has to rely on in 2017 when Citroën really wants to be back as a Volkswagen challenger. Looking at the Finland results Matton can be happy. He knows Meeke has been helped by his starting position, but all in all he did all a team boss can possibly ask you to do: He drove to an unchallenged victory. Matton also knows results like this are somewhat nerve-racking to the competition. Therefore he can serenely smile answering to remarks of VW’s Capito about the starting order. “I’m open to discussion, if anyone knows a better system…” No one knows what the cars of the new WRC era will be like, but having signed Meeke for the next season Matton knows he holds a trump card.

Kris Meeke has always been fast in Finland but really challenging the likes of Latvala did not always bring success. In Portugal he already showed that, once ac-

quired, he can hold his lead. In Finland he showed it again. He had a good first day but topped that on day two. “I thought Friday was my best ever WRC day, but Saturday was even better,” Meeke said. “I knew Latvala would try to catch me on Saturday. Ouninpohja being the first stage would be a key factor in that attack, so I got up early and watched my recce video’s. So I was really motivated when I started. At the finish I knew I’d had a good run, but when I saw Latvala’s time I couldn’t believe it. Rain had improved grip on the second run so I could even go a bit faster, but my first run was still more impressive to me”.

Apart from Meeke, the team had another surprise in store: Craig Breen. He did more than anyone could have wished for. He slowly crept up the leaderboard with amazing times and once on a podium position he never left it anymore. He carefully kept behind a charging Tänak who was approaching rapidly. He kept his nerve where Tänak just pushed a bit too hard and reaches a career best third place.

Overall final classification 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Meeke-Nagle Latvala-Anttila Breen-Martin Neuville-Gilsoul Paddon-Kennard Ostberg-Floene Mikkelsen-Jaeger Lappi-Ferm Abbring-Marshall Suninen-Markkula

Citroën DS3 WRC VW Polo WRC Citroën DS3 WRC Hyundai i20 WRC Hyundai i20 WRC Ford Fiësta WRC VW Polo WRC Skoda Fabia R5 Hyundai i20 WRC Skoda Fabia R5

2:38:05.8 +29.1 +1:41.3 +1:45.9 +1:48.2 +2:04.6 +2:22.4 +4:53.8 +5:22.4 +5:35.5

Neste Rally Finland / Standings

2016 FIA WRC Drivers’ Standings 1.

Sebastien Ogier 143 2.

Andreas Mikkelsen 98 3.

Jari-Matti Latvala 87 4.

Hayden Paddon 84 5.

Thierry Neuville 76 6.

Mads Ostberg 70 7.

Dani Sordo 68 8.

Ott Tänak 52 9.

Kris Meeke 51 10. Craig Breen 25

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2016 FIA WRC Manufacturers’ Standings 1.

Volkswagen Motorsport 2.

Hyundai Motorsport 3.

M-Sport World Rally Team 4.

Volkswagen Motorsport II 5.

Hyundai Motorsport N 6.

DMack World Rally Team

227 168 112 109 86 58

Feature / Recrue de l’année?

Recrue de l’année?

Rookie of the year?

Eric Camilli Rookie (of the year?) at M-Sport Words: Steven van Veenendaal Images: Erik van ‘t Land, Steven van Veenendaal

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At the end of last year Malcolm Wilson surprised the world by presenting Eric Camilli as one of the two official M-Sport drivers for the upcoming WRC season. At the time Camilli was still relatively unknown. Most ‘rally folk’ knew he was member of the Toyota junior team, but that was about it. Of course Wilson has an instinct for finding talent and halfway through the season he seems to have found another gem. In August we got the chance to have a one on one with the enthusiastic youngster ahead of Rally Germany to introduce him to the Rally-eMag audience.

Feature / Recrue de l’année?

Meeting the man This being our first interview with Camilli it’s always interesting to discover what the guy is like in person. We’ve met our fair share of (French) drivers throughout the years and let’s say some tend to be more talkative and enthusiastic than others. Luckily Eric fits right into the jovial first category and sits back to take his time for a relaxed chat. We jump right in.

can improve a lot by having the right notes because they can make you a lot faster. So that is very important if I want to challenge my mates in Finland or Sardinia, and Monte Carlo....

ReM: With only 45 rallies or so under your belt, how did you end up in a WRC team?

A big grin appears and as he shrugs his shoulders while raising his hands in amazeReM: Can you tell us how the first half of the ment he admits: season has been for you?

CAM: I don’t know. I was with Toyota last CAM: I think it is been a positive first half of year, I worked for TMG and they trusted in the season for us.which we did not expect me. Then I had some good results last year in that to happen like that. Of course we had WRC2 and after Spain and GB Malcolm (Wilups and downs, but in the end, looking at son, ed.) decided he wanted me. Though we this first part of the season we didn’t do so did not actually win he put his trust in me and bad. We were able to match our team mates decided to give me this big chance. For us it and we only knew a few of the rallies, so in was a bit crazy but it was sensational as you general we were happy. But you are never can imagine. I was nothing and suddenly I completely satisfied because you need to started at the top. But I am a guy with a lot of ambition, so maybe that’s what he saw. progress.

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ReM: And looking back at the season till now ReM: What are your ambitions for the reon which points did you progress as a driv- mainder of the year? er?

CAM: For the second part of this year I just CAM: I think you have two things: you have hope to get better. We now have a lot of feedto learn to handle the car because it is com- back and knowledge from rallies in a WRC pletely different from the cars that I drove car and as a result we now improve rally afbefore. Secondly as you know I don’t have ter rally. Here we’ll be starting on tarmac, it is much rally experience. In my whole life I not that I prefer tarmac compared to gravel have only done some 40 – 45 races or some- but I have a little more knowledge and expething like that. That is not a lot and because rience that I can use to have a good result. of that I need to improve my pace notes. You

Trying to find some gravel on the tarmac s

Surely Camilli will not be sitting in the back

stages.

k row for too much longer.

ReM: But is tarmac not your preferred sur- it proved to be a real minus. So that was simface? ply a mistake in the notes. But we learn from this and so it will be better next year. EspeCAM: To be honest I don’t care now. cially with the notes there, because often it is crazy and you simply don’t know where you Flying and crashing in Finland are, because you’re in the air looking up!

Any up-and-coming driver will admit that the first time (in a WRC) at Rally Finland is quite the experience. The sensation of speed and flying with a rally car is unlike anything any other rally can throw at you. Oh, and when it goes wrong, it really goes wrong.

ReM: It is perhaps a bit superficial but I thought “he is French so he will like tarmac!”

ReM: It was quite a big off, at least the car looked pretty bad. Does that scare you or affect you in any way? What does it do to you?

CAM: Well it is not my first crash in fact. I had three big crashes, in Finland and Sweden, the third I cannot remember where that was.

So no it does not affect me. It is very important to know why you crashed, because then you don’t do it again. When you don’t know, you start to guess: ‘was I too flat, too slow or something else’ but in this case it was just the notes and you can fix the notes, that is easy. You just need experience to do that.

CAM: Yeah, that is true, but of course I like Finland as well. To be honest. I did not expect to match Mads and Neuville on my first time in Finland. So I proved that I liked gravel as well. And with this experience maybe I will be faster in Finland next year too. You never On Rally Germany know haha.

ReM: Now we are in Germany. How do you ReM: What is it like driving in Ouninpohja in feel about this rally? a WRC car for the first time?

CAM: I like this event, maybe it is maybe my CAM: We did not haven any reference time favourite rally of the year although I am not at as we did not do Finland last year. So this home like in Corsica. Before I started here in year it was crazy to drive at this speed for the the JWRC two years ago it was like a gamble first time. Okay we crashed one stage later because we only had money for one race. but that is not terrible because we know why It was good; we were able to continue our we crashed. We started to recce this stage career. Just because we led the rally, so that and the notes did not seem to be very good. was quite a good ride. Last year we finished I felt my minus should in fact have been second in WRC2, and we challenged Skoda plus, plus and almost flat out, but in the end and Kopecky. So that was good too.

Feature / Recrue de l’année?

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ReM: So this year you’ll be second in CAM: Yeah, it’s a very long stage, WRC? I think the problem is the cuts. It is there that you do the difference, beCAM: Haha, maybe but it will be a lit- cause you have small cuts and deep tle more difficult. No you have to stay cuts, so you have to be very very prewith both feet firmly on the ground, cise on your notes, and then be able but I definitely want to challenge the to fully rely on them. Then you might other guys. Mads will be fast because have a chance but again, you have to we are on tarmac, he proved that in be very precise on your line and nevSpain last year and me? Before I went er hit a rock or a stone or meet someoff I was quite fast in Finland. So we’ll thing else on the road. You know, you have to see. But I think everybody is need to have your eyes wide open all happy to be back on tarmac again the time. and looking to have good result.

ReM: Will you go flat from the start or ReM: If you look at the stages you ease in to it? have the vineyards, you have the military stages, which do you prefer?

CAM: I am not sure because I have never been in a WRC here before.

CAM: It is completely different, but I But I watched the video’s, also the like the vineyard stages and I think ones of the other guys. I think they we can perhaps make the difference do not start flat out, but just flat. (The on the Panzerplatte. It is important ever-subtle difference only rally drivright from the start not to lose too ers can tell apart, ed.) Because if much time in the beginning. As you you don’t manage your tyres then will see I think all drivers will be very, in the end your not able to keep the very close. That means it is difficult to time that you win on the first part of make the difference, you need to stay the stage. So I think it is better to go close. It will not be easy. And I mean flat and afterwards try to survive. Of Panzerplatte looking at it, every year course you have to be precise but I again Ogier makes the difference am always precise and I always try here and he wins the rally, even if you to save my tyres everywhere. But we would win all the other stages. will see, maybe I will have the tyres completely worn or maybe not.

ReM: How do you approach a stage like the Panzerplatte? Because on the one hand like you said you can Looking back and looking forward make the difference there, on the other hand every year people have ReM: What was the highlight of your punctures or they hit the Hinkelsteine season so far, maybe winning a stage Every time something happens. (Just in Sardinia? ask Stephane Lefebvre, ed.)

CAM: Yeah, I think Sardinia was a highlight, but not because I won a stage there. It was especially the day before that. We were able to score some top three times on the stage in the same time as Thierry and Latvala we were setting good times the whole day. Of course after that we did the scratch time but it felt better to be regularly close, especially in the 45k Monte Lermo stage. It was very satisfying to be able to match them on the first pass and also on the second pass, after the road was cleaned for everybody. Maybe with the exception of Ogier, but I don’t care much about that. If you are able to fight Thierry and Latvala and everybody and are able to do times very very close to them that is good.

ReM: And what is the one thing you want to do in the rest of the season to be proud of? Anything you want to achieve?

CAM: One top five like in Portugal and some more best times.

It seems modest after the pace he has shown already this year. But perhaps the combination of modesty, ambition and a very down-to-earth are what make Camilli such a rare talent. We wish him the best of luck in chasing those ambitions and leave him be, although it doesn’t take long before he is confronted with a WRC Radio microphone. Carreers can take off oh so quickly in the world of rallying.

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Review

adac rallye deutschland

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based in: Trier Date: 18-21/8/16 number of stages: 18 Shortest stage: SSS arena Panzerplatte 2.87 km longest stage: panzerplatte lang 40,80 km total stage distance: 307 km Surface: Tarmac

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Review

The master’s return It has been a long time since Sebastien Ogier could enjoy the victory champagne. But after Sweden in February five other drivers shared the six rallies in between.

But in Trier Ogier could freely spray the bubbly stuff again. After a hard battle, as he said himself, he could win again. He did not talk about running order so much but his victory in Germany proofs that on gravel running order is definitely a (decisive?) factor. At the end of September we will know if and how this will change, until then we’ll have to work with the system we have.

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

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Images: Erik van ‘t Land

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Review

Finally we’re back on asphalt again. It’s really the first asphalt rally of the season. In Monte Carlo there is also asphalt but there snow and ice provide a tricky surface that cannot be compared to a proper sealed surface event.

From different sides we now hear that at least one asphalt event should change dates so that already in the beginning of the season the asphalt masters should get their chance. Corsica is now being considered as one of the events to take place in spring. For Ogier it was more or less a relief to be back on asphalt. Not that he is a special asphalt master (He is a master on any surface) but on the black stuff running order is not so much of an issue. On the contrary, running first can be an advantage, as front-runners did not throw mud and dirt on the road.

Still in the VW camp there were mixed emotions. First here was the anticipation of an Ogier victory and secondly it was the last rally under team manager Jost Capito. He led the team to great things, so everyone is a bit sad to see him go.

On the driver’s front we welcome back Dani Sordo who after his test accident in Finland is well again.

Being recognized as one of the asphalt specialists he is definitely important for the Hyundai team.

Not in Trier was Lorenzo Bertelli.

After his Finland crash he needed some more time to recuperate.

Let the fighting begin!

This is a good caption for the start of the battle in the ancient Roman city of Trier.

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Bye bye Trier Since the first Rallye Deutschland, Trier was host city to the event.

It provided a scenic background for the start, finish, servicepark and at some time even a special stage. Due to all kinds of reasons, we’ll come back to in a later stage, 2016 was the last time the rally was based in Trier. Next year we will go to the Saarland region with the servicepark back at, the Bostalsee, where it was initially

based, but now it will be renovated completely. The character of the stages will not change so much. We will still have vineyards and Baumholder with the addition of some new stages in the Saarland region. But I’m sure we will greatly miss Trier, the oldest city in Germany. Hopefully they’ll find an equally appealing host city.

After skipping the jumps of Finland Sordo returned to high-flying action in Germany.

On the stages, dark skies did not predict very much goods, still the roads were mainly dry, when the drivers set of for their quest on the flanks of the slopes forming the natural habitat for the German vineyards.

Right from the start things started to happen, first we saw Jari Matti Latvala struggling up the hill. Not very far from where we saw him he stop his Polo. A broken gearbox stopped him. Only moments later Eric Camilli passed us and completely failed to turn into the hairpin. After reversing his car he could continue his route only to crash several kilometers further. The car wasn’t damaged that much but he simply could not get it back on the road. In a way he had a lucky escape as a pile of logs stopped him. Had they not been there we would have

Mikkelsen held the lead at the end of the first day.

tumbled off the slope with considerably more damage to his Fiesta. Further down the ranks Hyundai protégé Chewon Lim was not that lucky.

He shot off the road at relatively low speed and went over the edge, rolling his Opel Adam some six or seven times before he stopped. It’s a quick and steep learning curve for the Korean TV show winner.

Though Latvala eventually made it to the end of the stage he, like Camilli had to retire for the day on the very first stage. The cars of Andreas Mikkelsen and Hayden Paddon also showed the marks of close encounters with the scenery but they could continue without delay. No big dramas for the rest of the day and at the end, Mikkelsen was leading. Ogier, Neuville Sordo and Tänak completed the top five.

Lefebvre meets the ‘Hinkelsteins’ Abu Dhabi WRT did not include Germany in its program therefore Stéphane Lefebvre, with Matton’s permission, came to Germany in a private project. However it did not go as planned. On the first day he was still a bit cautious. On Saturday he started by scoring first and second place on two short Panzerplatte stages. On the long stage however, things went terribly wrong. He went slightly wide Image: Red Bull Media Pool

and crashed into several Hinkelsteine, the infamous concrete blocks designed to keep tanks on the right track. At high speed a tree, then stopped the car destroying it. Both drivers were hospitalised. Co-driver Gabin Moreau was still there when we wrote this.

Lefebvre’s recovery was a bit quicker and he hopes to be back behind the wheel of a DS3 again before the end of the season.

The biggest moment “It was the biggest moment we had, without retiring,� said Hayden Paddon after his high speed off on the second passing of the Mittelmosel stage. He missed his braking point and went into a grass field. He slid from left to right and back but did not hit anything.

Eventually he could slide back onto the road again, bodywork trailing but no further harm done.

Tyre battle The vast majority of competitive kilometres on Saturday were on the military training centre of Baumholder. Ogier proved to be tire master and picked the right rubber. He won both the long Panzerplatte stages and at the end of the day led the rally with a 33 second gap between him and Mikkelsen. Sordo an Neuville were just under four seconds behind Mikkelsen and only 0.4 seconds between themselves.

PowerStage thriller With only four stages to go and one being cancelled the PowerStage was again the event decider. On stage one Sordo had widened the gap by winning the stage, by more than 2 seconds.

Neuville retaliated and took back 0.4 seconds. The next stage was cancelled, so going into the PowerStage the difference between

the Spaniard and the Belgian was 2.7 seconds. Andreas Mikkelsen had been too cautious by carrying extra tires in case of rain. But it did not rain so the extra 20-kilo’s slowed him and the fighting Sordo and Neuville passed him. So the fight for second place continued and Neuville flew over the PowerStage 2.6 seconds faster than his teammate. So Sordo was second with 0.1 second. Ogier wanted to win and did not want to risk anything by interfere with this battle.

So he did not win the PowerStage but he did win the rally! Nothing for him was more important than that!

Top to bottom: Sordo celebrated his return with second after a close fight with team mate Neuville.

Finally freed of the burden of roadsweeping Ogier immediately went back to his winning ways.

Neuville fought hard be eventually faltered to his team mate Sordo by the slightest of margins.

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ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Round-up 26/70

Germany 2016 was a special rally to the team. It was the last rally under their inspiring manager Jost Capito.

A week after Germany we saw him in his new job in the pits with the McLaren formula 1 team. We wish him a lot of success there but will miss his flamboyant personality, always good for a spicy quote, always ready to fight for his team and never afraid to throw the cat among the pigeons. The whole controversy around Kris Meeke’s victory in Finland, for instance, was orchestrated

by Capito just to create some noise around the issue of running order.

Being the gentleman he is he informed Kris Meeke before he went to the press. “Hey Kris I admire your driving but I’m going to say a few nasty things, don’t take them personally, they serve another purpose!”

And let’s not forget he steered the team firmly in the right direction. He was at least partly responsible for the good atmosphere and he got all the result you could wish for being a driver, mechanic, fan and last but not least a manufacturer. Sven Smeets who has been with the team since the start of the real WRC adventure will take over the helm. From September 1 he will be responsible to lead the team into the next era of WRC. The challenges will be bigger

as the competition may be stronger but at least he’s got the best drivers, the best team and probably the best car.

Volkswagen Motorsport

Sebastien Ogier only wanted one thing: to finally win again. He knew that starting first tarmac was the better surface. He knew he won here before, but he also knew Germany has had some unkind moments to the Frenchman like in 2013 and 2014 when he crashed out of the rally. But this time everything was fine again. He showed everyone who is the best driver. On both the long Panzerplatte stages he was fastest.

He finished just third on the PowerStage but he got what he came for: finally a victory again.

Latvala and Mikkelsen were not so happy. A broken gearbox for Latvala threw him down the leaderboard.

Mikkelsen blamed some tire gambling gone wrong for not finishing where he wanted to be. So he didn’t finish on the podium but contented himself being fourth, Latvala consoled himself being second on the PowerStage and 48th overall.

Roun

Hyundai Motorsport

nd-up

At a few hours of trucking from homebase in Alzenau, Germany is Hyundai’s home rally. Also having won their first WRC victory in Trier, So team was quite optimistic coming here again.

a car he felt happy with he soon found his rhythm and was in a constant battle with Sordo. On Saturday it went down the wire.

Sordo won the first Sunday test and Neuville the second. The third was canceled and Neuville was Also Dani Sordo was back again fastest in the PowerStage. But in and won his first ever WRC rally the end Sordo beat Neuville with a here. Initially he had to cope with 0.1 second gap. dirt, other competitors left behind for him. But still he finished fourth For Hayden Paddon day one starton Friday. On Saturday he kept his ed roughly. Still he could laugh pace and in the afternoon climbed about it, especially his off in the to second position. Though there second run Mittelmosel: day one was quite a fight with teammate “I went off going down a slope in Neuville he could fend him off and sixth gear’ the man from New Zeafinished in second place. bBefore land explained. Then we went pirthe rally we spoke to team manag- ouetting into a field. And we were er Nandan about Sordo. “Nothing both waiting for the blow, which did has been decided yet”. Only days not come. So we were very lucky later he announced the extension and could get back onto the road of Sordo’s contract. again. We lost some bodywork in the process and as we lost most of the aerokit the balance of the Thierry Neuville was not (yet?) in- car was not very good anymore. cluded in the driver’s line up for It was OK in the end but we are Hyundai. But are not afraid he hoping for less drama tomorrow.” won’t find a seat, being the most Saturday and Sunday were a bit wanted driver for some teams. Still less exciting and he could use in order to get such a seat he still them to get more experience on has to prove his value for a team tarmac. He finally finished in fifth. manager. The only way to properly do that is by going fast. The Belgian complained a bit about all kinds of issues. But once his undriveable car had changed into

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Round-up

It wasn’t a very good weekend for M-Sport. The Cumbrian team never won here 2016 being no exception. Mads Østberg was their best ranked driver but sixth place was not something to be happy with. “I don’t know what it is,” he explained. “We’ve been trying different set ups but nothing seems to work”. By now we must fear for his place in the team for next year. Malcolm Wilson was evasive when we asked him about Mads.

“He’s had some decent results in the beginning of the season…”

Add to that he fact that he has not been running yet in the new 2017 car. “If they ask me to drive the car, I would be happy to,” said Østberg, when we asked him about the 2017 car. We hope he will find his rhythm in the remaining rounds. At least he is giving himself some extra tarmac experience by starting the Fiesta R5 of his family’s Adapta team in the German Rallye Niedersachsen.

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Eric Camilli started here for the third time. In 2014 he drove in the JWRC class, in 2015 in the WRC 2 class and this year he promoted to the top level. Add to that the fact that he has a wealth of tarmac experience so you could say he could show himself here.

However on the very first stage he already went off, very near rolling off a steep slope in the vineyard.

But a pile of logs stopped him. He couldn’t continue however and had to retire for the day. The next day he was the first one on the scene after Lefebvre’s off. Not a self-confidence boosting occurrence. But he did what he had to do and helped his friends. The rest of his rally was focused on further ascending his steep learning curve and gaining valuable experience for next year.

M-Sport World Rally Team

Non M-Sport Fords The Fords from the non M-Sport teams did not do much better. Tänak was doing well until stopped by a faulty alternator. On top of that when examining the issue he burnt himself. Still Tänak was optimistic. “The pace was there the tires work well so I can look ahead optimistically.”

Fuckmatié WRT After three crashes, Lorenzo Bertelli took a breather. The WRC doctor thought it better that both he and co-driver Simone Scattolin would first recover both physically and mentally from the crashes.

Roun

Stephane Lefebvre

nd-up

Stephane Lefebvre came to Germany in a private project. Abu Dhabi WRT had not chosen to be there so he asked Yves Matton if it was OK to drive here privately.

However it did not work out as planned.

Lefebvre’s game plan for the rally was working well initially before his shocking crash on Saturday’s Panzerplatte Lang that put him and co-driver Gabin Moreau in hospital. The Frenchman adopted a cautious approach through Friday’s vineyard stages but took things up a level on Saturday morning. A shrewd choice of hardcompound Michelin tyres gave him an edge in the Panzerplatte complex, and he was fastest and second-fastest on the two opening sprints with Ott Tänak’s fifth position in his sights on the 40km stage that followed. Despite their injuries, both drivers have paid tribute to the protective strength of their car. We wish them both a speedy recovery.

On the first day he was still a bit cautious but in Saturday he started by coring and second place on the first two short Panzerplatte stages. On the long stage how-

ever, things went terribly wrong.

He went slightly wide coming onto a straight. The he crashed into several Hinkelsteine, the infamous concrete blocks designed to keep tanks on the right track. At high speed a tree, then stopped the car destroying the DS3,. Both drivers had to go into a hospital.

Co-driver Gabin Moreau was still there when we wrote this. Lefebvre’s recovery was a bit quicker and he hopes to be back behind the wheel of a DS3 again before the end of the season.

Overall final classification 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Ogier-Ingrassia Sordo-Martí Neuville-Gilsoul

VW Polo WRC Hyundai i20 WRC Hyundai i20 WRC Mikkelsen-Jaeger Synnevaag VW Polo WRC Paddon-Kennard Hyundai i20 WRC Ostberg-Fløene Ford Fiësta WRC Lappi-Ferm Skoda Fabia R5 Tidemand-Andersson Skoda Fabia R5 Kopecky-Dresler Skoda Fabia R5 Kremer-Winklhofer Skoda Fabia R5

3:00:26.7 +20.3 +20.4 +27.2 +3:34.8 +4:31.2 +8:36.8 +8:52.5 +9:44.2 +10:10.6

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Standings

2016 FIA WRC Drivers’ Standings 1.

Sebastien Ogier 169 2.

Andreas Mikkelsen 110 3.

Hayden Paddon 94 4.

Thierry Neuville 94 5.

Jari-Matti Latvala 89 6.

Dani Sordo 86 7.

Mads Østberg 78 8.

Ott Tanak 52 9.

Kris Meeke 51 10. Craig Breen 25

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2016 FIA WRC Manufacturers’ Standings 1.

Volkswagen Motorsport 256 2.

Hyundai Motorsport 201 3.

M-Sport World Rally Team 122 4.

Volkswagen Motorsport II 121 5.

Hyundai Motorsport N 96 6.

DMack World Rally Team 64

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DJI Brings drone footage to the WRC

Remember back in the days? Back when you were playing Colin McRae Rally, or Richard Burns Rally or more recently one of the Dirt or official WRC games? A highlight for any rally fan would be to watch the replay of that stage on which you absolutely nailed it. Unfortunately oftentimes the impossible camera angles, hovering along with the cars, would completely break your immersion. Fast-forward 15 years to where DJI is living up to their slogan: “The Future of Possible” The coverage on the various WRC+ streams nowadays regularly features clips that were formerly impossible to make. A fixed camera can’t move that way there and a helicopter can’t fly that low. Probably you’re watching footage from DJI, a company that leads the way as we take a step into the future, the age of the drones. In Germany we had to opportunity to accompany the DJI crew at several locations to get a taste of what they are doing with their remarkable drones.

Thursday morning, shakedown time, thankfully at a very comfortable 9.30 AM. We are to meet the DJI crew at a tight left-hand corner in the vineyards. After a sizeable hike we arrive at the location, only to find a marshal obstructing our way to reach the crew. The DJI boys and girls are all donning their WRC Media tabards, which we sorely lack and of course, they are standing in a restricted, albeit safe, zone to get the best angles of the cars. We are quickly picked up by an assistant and safely arrive at the spot. Time to get an idea of what these drones are all about.

Feature / The Future of Possible

Upon arriving we are introduced to the men behind the controls.

We quickly learn that the crew consists of not one, but two drone teams, one with a stationary drone for analytic purposes and one for the action shots. It doesn’t take long before gimbal operator André Becker enthusiastically starts to tell his story, one thing is for sure, these guys love their job and their equipment. “Each team consists of two persons, a pilot and a gimbal operator. I’m the gimbal operator and I can see the camera picture on an iPad that is connected to an operating unit including, amongst other things two joysticks. One is for panning another one for tilting the camera on the drone. I can also change the level of the horizon.”

For André this is his everyday lingo, for us, it’s a lot of new stuff to process. We quickly jot down a few words on our notepad “André is the photographer or ‘gimbal operator’”. As André glances at our paper, he immediately corrects that wrong “I’m not a photographer, we don’t take pictures. We make videos and the gimbal is the piece of equipment in which the camera is mounted to the drone. That’s why I’m called the gimbal operator.” It’s clear that not only do these guys enjoy their work; they also take great pride in it.

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André continues: “So basically I’m responsible for framing the picture and do the exposure settings. To put it shortly I compose the image. Of course I can also zoom the lens, but most of the time we use a fixed focus lens. Before we start recording we are looking what focal length is best to use because that usually gets us the best picture. The pilot is standing next to me and I can give him directions for positioning the drone. Higher, lower, left and right just to position the drone in the best possible way.” Wondering if there is another hi-tech gadget involved with this communication, we ask how they get this information across. With a somewhat puzzled look on his face André points at his mouth “Verbally…” Right then, not everything in the world has to be digitalized, a quick shout here and there still works wonders.

The analysis drone can be operated by a single person.

“The pilot never looks at the picture the camera is producing. He only looks at his drone to see if there are no obstacles, like power lines, trees or even people underneath the drone.” DJI PR Manager Annika Karstadt adds that: “safety is a major item in everything we do. We want to exclude all possible risks, that’s why we for example never fly over people. Our drones also incorporate a system that stops the drone from moving further if contact between the drone and the operator is lost. It flies back to the last position where it still had contact. Also the software doesn’t allow our drones to be flown into no fly zones. ”

The drones can go where no man has gone before.

Video analysing Another special feature is video analysing. This is where the second, stationary drone comes into play. This drone is kept on exactly the same position using signals from a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), in this case the US Navstar GPS system is combined with the Russian GLONASS system. Together they offer a total of 17 navigation satellites that provide an extremely accurate position with a grid of a mere 10(!) centimetres to fix the horizontal position. With this stationary drone you can track the direction and speed of the vehicle passing underneath meticulously. By pointing the camera of the drone straight down it can define the vertical movements of the vehicles allowing you to analyse what the different cars are doing; how fast they come into a corner, when they brake and in case of a jump how far. This gives great opportunities, because if you combine the pictures of the moving drone and the stationary one you can make a simulation showing exactly every movement of the car. This is a feature that enables research that before now has not been possible.

Some tech stuff The pictures made by the team are all recorded on special memory cards. Usually these cards are transported from the shooting site to WRC TV’s television truck in the servicepark. If necessary a motorbike is present to do this job. In this way at WRC TV they can make for example short clips for internet use, or for the daily highlights, while the drone crew is still shooting new images.

Making the action shots requires two operators: A pilot who never takes his eyes of the drone and a gimbal operator who frames the best shots.

WRC+ More and more, the drones’ images are also used for the live broadcast, WRC+ provides to its subscribers.

In that case of course a motor biker cannot be used.

You need a live feed. At the Powerstage we are at the Outside Broadcasting Unit (or OBU, some more lingo for a truck that holds a complete television production control room) to do a report on how the live stage is produced and we run into the DJI guys again. Never running out of words, it’s the perfect opportunity for Becker to explain how they work during the live broadcast stage: “In those cases we try to pick a place that is not too far from the OBU. From the OBU the director can send signals to the main broadcasting centre from where the signals are distributed over the different networks. The original signal from the drone is sent to the drone’s operating unit, which the gimbal operator is using. From there a cable goes to the switchboard of the OBU where the director of the live stage can simply incorporate the images into the life feed.”

it can move boundaries. It’s not a coincidence DJI is now one of the major sponsors of WRC. They saw a showcase to present the possibilities of their machinery. WRC Promoter on the other hand saw a way of presenting their exciting video footage in an even better way than before. Attracting more people and future fans. Fans that are usually also interested in the latest techniques. So imagery from a low flying camera, a camera that you could buy and operate yourself is definitely appealing to this audience. But what does it bring to the fan that ‘just’ wants to see a good report from what’s happening? This fan is served by the fact she or he is seeing images they never saw before. Just like in earlier days with the on-board camera, we are sure that drone footage will develop in the same way.

In the first days we only saw one on-board camera showing the road in front of the car, now you can see the driver’s face his feet, his rear-view mirror and what else. As drone filming is just starting to find its way into rallying, who knows what possibilities lie ahead?

All in all drones will be an asset to rally reporting. Already it provides stunning pictures that cannot be shot otherwise. The drones are very fast and at their best in tight corners and hairpins. You can see the approach of a car from a totally different angle than a fixed camera could do it. The drone is so fast that it can follow the car from the outside of a corner, follow it and never lose the picture. If you’re on gravel you can see the gravel in the air, but the dust cloud doesn’t obscure your vision of the moving car. If the sun is right you can actually see the crew doing their job, again from another perspective than an on-board or fixed camera could ever do. Drones are a great extra asset that add to the experience of rally video. The very nature of rallying makes filming it difficult. Unlike an F1 circuit you cannot put a fixed camera in every corner. Drones allow access to formerly inaccessible bends and so

The future Not being George Orwell we can’t predict where drone footage will take us. But looking at the people we met during our stay in Germany, we can only be optimistic.

All people are the ‘lunatics’ a proper rallyfan should be; they get up at unearthly hours and come back when everybody else in the region is enjoying his or her beer. They are enthusiastic about the sport and are eager to learn more. So they will conquer technical challenges but more importantly they will find new and exciting ways of shooting the action and therefore making the experience even more breath-taking.

The impossible camera angles, from this story’s introduction, will not be impossible anymore and then hovering along with the cars, will complete your total immersion.

unleash the drones

the road to china pt. Vi - epilogue

The Road to China / Dead end street

dead end street Since the start of the season, we have been talking to you about Rally China. It was going to be the only new addition to the 2016 calendar and would see the return of the WRC to the largest market in the world after 17 years, deserving some extra attention. It’s history and it’s future. At the moment of writing this we should have been in China to actually find out ourselves what it would be like over there. But we’re not in Huairou, because the Road to China, at least temporarily, seems to be a dead end street.

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

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Images: Harry van Veenendaal

Floods At the end of July enormous thunderstorms hit hard in the Beijing area.

Roads were severely damaged; bridges had simply been flushed away by the enormous amounts of water. Local citizens lost their homes and farms.

Not exactly the circumstances to organize a WRC event. Still the local authorities started to work on a plan to salvage the event so important for the region. In early August a delegation of the FIA and WRC Promoter flew to China to see what was going on. After their report had been filed it still took a few days before a joint press release was published. Rally China had been cancelled. It was a blow to everyone involved. A mental blow at first: “we really would have liked to experience it…” Then a financial blow because investments had been made and getting them back would not be easy if not impossible.

feelings, ranging from it’s a pity to ‘it’s ridiculous”. We tried to talk to some people involved. We started with the teams. Malcolm Wilson was the first one we spoke to. “Our first concern is to recoup some of our money. We already invested tens of thousands of pounds in airline tickets, hotel fees and transportation costs. I can’t go to my sponsors saying, ‘hey I want your money but we will not go to China as promised’.” It was a remark we often heard while talking about the subject.

Hyundai team manager Michel Nandan was not happy either; the Hyundai team famously sports the largest service/hospitality unit in the championship, meaning that his losses far exceeded those of M-Sport’s. “We have to pay in advance for all kinds of things and we don’t know yet how we can get it back.”

Second cancellation Some doubt was cast over the reason of the cancellation. We frequently heard What now?

In Germany just after the announce- the story about the cancelled football ment there were quite some mixed match in Beijing between Man United

and Man City. Also due to the weather and also hosted by LeTV. Fuelling the idea of a financial problem is the fact that Rally China was cancelled for the second time. After the first rally in 1999, the one we’ve been discussing in our Road to China series, a second event was included in the 2000 WRC calendar. This one was cancelled for budgetary reasons. Then, unlike today, there were still several months to go until the running of the event. So a substituting event was found in Cyprus. A striking detail is that in the whole running of the WRC there have been only two rallies that have been cancelled, both of them in China.

WRC Promoter Managing director Oliver Ciesla of WRC Promoter quickly waived away any claims that financial issues were the true reason of the cancellation, saying it was very unlikely. “This is a huge company and they have almost unlimited resources. So the fact that the football match was cancelled has nothing to do with cancelling the rally.”

“We have a three year contract with them so normally we will have a new rally next year. But first we are going to talk about it with the teams and others involved. It could be that we first have a test event next year or something else could happen. But like I said we first have to talk to the teams. They really wanted to go there, so let’s see if they still want it.”

Adapta A very special victim was Mads Østberg or rather the family business Adapta. They rented a Fiesta WRC to Ma Qing Hua who planned his rally debut in China. Qing Hua is an experienced racing driver, who is now active in the Citroën WTCC program. “It was a nice project and I’ve been involved in it. A few weeks ago we started working quite closely with Qing Hua. It was good fun. Obviously he is one of the best tarmac drivers in the world, he’s done Formula 1 and WTCC and he has a lot of experience on tarmac, but we have to learn him rally and that is quite a big step. We started by explaining

the basics of pacenotes. In Norway he drove our car and there we learned him some basic skills like handbrake turns, jumping a car, which he had never done before. So we looked for roads where we looked for special things you encounter during a rally.

He was a fast learner, sometimes too fast like in the jumping. He was enjoying it immensely. I also learned some things from him, with his enormous tarmac experience and we discussed different techniques. Obviously being a private team we are not involved in any politics and can take some short cuts, which is necessary if you want to become a rallydriver in one month but China is not going to happen so that is a pity.”

Epilogue Whether there will be a new edition of Rally China we don’t know yet. Still being the largest car market, we think the pressure will be high. But there is a lot of frustration among all involved, ranging from team managers to the Promoter, to media representatives. The

most important thing is communication or rather the lack of it. The organizers have been quite reluctant in sharing the problems. The news about an imminent cancellation came through from Chinese Twitter messages. Visa procedures were suddenly stopped and urging questions about these procedures never answered.

Everyone agrees that weather conditions like these are a disaster to the local population. Their problems are far worse than the ones in the WRC community. But in the world we live in today it would have been good if the organizers had been a bit more responsive to the needs of the WRC community who have gone to great length to promote the event. A formal press release from FIA and WRC Promoter is necessary but a somewhat more detailed explanation from the local promoter would have been nice, if only to build up confidence for a future Rally China.

The WRC community lost some money but we will survive. But will we be prepared to invest again next year?

auto24 Rally Estonia

15-17/07/2016

Based in: Otepää

Surface: Gravel

Number of stages: Longest stage: Shortest stage: Total stage distance:

16 Rüa, 29.97 km auto24 Tartu City, 1.33 km 211 km

Auto24 Rally Estonia / Review

(un) lucky Despite not having won a round of the European Rally Championship yet this year, Kajetan Kajetanowicz leads the championship. Many of the winners this year, the likes of Breen, Moura and Loix, have had one-off appearances rather than partaking in the full championship.

Ralfs Sirmacis also isn’t doing the full championships as he is on a constant hunt for funds. Kajetanowicz’ only true rival therefor, is Alexey Lukyanuk, and although the Russian has been quick, he has also been unreliable. Will his bad luck change in Estonia?

Words: Steven van Veenendaal

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Images: FIA ERC

Auto24 Rally Estonia / Review

The best, the easiest?

Auto24 Rally Estonia is one of the newer events on the calendar, only forming part of the ERC since 2014. It has quickly built a nice reputation for itself, understandably so with the fast stages and numerous jumps. ERC Sporting Manager JeanPierre Nicolas, described the stages as some of the best in the championship “The stages here are all fantastic, in terms of enjoyable driving , these are some of the best stages in the championship; and the scenery is beautiful as well.” ERC Front-runner Lukyanuk agreed with Nicolas “I feel more relaxed here, there is less stress. The rally is very fast and there aren’t any big obstacles or changes of direction: you can just concentrate on the driving.

For me that’s easier than the very technical rallies, so I’m always happy here and I like it a lot. Hopefully we can have an easy rally.”

the short opening city stage in Tartu and lost 7.5 seconds in the process. It would be the start of a difficult event for Kajetanowicz. Lukyanuk meanwhile snatched an early lead, 1.9 seconds ahead of Sirmacis. Midway through the opening day Kajetanowicz was 20 seconds down to the leading Lukyanuk but from that point on, things went sour. First he was late out of service after a gearbox replacement, which cost him a ten second penalty. Then his power steering started to falter and he started losing ground fast. The battling duo of Lukyanuk and Sirmacis paced away until Kajetanowicz found himself a minuteand-a-half behind at the end of the day.

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Lukyanuk set a blistering pace on the morning loop and won all stages. In the afternoon though it was a different story.

Sirmacis found his groove and beat Lukyanuk on the second run through the stages, bringing Not so easy One man who would not have the gap down to just 20 an easy rally was Kajetanow- seconds at the end of the icz. The championship lead- day. er suffered an overshoot on

Lukyanuk started well and took the lead after the opening Tartu city stage.

Championship leader Kajetanowicz was battling technical woes all rally long.

Sirmacis is giving the two championship contenders a run for their money.

In the end, Sirmacis was the one cheering, though Kajto wasn’t unhappy either.

Restoring order After Sirmacis’ push on Saturday’s repeat stages, Lukyanuk set out on Sunday morning on a mission. He wanted to squander any hopes Sirmacis might have of catching the flying Russian, to prevent a big fight from developing.

Lukyanuk had been quick before this season but described his problems perfectly to us in Ypres when he said “It’s not hard to go fast, but it is hard to stay on the road.” Off road excursions had already prevented him scoring good points in Ireland, Greece and Ypres, leaving him 15 points behind Kajetanowicz in the championship. As Lukyanuk will not enter the next round of the championship, Kajetanowicz’ home event Rally Rzeszow in Poland he needs a good solid points finish here to keep his championship hopes alive. He got off to a good start by winning the opening four stages and increasing his lead over Sirmacis to nearly half a minute. With just two stages to go, things looked good.

was too much to overcome on the final day and with Lukyanuk leading, Kajetanowicz needed solid points. A third place would mean he kept his lead in the championship by one point.

Last minute drama When it all seemed done and dusted though, the old adagio “It ain’t over until it’s over” proved to be true again. On the penultimate stage of the rally Lukyanuk had a heavy landing after a jump. The impact broke his steering arm after which Lukyanuk hit a tree. It ended his rally and promoted Sirmacis into the lead. The Latvian youngster had been quick throughout the event, despite not being as fast as Lukyanuk he did win his fair share of stages. Perhaps even happier with Lukyanuk’s off was Kajetanowicz. The Pole, who had been unlucky himself with various issues throughout the opening day, saw his championship lead virtually disappear during the rally. Of course he stated that he felt bad for Lukyanuk, but the 38 point lead he now Behind the leading duo takes away from Estonia surely Kajetanowicz settled into third. must feel very good, and a bit The time lost on the opening day lucky.

auto24 Rally Estonia Overall final classification 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Sirmacis-Kulss Kajetanowicz-Baran Aus-Koskinen Jeets-Toom

Koltun-Pleskot

Habaj-Wos

Niinemae-Valter Mikhaylov-Kokins Griebel-Winklhofer Ingram-Edmondson

2016 FIA ERC Drivers’ Standings Skoda Fabia R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X Skoda Fabia R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Peugeot 208 VTI R2 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X Opel Adam R2 Opel Adam R2

1.44.16,2 +1.34,5 +3.44,8 +4.03,4 +5.02,3 +8.07,6 +10.36,0 +11.00,3 +11.15,8 +11.20,5

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz Alexey Lukyanuk Ralfs Sirmacis Craig Breen Freddy Loix Ricardo Moura

Raul Jeets

Jaromir Tarabus

Jaroslav Koltun Kris Princen

Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Skoda Fabia R5 Citroen DS3 R5 Skoda Fabia R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Skoda Fabia R5 Skoda Fabia R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Peugeot 208 T16

121 pts 84 pts 79 pts 38 pts 38 pts 37 pts 33 pts 28 pts 27 pts 26 pts

Rajd Rzeszowski Based in: Rzeszow Number of stages: Longest stage: Shortest stage: Total stage distance:

04-06/08/2016 Surface: Tarmac 13 Lubenia, 24.44 km Rzeszow Super Special, 4.05 km 214 km

Radj Rzeszowski / Review

‘King Kajto’ reigns supreme With both Alexey Lukyanuk and Ralfs Sirmacis not participating in Rally Rzeszow Kajetan Kajetanowicz face a difficult decision ahead of his home event. Attack from the off and go for glory, ore play it safe and pick up a steady supply of points for the championship with his rivals not scoring any?

Words: Steven van Veenendaal

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Images: FIA ERC

Radj Rzeszowski / Review

Return to Poland For the first time since 2013 the ERC returned to Poland.

Back then the Rajd Polski was included in the championship, but it has since returned to WRC status. As a result, in 2014 and 2015 the Polish (and there are lots of them!) were deprived of ERC rally action. Not anymore though as Rally Rzeszow, one of the primary rallies in Poland, was included in the championship this season.

It would bring the ERC back to rally-crazy Poland and it would give reigning champion Kajetanowicz a chance to shine before his home crowd.

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“Local” opposition It wasn’t like Kajetanowicz would have it all his own way though. Despite the numbers two and three of the current ERC standings being absent, there was plenty of opposition to deal with en route to potential homeland glory.

First Kajetanowicz would have to deal with half-Pole Bryan Bouffier. The Frenchman competed in the Polish championship seven times and won the title three times.

Moreover, he is a four-time

winner of Rally Rzeszow and thus a force to be reckoned with. Co-driver Xavier Panseri went so far as to move to Poland and currently resides there, plenty of experience to give Kajetanowicz a run for his money. After his maiden ERC outing of the season at auto24 Rally Estonia, Polish champion Lukasz Habaj graced the start for the second time this season, and given his results in the Polish championship, he too should be expected to challenge Kajetanowicz all the way down to the wire.

Early drama It wouldn’t take long for the drama to kick off. After a short Thursday night blast through Rzeszow itself, the rally proper kicked of on Friday with the first tarmac stage, the 8.8 kilometer Konieczkowa test. It would already claim the first major victim of the rally when Habaj went off the road, losing over two-and-ahalf minutes in the process.

Kajetanowicz got stuck behind him, and lost time and the lead of the event to Bryan Bouffier.

Much was expected from Lukasz Habaj, but his chances ended early on.

Bryan Bouffier is almost Polish, having competed there for years.

Keep an eye out for this man, Wojciech Chuchala been has setting some incredible times all season long in his standard Subaru.

No-one can really challenge ‘Kajto’ on his home turf.

Comeback If you thought Kajetanowicz would back of and settle for second, you’d be mistaken.

The championship leader looks to capitalize on the opportunity presented to him this weekend to the max and starts mounting a comeback. He gradually closes the gap to Bouffier and looks on pace to overhaul him.

When the organizers decide to adjust his time on the opening stage of the day, he is immediately lifted over Bouffier and back in the lead. The Frenchman isn’t going down without a fight though and is the only one to snag a stage win from the inspired Pole. However on the penultimate stage of the day Bouffier slips up and drops over twenty seconds to Kajetanowicz, who after a difficult start suddenly comfortably sits in pole position ahead of the final day.

Quick decision As the final day gets underway Kajetanowicz has only one thing in mind, get this fight over with. He charges through the opening three stages to increase his lead to nearly a minute and sends a very clear message to Bouffier. It’s point-

less for the Frenchman to try anything silly on the final few remaining stages. Bouffier wins all three remaining stages and comfortably holds second, but isn’t able to really put a dent in Kajetanowicz’ confidence. Kajetanowicz is already in ‘cruisemode’ and diligently brings his Fiesta home safe for the first win of his season.

Not only does Kajetanowicz win the event, he also wins both leg classifications. Important because in the ERC bonus points are awarded for leg results. It points his points tally for the rally to a total of 39 points, the most scored by anyone this season. Combined with the fact that both of his nearest rivals in the championship, Lukyanuk and Sirmacis, both are unable to score any points, Kajetanowicz’ championship lead is increased to a massive 76 points with just three rounds to go. “It is amazing to win here” said Kajetanowicz.

“I pushed hard and its great to beat Bouffier who is a very fast tarmac driver. It was the perfect weekend for us, winning the rally and even more important scoring maximum championship points.”

Rajd Rzeszowski Overall final classification 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Kajetanowicz-Baran Bouffier-Panseri

Grzyb-Hundla Habaj-Wos

Brzezinski-Gerber Kasperczyk-Syty

Chuchala-Dymurski Koltun-Pleskot

Jeets-Toom

Tlustak-Vybiral

2016 FIA ERC Drivers’ Standings Ford Fiesta R5 Citroen DS3 R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Subaru Impreza WRX Ford Fiesta R5 Skoda Fabia R5 Skoda Fabia R5

2.01.37,1 +46,0 +3.37,6 +4.04,1 +4.19,1 +5.06,1 +5.19,7 +6.22,7 +6.42,9 +9.46,0

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz Alexey Lukyanuk Ralfs Sirmacis Craig Breen Freddy Loix Raul Jeets

Jaroslav Koltun Ricardo Moura

Bryan Bouffier Wojchiech Chuchala

Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Skoda Fabia R5 Citroen DS3 R5 Skoda Fabia R5 Skoda Fabia R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Citroen DS3 R5 Subaru Impreza WRX

160 pts 84 pts 79 pts 38 pts 38 pts 38 pts 38 pts 37 pts 37 pts 34 pts

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B Derry/Londonderry British Rally Championship

Surely Elfyn Evans put on the Beatles classic ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ ahead of the Ulster Rally. The opening lyrics ‘It was twenty years ago today...’ were very fitting indeed.

Twenty years after his father Gwyndaf took the British Rally Championship crown at the Ulster Rally, Elfyn was on the brink of following in his footsteps.

Ahead of the event Evans is confident yet realistic “We hope it’s possible to wrap-up the title here on the Ulster but in rallying anything can happen and we still need to finish in a certain position and

and be in front of Tom [Cave] and Fredrik [Ahlin].”

That anything can happen in rallying is known fact, especially on the treacherous Ulster stages.

Local driver Johnny Greer was impressed with this year’s stages “The organisers seem to be able to come up with tests that offer everything: bumps, jumps, fast sections, smooth tarmac and then really tight, technical sections.” Not to mention, this year on the Ulster the BRC also returns the dark side, as nighttime stages are included on Friday night, adding to the challenge.

British RC / Ulster Rally

Rain The weather gods didn’t favor the Ulster area this weekend.

Heavy rain tormented the teams, and fans alike, throughout the event. It made the well over 200 special stage kilometers even more daunting.

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Early skirmish Evans struggled early on with his tyre choice and found himself locked in a battle with series returnee Keith Cronin and Irish Tarmac Championship regular Alistair Fisher. Triple champion Cronin made a welcome return to the championship after missing the last few rallies. He was immediately on the pace and gave Evans a run for his money early on. At the end of the opening day Evans was in the lead, but he held just a very slender 4,5 second advantage over Cronin.

Although things were now looking very good for his championship ambitions, nearest rival Tom Cave was struggling down the leaderboard, Evans wasn’t going to get an easy ride to luster up his title with a victory.

Evans takes charge The second day started as the fiirst day had ended with Evans and Cronin battling hard.

Early leader Alistair Fisher had

suffered a puncture on Friday, costing him a minute. He found himself out of contention for the win, but eventually finished just 1 minute and 7 seconds behind the winner, proving his pace the entire day. Although Cronin was putting up an admirable fight, Evans was racking up the stage wins and slowly but steadily extended his lead. With just three stages to go the lead was up to 22 seconds but that wasn’t Cronin’s biggest concern. Minor gearbox issues had been troubling him all day, but they grew to catastrophic proportions at the final service halt. Cronin was unable to select any gear at all and additional emergency repairs were required.The issue was solved, but it resulted in a two-minute time penalty. The fight was over and although Cronin managed to fight back to fifth, Evans could now cruise home to victory and the title.

Another champion Evans and Parry weren’t the only ones to win to spray the championship champagne in Ireland.

Robert Duggan and Gerard Conway piloted the Vauxhall Adam to their fourth victory of the season. As they plated their ‘Joker’ it landed them double points and the Junior BRC title to go with it.

Robert Duggan and Gerard Conway clinched the Junior BRC title.

Overall final classification 1. Evans – Parry Ford Fiesta R5 2. Fisher – Noble Ford Fiesta R5 3. Greer – Riddick Citroen DS3 R5 4. Bogie – O’Reilly Skoda Fabia R5 5. Cronin – Galvin Citroen DS3 R5 6. McCormack – Moynihan Skoda Fabia S2000 7. Moffett – Rowan Ford Fiesta R5 8. Yates – Woodburn Ford Fiesta R5 9. McConigle – Geaney Skoda Fabia S2000 10. Cave – Morgen Ford Fiesta R5

2.11.15,4 +1.07,6 +1.25,4 +2.00,4 +2.07,4 +4.31,9 +5.53,7 +5.55,4 +6.29,2 +6.54,3

2016 British Rally Championship Drivers Standings 1. Elfyn Evans 2. Tom Cave 3. Jonathan Greer 4. Fredrik Ahlin 5. Josh Moffett 6. David Bogie 7. Desi Henry 8. Marty McCormack 9. Rhys Yates 10. Jamie Anderson

Three-time champion Keith Cronin made a welcome return to the series and brought the fight to Evans.

Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Citroen DS3 R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Skoda Fabia R5 Skoda Fabia R5

Skoda Fabia S2000 Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta R5

135 pts 74 pts 66 pts 65 pts 52 pts 36 pts 29 pts 18 pts 17 pts 16 pts

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Omloop van Vlaanderen Belgian Rally Championship

Words: Steven van Veenendaal; Images: PR

Round 7

Belgian RC / Omloop van Vlaanderen

B Roesselaere Belgian Rally Championship

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After just six of the total nine rounds the Belgian Rally Championship was already decided. Reigning champion Freddy Loix took maximum points from the opening six rounds and was crowned champion in Ypres. Having secured the title, Loix opted to skip the seventh round of the championship, the ‘Omloop van Vlaanderen’ or Tour of Flanders. Loix’ absence cleared the way for others to finally snatch a win.

Despite the champion not being there, the Tour of Flanders still boasted a strong entrylist. All other Belgian front-runners were present and would face stiff opposition from a couple of foreign entries. The most notable non-Belgian

entries were that of up-and-coming Swedish talent Emile Bergkvist and Dutchmen ten Brinke, de Jong and Wevers. Bergkvist used Flanders mainly to learn and gain tarmac experience while the Dutch drivers hadn’t driven too much this year and were mainly looking for rhythm ahead of the biggest rally in The Netherlands, the Hellendoorn Rally later this month.

One of the big favourites for the win was Kris Princen, who had come closest to beating Loix so far this season. Princen has been driving solid this season, but Loix always proved to be just a little quicker and more consistent. Princen’s rally would not last long. He was the first major casualty of the rally, just 400 meters in.

Belgian RC / Omloop van Vlaanderen 48/54

“Well, I can be as brief as our rally was. Just 400 meters in there was a lefthand corner. We had a ‘don’t cut’ warning in our notes, so I didn’t cut, but there was a bump in the road that I underestimated. As a result we just went too hard through the corners, had two wheels on the grass and were dragged into the ditch. I thought it was all over but the spectators somehow managed to get us out of there. I have no idea how they did it!”

It might not have been the end of his rally, with a time loss of nine minutes it was surely the end of his chances to pursue victory.

The strong combination of van Woensel and the powerfull Mitsubishi proved to be too much for the (mainly) R5 oppostion. It had been fourteen years since van Woensel had won a rally at the top level in Belgium, but his day had finally come again. “This is a very sweet victory after all the trouble we have faced this season. It’s also great for the whole team who work so hard on every rally to finally be rewarded.”

Princen’s exit also hampered Bernard ten Brinke on the wet opening night.

“We were next to start after Princen and when he went off we had to wait for the stage to clear. Unfortunately that meant that we were driving the stage in full wet conditions on slick tyres, not ideal.” Verschueren, who was already through the stage, took full advantage and used the dry conditions to his advantage to take a strong lead. He too would have to face the rain though on the remaining Friday-night stages and dropped behind Chris van Woensel, who’s Mitsubishi Lancer WRC finally ran fautlessly.

Van Woensel was the clear runaway winner, but behind him a very interesting battle developed. Verschueren had been the fastest of the R5 cars but was also nursing a sick Fabia engine. With just a handful of stages the car ground to a halt and Verschueren had to perform emergency repair activitties to get it going again. Unfortunately for him, those were deemed illegal by the officials and Verschueren was excluded after the event. Behind him ten Brinke and Lefevere had been fighting for third (which would turn out to be second) until the latter hit a rock and damaged the suspension of his Mitsubishi. Ten Brinke had to fend off a late charge from Emile Bergkvist but was able to secure second ahead of the young Swede.

Despite crashing on the first stage, Princen completed the entire rally, much to the delight of the fans.

With just a couple of rallies under his belt in the Fabia R5 ten Brinke is alerady proving to be a force to be reckoned with.

Overall final classification 1. van Woensel – Snaet 2. ten Brinke – Thierie 3. Bergkvist - Sjoberg 4. Debackere – Cokelaere 5. Wevers – van Limpt 6. Lietaer – Noppe 7. Pyck – Placke

8. de Jong – Degandt 9. Coene – de Duytsche 10. Boulat – de Busscher

Mitsubishi Lancer WRC 1:47.05,7 Skoda Fabia R5 +1.33,0 Citroen DS3 R5 +2.02,3 Skoda Fabia R5 +2.32,1 Subaru Impreza S14 WRC +4.19,4 Subaru Legacy RS +5.55,4 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. X +7.05,9 Citroen DS3 R5

+7.07,8 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. X +7.15,0 BMW M3 +8.59,6

2016 Belgian Rally Championship Drivers Standings 1. Freddy Loix 2. Kris Princen 3. Vincent Verschueren 4. Anthony Dovifat 5. Stephan Hermann 6. Steven Dolfen 7. Lucas Walbrecq 8. Xavier Bouche 9. Polle Geussens 10. Kurt Braeckevelt

Skoda Fabia R5 Peugeot 208 T16 Skoda Fabia R5 Citroen DS3 R1 Fiat Punto HGT Peugeot 208 VTi R2 Renault Twingo RS R1 Skoda Fabia R5 Ford Fiesta R2 BMW M3

120 pts 80 pts 67 pts 50 pts 31 pts 29 pts 26 pt 26 pts 26 pts 25 pts

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Rally-eMag / Erik’s Epic Encounters

Erik’s epic encounters When travelling the world to snap the WRC, our photographer Erik van ‘t Land comes across many interesting scenes, sometimes concerning rallying, and sometimes just the finer things in life. Here are his finds from Finland and Germany.

Better than fishing!

Most relaxed marshalls in the world

Best spot

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Checking the results or....

GOTTA CATCH EM ALL!!?

Heyyy!

I’m right here... and he hugs that??

Is my Suzuki the right colour dad?

Ehm, Trier, we have a problem. Mayday mayday!

When you see it....

The whole family was out in Germany to cheer Sordo on to second.

Media life is lonely

Let me tap that.

See you next time...

see you next time...