Rally-eMag 041 January 2017

Rally-emag

The digital rally magazine

Dawn of a

new era

*For us and the WRC!

RallyeMonte Carlo Rally australia

Season preview / Dutch and Belgian wrap-up

Erik van ‘t Land/Rallypicture

New car, new team, new win.

Sebastien Ogier proved to the world that he is number one, even without a VW. Perhaps the victory was even sweeter for Malcolm Wilson’s ‘private’ M-Sport team

Erik van ‘t Land/Rallypicture

Coming back in style.

Toyota celebrated their highly anticipated return to the WRC with a second place podium for Jari Matti Latvala

Erik van ‘t Land/Rallypicture

It looks great. Sounds great too. The results? Not so much so far. It’s still very early going, but the Frechies are of to a bad start in 2017.

Erik van ‘t Land/Rallypicture

A rally to forget for Hayden Paddon. The New Zealander was faced with every driver’s worst nightmare when he hit a spectator on the opening stage.

Editor’s note Welcome back, WRC2017 is Go! Welcome to the new and hopefully improved (we sure think so) Rally-eMag. It’s been a while since our last issue as we took to the time to evaluate and revamp the magazine. As you can clearly see the overall layout has changed quite a bit, allowing for more varied designs and a more enticing overall look and feel. Content-wise you can expect more of the same in the coming year; we’ll once again be following the WRC and various European championships with the occasional hop across the pond for Rally America.

I am writing to you on the plane from Marseille to Amsterdam, flying home after the WRC season opening Rallye Monte Carlo. The clouds we’re passing are causing quite a bit of turbulence, just like the WRC experienced in the past weekend. What should have been an action-packed dawn of a new era, quickly transformed into a nightmare. We’ll go into more detail on the events of the first stage further on in the magazine. For now let’s suffice by saying that our thoughts are with the family of the unfortunate spectator and with Hayden Paddon. We wish both all the best

By Steven van Veenendaal

in dealing with the tragic event.

Motorsports are dangerous and once again we were reminded of it, and the importance of listening to the marshalls and adhering to the safety rules. Rallying is the purest, most accessible and most beautiful form of motorsport, but can only remain so if we all do our best to keep it as safe as possible.

Rallying is the purest, most accessible and beautiful form of motorsport, but can only remain so if we all do our best to keep it as safe as possible.

Once the rally resumed on the second day, we got our first chance to witness the new WRC machines in anger. It’s got to be said, they certainly look the part.

The new aero packages give the cars a more aggressive look and the extra horsepower translates into a heavier soundtrack as well.

Honestly the new Toyota Yaris WRC stole my heart. After seeing the images I felt it had spent a bit too much time at the local plastic surgery parlour, but in real life, it’s the real deal. The DVD-rack pods on the back don’t look stitched on at all and its central exhaust finishes the job. Of course it’s bizarrely modified, but wasn’t the Metro 6R4 too?

Although never the fastest, that car turned into a straight icon of its generation and with the pace the little Yaris is already displaying on its first rally, it has every chance to mimic its legendary spiritual father.

I feel chuffed for Toyota in claiming their maiden podium but even more for Malcolm Wilson and the entire M-Sport. After years of underdogging, fighting the megabudgets of some of the largest manufacturers in the world, suddenly the arrival of Ogier and Ingrassia gives them the final push they needed to go for gold.

The pressure is off for the Cockermouth boys and girls, now that the first win is in the pocket and with Neuville’s pace early on it looks like we’re headed for the most exciting season in decades!

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Rally-emag / january 2017

Words: Harry van Veenendaal Steven van Veenendaal

Images: Erik van ‘t Land

Publisher: Issuu.com

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This month January 2017 18

Introduction

28

Australia

wrc wrc

The end of an era

Monte Carlo

48

The Lowlands

50

Belgium

52

The Netherlands

54

The World

eur brc drc

eee

28

The season we’ve all been waiting for

36

wrc

52

18

Many things change, but some never do

Lowlands wrap-up

Bye bye Freddy

Dutch turmoil

Erik’s Epic Encounters in Monte Carlo

Rally-emag / january 2017

50

36

Rally-emag / january 2017

2017

The Season

The cars The first generation of World Rally Cars started in 1997 as a successor to the former group A cars. This first generation had a 2.0 litre turbocharged engine. In 2011 the size of the engine was reduced to 1.6 litres. The third generation of these cars had more drastic changes. Dynamic, distinctive, powerful and looking potent, that’s the way the FIA officially described the new World Rallycar. On the technical field there will be changes to the ‘old’ 1.6 litre engine to make it more powerful. This will be conceived by increasing the size of the restrictor from 33 millimetres to 36 and keeping the turbo pressure at 2.5 bar.

As the maximum weight is

reduced by 25 kilo the speed theotically should increase (More power, less weight). The most significant thing however is the aero package. Longer front wings, wider doorsills and huge rearwings should give the potent look. Whether it adds something to the actual speed is something we will learn in 2017.

The calendar Not much news on the calendar. The most important change is the date of Rallye de France. It will now start on 6 April rather than in October.

This was done to introduce a tarmac event earlier in the season so that there was a more even spread of tarmac and gravel events over the season.

After its cancellation in 2016 Rally China does not (yet?) come back to the calendar.

Furthermore though there was some criticism on safety issues Rally Poland organizers have convinced the FIA they can handle things and they remain on the calendar (29 June). The FIA left open September “for inclusion of future events,” it was stated officially. So between the finish of Germany on 20 August and 5 October, the start of Spain, there will be a short ‘end of summer break’.

The finale, as in 2016, will be in Australia.

been waiting for

The regulations At the end of 2016 the World Motorsport council decided on some changes in the regulations. They include some hot issues like the starting order.

Quite surprisingly the rules go back a few years. On the first day of each rally the starting order will be the championship standings. On the remaining

days P1 drivers (all drivers entered by a constructor’s team or entered in the WRC Trophy) will start in reverse order of rally classification. P1 drivers coming back under Rally 2 regulations will follow then. After them all other drivers will start in normal classification order.

Since 2011 PowerStage championship points have been awarded to the first three finishers of the stage. In 2017 the first five drivers will earn 5, 4 3, 2 or 1 extra points.

A WRC Trophy will be started for drivers driving pre 2017 specification World Rally Cars.

Words: Harry van Veenendaal Images: PR

The most exciting part of the 2016 season really started after Rally Wales GB. By then we knew the champions, who proved to be ‘the usual suspects’: Ogier was the best driver and Volkswagen was the best team. What else is new? After four years of dominance we expected them to be in this position. But just days after the British WRC round Volkswagen shockingly decided to pull the plug on their WRC activities. What happened then will take a book to describe but what we now know is that Hyundai, M-Sport, Citroën and newcomer Toyota will decide who will be Volkswagen’s successor.

A season of changes The 2017 season will be the start of a whole lot of new things.

In here we try to take you through the main items of these changes

we have all Rally-emag / january 2017

M-Sport world rally team Sebastien Ogier

1

Car no.

2 Julien Ingrassia

Overview -Sport started development of the new Fiesta relatively late. The new car had to be based on the new Fiesta roadcar but even with M-Sport’s good relations with Ford, it was not easy to get all necessary specifications. So the development team started to build new components and to test them on an existing WRC. Malcolm Wilson wasn’t too concerned. “We are used to this,” he told us. “One of the best cars we recently developed in cooperation with Ford Performance was the Focus RS WRX. We built that car in no time and it turns out to be a winner. “So I’m sure my team will succeed to build a car in time.”

And he kept his promise. Heavily disguised Fiesta’s popped up on the social media. At a certain moment Malcolm Wilson himself put on a

M

ford fiesta wrc

Ott Tanak Martin Jarveoja

racing suit and climbed aboard his latest creation. His facial expression after getting out of the car again was clear: he was happy. “I was really impressed,” he would tell us later. “I’m sure this is going to be a winner.”

“I was really impressed.

I’m sure this is going to be a winner” - Malcolm Wilson

At that moment Wilson was probably thinking Ott Tänak was the driver he

Car no.

3

Elfyn Evans Daniel Barritt

would be relying on. The Estonian drove a big chunk of the test kilometres and his current driver Mads Østberg until recently had none. But on November 2nd 2016 a message hit the media: ‘Volkswagen realigns motorsport programme’. From that moment on Malcolm Wilson must have had a déjà vu: could it happen this time?

Some years ago he tried to sign Ogier and only just did not make it. To cut a long story short this time he did succeed and signed the four-time world champion. For the first time since the 1980’s we will see a Ford with number one on its sides again. The number two car will be as expected be driven

by Ott Tänak and Elfyn Evans will drive the number three car. Starting from Rally Sweden Mads Østberg will drive a 2017 Fiesta in a private team with Martin Prokop.

Images: PR

line up Car no.

Hyundai motorsport Hayden Paddon

4

5 John Kennard

Overview hen development started of the first Hyundai WRC, the engineers wanted to use the two doors version of the i20. At that moment it wasn’t possible to use that car as the required number of 2.500 road cars had not been produced by the time homologation had to be finished.

Production planning in the Korean factory gave priority to the four-door car. So the two generations of Hyundai WRC’s have been based on this car.

By now the required number of cars have been built so for the 2017 spec they use the two doors version called the i20 Coupé. Development of the car has started early last year and since April test driver Kevin Abbring has done the greater part of test mileage.

Hayden Paddon and Dani Sordo initially did the rest. Only after Thierry Neuville had been signed he started

W

Hyundai i20 coupe wrc

Car no.

Thierry Neuville Nicolas Gilsoul

testing the car too. Until the team launch the test team covered some 6000 kilometres. So four years and fifty weeks after Hyundai Motorsport was originally founded they invited the international media to present their third car since they joined the championship in 2014. As in all new cars Hyundai included all new features of the 2017 specs. That means improved aerodynamics and mechanical grip and of course an increased engine power. The weight of the car has been reduced and the active centre diff returned in the drive line.

The driver line-up did not change.

Dani Sordo and Hayden Paddon already had been confirmed but there was a lot of mystery around Thierry Neuville. There was a lot of discussion about him going to Citroën but finally

Car no.

6

Dani Sordo Marc Marti

the team could confirm him as their third driver. During this season driver and team had found each other again.

In 2015 Neuville didn’t feel right in the car and was frustrated by the (in his view) lack of development. But after his win on Sardinia and several podium finishes. Probably it helped in his decision to stay with the team.

Test driver Kevin Abbring is still with the team but ‘only’ as test driver. After his victory in the Rallye du Var he will start in Monte Carlo in the R5, as part of the car’s test programme.

The 2017 WRC is based on the two-door Coupé

Images: PR

line up Car no.

Citroen total abu dhabi wrt Kris Meeke

7

8 Paul Nagle

Overview he French team completely focused on the development of their new car. They sold all their DS3’s to PH Sport and under the banner of the Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team the Citroën drivers drove a limited program that resulted in two victories for Kris Meeke in Portugal and Finland. So Citroën really confirmed their commitment to WRC. They stopped their WTCC program at the end of 2016 and will come back as a full factory WRC team in 2017.

T

With the knowledge of 96 times WRC event winner the team started to develop the new car. The new 2017 spec WRC contender will be based on the new C3 road car. As the team stopped its competitive activities they have been able to do their development program in the shadows.

Citroen c3 wrc

Car no.

Stephane Lefebvre Gabin Moreau

Having spent nine times at selected test sites and not being ‘bothered’ by a normal WRC program they must be one of the top cars of the new season.

In Monte Carlo we will learn more.

They must be one of the top cars of the 2017 season Still they were the last team to officially present its complete WRC

Car no.

9/12

Craig Breen Scott Martin

set up. There were no surprises however. The driver line-up had been confirmed some time ago. Kris Meeke was signed last year. This year Stéphane Lefebvre and Craig Breen were added. Sheik Khalid Al Qassimi will drive a few events. There has been a lot of speculation about the driver line-up, but Yves Matton kept his promise to his original idea and the drivers belonging to that. Meaning one experienced driver, and two youngsters on their way to the top.

He must have been tempted by the idea to bring back Sebastien Ogier into the Citroën ranks but he decided that if Ogier wanted to testdrive the C3, he first would have to sign a contract. Seb in his turn demanded the test drive first. He got one from Toyota and M-Sport... So it wasn’t Citroën for him (yet?).

Images: PR

line up Car no.

toyota gazoo racing wrc Jari-Matti Latvala

10

Car no.

11 Miikka Anttila

Overview oyota has a long history in rallying but they left WRC in 1999. With the constructor’s title in their hands, but Formula One had a greater appeal for Toyota management and Toyota disappeared from the WRC scene.

For a long time there were rumours about a new WRC involvement. In 2014 the first pictures unofficial pictures saw WWthe light. Pictures of a Toyota testing in some kind of WRC look. Toyota Motorsport GmbH was behind these efforts. They were developing an engine that could be used in WRC. It became clear this was serious when Akio Toyoda, now chairman of the team, came to Rally Finland as a spectator. He was seen talking to Tommi Mäkinen and in

T

K-AM

toyota yaris wrc

Juho Hanninen Kaj Lindstrom

early 2015 Toyota decided to return to WRC. The ‘coincidental’ meeting between the Finnish multiple World Champion resulted in a completely new organization set-up in Finland by Mäkinen.

In early 2016 we met Mäkinen and he explained there will be a good cooperation between his TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC and Toyota Motorsport.

It is not clear what this cooperation involves but most (if not all) work seems to be concentrated in Finland.

The car they selected is the Toyota Yaris WRC, and in the hands of Mäkinen and other drivers including Juho Hänninen it was tested a lot.

There has been a lot of testing with

IS

Car no.

?

Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm

different wings and we can safely say they make best use of the new regulations regarding aero package. Apart from the rear wing, the sides and front of the car seem to have quite a bit of protruding bodywork. Sebastien Ogier was allowed to test the car and although he allegedly was offered quite a decent income he made a different choice as ‘the car had potential but needed some tweaking,’ as he was supposed to have said. Jari-Matti Latvala díd sign for the team and his tests are going very well now, according to Latvala who envisages 2017 podiums for the new car. Apart from Latvala, faithful test driver Juho Hänninen will drive the second car. Esapekka Lappi was appointed as test driver.

BACK

Images: PR

line up Car no.

The Dutch Rally Championship is going through tough times. Will the WRC’s be saved? Or will it be an all-out R5 assault? Time will tell.

Steven van veenendaal/Rally-emag

Erik van ‘t Land/Rallypicture

The Monte at night.

As beautiful as it is terrifying. With new cars at their disposal, the drivers were faced with nearly 50 km of dark icy mountain roads to kick off the 2017 WRC.

The end of an

ERA

Words: Harry van Veenendaal, Images: PR

Australia was the last rally of the season. This year’s event however had another feel to it. Not only did it end the 2016 season but it was also the end of an era and not only because it was the last time we could see the current generation of World Rally Cars in action, but also because Volkswagen bomb shelled us just after Wales Rally GB by announcing their complete withdrawal from the top level of rallying.

Oh and then there was something else: the runner up position of the driver’s championship was still up for grabs.

T

hough the champion was all but crowned there was still plenty to do in Australia. The major thing at stake is the runner-up positions in both the drivers’ and manufacturer’s championship.

Andreas Mikkelsen and Thierry Neuville therefore got most of the attention. But obviously the other two VW drivers wanted to finish on a high for their employer. For Sebastien Ogier this is not an easy task as he has to start from the dreaded first position on the stages. As we now know this will be the last time he will have to do that as the World Motorsport Council decided this rule was going to change. So from Monte Carlo Ogier only has to start from first position on the first day, provided he can obtain a seat for 2017 - Andreas Mikkelsen

of course, but we’re not really doubting that. Latvala also has another mission, he knows Ogier is generally acknowledged to be the better driver and therefore can make his own choice for a car for next year. The Finn however has to wait what offers will come his way. So he has to show he is still a driver to be considered. Thierry Neuville of course is eager to show he left behind the bad days and now is back on track. He however has no worries about a seat for next year and that takes some weight of his shoulders. As long as Hayden Paddon’s battle for New Zealand’s return in the WRC doesn’t materialize, Australia is his home event with quite a few Kiwis around to support their immensely popular compatriot, providing extra motivation.

“Every time I use this pedal the brake comes with it”

sydney wrc gala

silly season

Monday after the rally the famous Rock area close to Sydney Harbour Bridge hosted the gala. Over 200 people watched WRC Promoter Oliver Ciesla presenting no less than nine awards. In several categories visitors of WRC.COM had voted for their favourites. The most prestigious award was the Driver of the year award. It was won by Ott Tänak, for his outstanding achievements and perhaps emphasised by the amount of bad luck that stole his maiden victory during Rally Poland, where he also won the Michelin Magic Moment award when Ogier carried him on his shoulders after the Estonian looked utterly defeated for not winning his rally.

Another major award was the best co-driver award for Nicolas Gilsoul who guided Thierry Neuville to win them both the runner up position in the championship.

When the WRC community had found their way to Australia, the main topic of discussion unsurprisingly was VW’s surprise exit. The big question being where do the driver’s go? Rumours were everywhere but a fact was that Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia did not attend the WRC Gala. As soon as it was possible the two left Australia, Europe bound. They had other priorities like securing a seat for next season. Their first stop was Spain where they tested the Toyota Yaris on both tarmac and gravel. Ogier wasn’t over excited about the car’s stage of development and then proceeded to Cumbria to test M-Sports 2017 machine. Ogier seemed to be happy.

The rumour machine was in overdrive but Ogier took his time before he finally decided to sign for M-Sport.

At least one of the aforementioned drivers will not be able to reach his goal. Jari-Matti Latvala slid into a bridge on day one. He does come back later that day, but by then he lost some 8 minutes and threw away his chances for a good result. The other drivers perform as expected. Mikkelsen is charging and the result shows it: he wins four of the five morning stages.

So at midday service he is leading the rally. Hayden Paddon is second some fourteen seconds behind the Norwegian. Ogier, of course handicapped by being first on the roads, follows twenty seconds later.

Thierry vs Andreas Neuville is just holding on to a virtual second place in the championship.

Mikkelsen continues his morning charge fully focussed on keeping ahead of Neuville. He wins the second run of the Utungun stage, the first afternoon stage. But then Neuville woke up and took the next stage. Meanwhile the roads have cleaned and Ogier sees his chance: He wins four stages in a row. He is now second, behind Mikkelsen and in front of Neuville who leads his teammate Paddon by one

second. The battle for runner up in the championship is still open. Ogier could overtake Mikkelsen and rob him of a possible second spot. Neuville could falter and hand Mikkelsen his second position. So there will still be plenty of action for the following days.

Tension is rising On day two Latvala can come back, fully in contention. He proves that by scoring fast times. On the first Saturday stage, the 50 km Nambucca stage he is only just slower than stage winner Paddon. He wins the next one (Valla 16) and also wins the repeat running of Nambucca. But it’s just to stabilize his market value when he goes hunting for a new seat for next year. In this rally it doesn’t make much difference as he lost too much time on day one.

Mikkelsen’s misfortune The Norwegian had one simple goal: to remain where he is. It’s his only chance to win and perhaps secure second place in the championship.

On the short SuperSpecial Raceway he wins some time, but not much later his quest gets a serious blow. He hits a

stone that makes a dent in the bottom of his car and bends his clutch pedal.

“Every time I use this pedal the brake comes with it,” he explains. It costs him some ten seconds enabling Ogier to come to within striking distance. At the end of the day the two teammates are separated by just two seconds, still in favour of Mikkelsen but it’s not the position he wanted to be in just before the final day. Neuville is fourth some 20 seconds behind Paddon.

End of an era The battle of the day virtually ended on Bucca, the second Sunday stage.

Paddon made a mistake offering third place to Neuville. The fight for Australian Victory ended on the same stage when Ogier also made a mistake and lost some 20 seconds. So Mikkelsen ‘cruised’ to the finish. In a way Neuville did the same but not after scoring second time on the PowerStage. Winner of the PowerStage ‘of course’ was Ogier. Mikkelsen secured his second victory this year. It finishes an era both for Volkswagen who leaves WRC as well as for the current generation of WRC’s, that will be followed by the hugely anticipated 2017 cars.

Kennards hire rally australia Key stats from the final round of the WRC Itinerary

Event data

DAY 1 - 18.11.2016

Based in

Coffs Harbour

Surface

Gravel

Date

17-11 / 21-11-16

Stage distance

283 km

Nr. of stages

23

Total distance

1040 km

SS1

Utungun II

7.88

SS2

Bakers Creek I

16.75

SS3

Northbank I

8.42

SS4

Newry16 I

10.49

SS5

Raceway SSS I

1.37

SS6

Utungun II

7.88

SS7

Bakers Creek II

16.75

SS8

Northbank II

8.42

SS9

Newry16 II

10.49

SS10

Destination NSW SSS - I

1.27

SS11

Destination NSW SSS - II

1.27

Shortest stage

DAY 2 - 19.11.2016

1st

mikkelsen

2nd

ogier

3rd

neuville

Final results 1.

Mikkelsen-Jaeger

VW Polo R WRC

2:46:05.7

Ogier-Ingrassia

VW Polo R WRC

+14.9

SS12

Nambucca I

50.80

2.

SS13

Valla16 I

14.84

3.

Neuville-Gilsoul

Hyundai NG i20 WRC +1:12.6

SS14

Raceway SSS II

1.37

4.

Paddon-Kennard

Hyundai NG i20 WRC +1:26.7

SS15

Nambucca II

50.80

5.

Sordo-Marti

Hyundai NG i20 WRC +1:28.3

6.

Ostberg-Floene

Ford Fiësta RS WRC

+1:41.5

SS16

Valla16 II

14.84

7.

Tanak-Molder

Ford Fiësta RS WRC

+3:04.3

SS17

Destination NSW SSS - III

1.27

8.

Lappi-Ferm

Skoda Fabia R5

+7:32.3

SS18

Destination NSW SSS - IV

1.27

9.

Latvala-Anttila

VW Polo R WRC

+7:56.9

10.

Bertelli-Scattolin

Ford Fiësta RS WRC

+8:00.1

Longest stage

DAY 3 - 20.11.2016 SS19

Settles Reverse I

6.20

SS20

Bucca16

31.90

SS21

Wedding Bells16 I

6.44

SS22

Settles Reverse II

6.20

SS23

Wedding Bells16 II

6.44

Powerstage

MOST STAGE WINS Mikkelsen/Ogier

10 Event leaders: Mikkelsen (SS1; SS3-SS23), Paddon (SS2) notable retirements Eric Camilli

Ford Fiesta WRC

Rolled

drivers Standings 1.

Sébastien Ogier

Volkswagen Motorsport

268

2.

Thierry Neuville

Hyundai Motorsport

160

3.

Andreas Mikkelsen

Volkswagen Motorsport II

154

4.

Hayden Paddon

Hyundai Motorsport

138

5.

Dani Sordo

Hyundai Motorsport

130

6.

Jari-Matti Latvala

Volkswagen Motorsport

112

7.

Mads Ostberg

M-Sport World Rally Team

102

8.

Ott Tanak

DMack World Rally Team

88

9.

Kris Meeke

Citroen Abu Dhabi WRT

64

10.

Craig Breen

Citroen Abu Dhabi WRT

36

Manufacturer Standings 1.

Volkswagen Motorsport

377

2.

Hyundai Motorsport

312

3.

Volkswagen Motorsport Ii

163

4.

M-Sport World Rally Team

162

5.

Hyundai Motorsport N

146

6.

Dmack World Rally Team

98

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Most things change, but some never do Words: Harry van Veenendaal, Images: Erik van ‘t Land

The highly anticipated Rallye Monte Carlo brought everything we were looking forward to. Serious accidents are of course not part of them. Unfortunately they do happen and in this rally the saying “Motorsport is dangerous” held true again. Of course we will fill you in on that but as another saying says: “life goes on” so we will also discuss the first event of a brand new WRC season, with more powerful (and exciting?) cars. A season’s start that held many surprises, but was it really a surprise win?

Rally-emag / january 2017

Unfortunate events We’re going back to Thursday evening January 19, the day the rally started: 8PM: To celebrate the new era of WRC, with its new more powerful cars, the first stage of the rally is broadcast live around the globe. Reigning champion Sebastien Ogier blasts through the opening stage in his new Fiesta. The big question is, will he be as dominant as he was in his Volkswagen? Or can we finally expect some proper competition for top honours? We quickly learn the answer as Neuville comes through even faster. Excitement builds, it promises to be an exciting season. The smiles quickly make way for worried faces though as the first reports come in that Hayden Paddon has gone off the road and potentially hit a spectator.

While all official channels refrain from commenting about the situation until they actually have the facts, social media explodes. As it goes with comments on the Internet, speculation about what happened, what the consequences are and who’s responsible. As times goes by, the messages get grimmer, as reported eye-witnesses confirm that a spectator has indeed been hit, and could have been killed in the incident. After delaying the stage the organization finally decides to cancel the stage for all remaining competitors to allow the emergency rescue helicopter to take the spectator to the nearest hospital. An official statement ensues,

stating that a spectator was hit and passed out and is taken to hospital in Nice to provide emergency care.

11PM: The rally continues with the second stage of the night. After the scare on the second day, the organizer and promoter hope to get the season underway in earnest without further dramatic events. The stage goes through without any further issues, yet the entire WCR community goes to bed uneasily, unknowing about the outcome of the event earlier that evening.

Friday morning, 7AM: As the crews rise to prepare for the first full day of action, confirmation about the severity of the event of stage one comes through. The spectator succumbed to his injuries and despite the best efforts of all medical personnel involved, passed away. Rather than speculating on the real happenings during this incident we would like to include a statement published by Hayden Paddon. We totally agree with this statement and also publish it because there is no way that Hayden Paddon could have avoided what happened, so for him it s a personal drama too. Only hours before the incident we were merrily talking to him. He was looking forward to the season, though Monte Carlo was not his favourite event. We hope to see him back in Sweden again and wish him all the luck he deserves.

Wales Rally GB posters warning fans to spectate safely.

Snow

There was plenty of snow again in 2017.

the rally goes on

Night

The Monte kicked off with two stages in the dark en route from Monaco to Gap. Rally-emag / january 2017

Before the first stage had been cancelled Ogier and Neuville were the only ones to run it at full competitive speed and Neuville was 0.7 seconds faster. The second stage immediately showed this was not a coincidence; Ogier was not the winner yet. Thierry Neuville had other ideas. Het blasted through the night, ignored all possible hazards and was fastest of them all. He won just under 8 seconds before going to sleep. The next day blue skies and lots of sunshine awaited the drivers. Not for Sebastien Ogier. He negotiated a very slow open hairpin to the right but was (at 10 kph as he explained) caught by a sheet of black ice. He slid into a ditch and needed the help of spectators to get him out again. It took them more than forty seconds. Neuville only just managed to stay on the road in the same spot but he did not loose time and finished behind Ott Tänak to be second on the stage but kept the lead increasing the gap between him and Ogier to more than 40 seconds. Neuville, Meeke, followed at 1.6 seconds by Tänak, now headed the leaderboard. Ogier dropped to eighth at almost fifty seconds.

Neuville continues winning three stages. The result is that Ogier looks at a gap of 1 minute 12 seconds. So it is time for Ogier to come back. He wins the day’s last two stages and finishes the day being 45 seconds behind Neuville.

Mikkelsen vows to come back Andreas Mikkelsen was the most notorious victim of the Volkswagen exit. He did not succeed in obtaining a full works seat. In Monte he had secured a Skoda Fabia R5 drive and though he was happy with the opportunity “I do not,” he said, during the pre event press conference. “Belong here, I belong in a full 2017 WRC! I want a full factory drive in a 2017 spec car. This will unfortunately not happen this year. But I hope to be back as

On Saturday the sun is out again, but by the time of the start of the first Saturday stage it is still quite cold. The Saturday loop consists of two runs of the stages Lardier et Valenca - Oze of just over 31 KM and La Batie Montsaleon - Faye of just under 17 KM. Last year these two stages together formed a marathon stage of more than 50 KM. The last stage of the day was the second run of the Bayons - Breziers stage that was earlier run as stage 2 when the drivers came from Monte Carlo on the way to Gap. The tricky thing about (especially) the first stage is that it begins completely dry but halfway changes into a snow-covered road. Jari Matti Latvala was not happy in his Toyota.

“I’m afraid I ruined my tires,” he says. “I pushed to hard in the beginning and killed my spikes. So in the snow there was hardly any grip. I lost a lot of time there.” Neuville apparently was smarter as he won the stage. Ogier followed at 2.6 seconds. A surprise in third was Elfyn Evans. For some reason or other, the Friday stages did not work for

soon as possible. We’re now working on a deal with a Volkswagen Polo 2017. We hope to do some events during this year and then embark on a full programme for next year.”

him at all, resulting in a modest eighth place after day one. However Saturday proved to be a better day for him because after his third place he scores no less than three scratches. After the start of Evan’s explosion only Ogier can score a scratch, the others are for the Brit. But Neuville leads Ogier again by more than one minute. At the end of stage 12 it was just under one minute again. On stage 13 (!) however things go wrong for the Belgian. He goes just a little bit wide and touches something hard. “It must have been concrete or something,” he later explains. The result is that the crew needs to stop to make repairs. With a ‘wobbly’ wheel they reach service again. But in the process they lost more than half an hour. His service crew starts to work frantically on the stricken i20. In just seconds under the allotted time they have the car in showroom condition again and Neuville can start the long drive to Monte Carlo for the overnight halt. Surprise leader is Ogier who keeps on saying Monte Carlo is a difficult rally.

Rally-emag / january 2017

luckless Kris Meeke suffered several blows amongst others he lost a wheel after an ice induced off road excursion. It threw him out of contention after stage 3 when he was second overall.

“This is not how we wanted to start,” he says. But we will continue learning more about the C3 tomorrow.” On stage 10 he suffers an ignition failure and is further thrown back.

Poised to score some PowerStage points on Sunday he tackles the road section to Monte Carlo, only to meet another car. It smashes into his C3 breaking the suspension beyond roadside repair. So the wounded WRC stays at the roadside depriving Kris Meeke from the last day of competition. “I’m gutted I can’t drive the final leg as I think the Col de Turini is always one of the highlights of the season.”

Final day The weather forecast is threatening: Morning snow is predicted for the region of the Sea Alps. Here the final stages of the rally are situated. Tyre choice is almost a gamble.

But the first alarm bells atre not tyre related. It is a rough sounding engine in Tänak’s car then en route for a historic one-two Ford finish together with Ogier. Tänak doesn’t give up; he manages to bring back one of the two faulty cylinders. One stage later however it is just two cylinders again. In the meantime it started to snow on the descent of the Turini. Sordo launches an attack to take third place from Tänak. But Tänak simply leaves his foot on the gas driving to the top of the Turini and then he simply drops his Ford down the Turini descent. In true Colin McRae

style he slides down the mountain, mostly looking ahead through his side window. He passes the finish extremely wide keeping every bit of speed until the stop finish. He made it and the heroic ride pays off: He is still third, consequently sending Sordo back to fourth. Second place was perhaps the most unexpected result of the rally. Jari-Matti Latvala brought home in second the brand new Toyota that for seventeen years had not been competing on the top level. Though Thierry Neuville won the PowerStage, it is Ogier who is the proud and extremely happy winner. He brings M-Sport, Malcolm Wilson Ford as well as himself a very nice present for the beginning of the season.

Rallye automobile de monte carlo Key stats from the opening round of the WRC Itinerary

Event data

DAY 1 - 19.01.2016

Based in

Gap

Surface

Asphalt

Date

16 / 22-1-17

Stage distance

383 km

Number of stages

17

Total distance

1086 km

SS1

Entrevaux - Val De Chalvagne - Ubraye

21.25

SS2

Bayons - Breziers 1

25.49

DAY 2 - 20.01.2016 SS3

Agnieres en Devoluy - Le Motty 1

24.63

SS4

Aspres Les Corps - Chaillol 1

38.94

SS5

St. Legers les Melezes - La Batie Neuve 1

16.83

SS6

Agnieres en Devoluy - Le Motty 2

24.63

SS7

Aspres Les Corps - Chaillol 2

38.94

SS8

St. Legers les Melezes - La Batie Neuve 2

16.83

Longest stage

1st

Ogier

2nd

3rd

latvala

tanak

DAY 3 - 21.01.2016 SS9

Lardier et Valenca - Oze 1

31.17

Final results

SS10

La Batie Montsaleon - Faye 1

16.78

1.

Ogier-Ingrassia

Ford Fiesta WRC

4:00:03.6

SS11

Lardier et Valenca - Oze 2

31.17

2.

Latvala-Anttila

Toyota Yaris WRC

+2:15.0

SS12

La Batie Montsaleon - Faye 2

16.78

3.

Tanak-Jarveoja

Ford Fiesta WRC

+2:57.8

SS13

Bayons - Breziers 2

25.49

4.

Sordo-Marti

Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC

+3:35.8

5.

Breen-Martin

Citroën DS3 WRC

+3:47.8

Evans-Barritt

Ford Fiesta WRC

+6:45.0

DAY 4 - 22.01.2016 SS14

Luceram - Col St Roch 1

5.50

6.

7.

Mikkelsen-Jaeger

Skoda Fabia R5

+4.04,2

SS15

La Bollene Vesubie - Peira Cava 1

21.36

8.

Kopecky-Dresler

Skoda Fabia R5

+12:58.1

SS16

Col De L'orme - St Laurent 2

5.50

9.

Lefebvre-Moreau

Citroën C3 WRC

+14:43.8

SS17

La Bollene Vesubie - Peira Cava 2

21.36

10.

Bouffier- Giraudet

Ford Fiesta R5

+16:09.4

Shortest stage

Powerstage

MOST STAGE WINS thierry neuville

6

(35%)

Event leaders: Neuville (SS2*- SS12), Ogier (SS13SS17) *SS1 and 16 Cancelled. notable retirements Hayden Paddon

Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC

Off road

Kris Meeke

Citroen C3 WRC

Mechanical

Francois Delecour Abarth 124

Mechanical

drivers Standings 1.

Sébastien Ogier

M-Sport World Rally Team

25

2.

Jari-Matti Latvala

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

18

3.

Ott Tanak

M-Sport World Rally Team

15

4.

Dani Sordo

Hyundai Motorsport

13

5.

Craig Breen

Citroën Total Abu Dhabi

10

6.

Elfyn Evans

M-Sport World Rally Team

10

7.

Andreas Mikkelsen

Skoda Motorsport

6

8.

Stéphane Lefebvre

Citroën Total Abu Dhabi

6

9.

Thierry Neuville

Hyundai Motorsport

5

10.

Jan Kopecky

Skoda Motorsport

4

Manufacturer Standings 1.

M-Sport World Rally Team

40

2.

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

24

3.

Hyundai Motorsport

20

4.

Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT

10

Rally-emag / january 2017

Malcolm Wilson kept smiling all weekend. We spoke to his wife; she was smiling too, having survived December 2016. “He has not been home much,” she said. “And working very hard, but in the end we got the nicest Christmas present ever”.

Now let’s look at the rally. Ogier was a bit cautious in his expectations and the time had really bee very short, but in the end he delivered. “He was lucky,” some people said. But being lucky in a rally like the Monte does not exist. Ogier lost 40 seconds when he only just started. But Ogier never gives up. He goes on and is capable of attacking in a very sensible way. Also he is the master of tyre preservation and that helps in the Monte on mixed tarmac / snow stages. But let’s not forget Tänak. He was very fast too, his third place reflected it and another pleasant surprise was Elfyn Evans. After a lack lustre performance on Friday, he came back excellently. That brings us to the car, it’s still early days but it at least looks promising and Ford management (present in Monaco) seems to think so too.

Image: Erik van ‘t Land

M-Sport world rally team

“He hasn’t been home much...”

- Elaine Wilson (Malcolm’s wive) after a nerve-racking December

Image: Erik van ‘t Land

Hyundai motorsport

“This has not been a good rally for us, but there are plenty of positives to take” - Dani Sordo

Rally-emag / january 2017

It was a difficult rally for the Korean team. Their car was very well prepared and looked everything what the rule makers must have thought of when they applied the new rules, but the accident on Thursday evening placed it’s mark on the team. Understandably and rightly so, Hayden Paddon was withdrawn, but it will take a while before things are normal again. Of course Neuville’s performance helped a bit. If only that it shows Hyundai built a very good car. In speed it seems to be faster than anyone. In all circumstances Neuville showed he was the faster driver. Six times he won a stage. If we add the scratch of Sordo that means Hyundai won seven stages.

The M-Sport trio won seven too, so the two cars look pretty equal. However Neuville’s mistake cost dearly.

He dropped half an hour by just one mistake. They won the PowerStage but that is just a small consolation for their weekend of very hard work. Dani Sordo did not completely feel at ease and admitted: “This has not been a good rally for us”. “But there are plenty of positives to take from this event,” he said, and we agree.

Citroën took a year off to prepare for the new era of WRC. So they had time do a lot of testing and consequently were very high on the bookmaker’s lists. Especially Kris Meeke of course, though competing in just seven rallies of last year’s championship he won two, so no discussion about his speed. In Monte Carlo however he didn’t seem to be able to deliver. On day one (being in second place overall) he got caught by an icy patch and broke his suspension. The next day technical problems threw him completely out of contention and though his motivation had gone he showed the potential of the car by posting a 3rd time on the last Saturday stage. It might have sparked a bit of hope but this was brutally erased again when he had a collision on the road section to Monte-Carlo.

He could rightly say this wasn’t his rally! Stéphane Lefebvre saved the honours by realizing a scratch in the final Sunday tests but the real bright spot in the team was Craig Breen. He was challenging Sordo for fourth but was simply out powered, driving the ‘old’ DS3. But his fifth place promises a lot.

Image: Erik van ‘t Land

Citroen total abu dhabi wrt

The brightest spot in an otherwise dark weekend was Craig Breen, the fastest of the Citroens in the ‘old’ DS3 model.

Image: Erik van ‘t Land

toyota gazoo racing wrc

“We might be fighting for podium positions in the second half of the season” - Jari Matti Latvala, just a few days before landing Toyota its first podium, on its first event after a 17-year absence.

Toyota shares with M-Sport the title of happiest team of the service area. Team principal Tommi Mäkinen had been cautious in his expectations. “We might be fighting for podium places in the second half of the season.”

Jari-Matti Latvala was quite happy. “We’ve done a lot of testing and when I joined the team, the car was more or less ready. But I had been testing a lot with the Polo so I could give them some tips, having encountered some issues that everyone has. I did not build a new car but I may have speeded up development a bit with my previous knowledge.” At least the car looks mature. Not, to mimic social media, like a Tupperware box with some loose extensions. No in reality it looks like a little bomb on wheels. Especially when it is on the stages, perhaps not the most beautiful car but definitely the most spectacular one and then the result, second in its debut after 17 years without competition. In 2013 we saw that with another team, they hardly ever stopped winning. We hope Toyota can soon solve the one or two issues FIA scrutineers seem to have with the homologation papers.

Rally-emag / january 2017

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Lowlands wrap up

Words and images: Steven van Veenendaal

Due to our time-out to revamp the magazine we didn’t get to cover the last couple of rally’s from the Belgian and Dutch 2016 championships. Although the countries are similar in size and obviously neighboring one another, the state of rallying couldn’t be more different. Belgium saw a resurgence of interest and competition the past two seasons while the Dutch championship is trying to hang on, with events scouring for competitors. The hugely popular Rallye du Condroz-Huy in Belgium attracted over 140 entries, including some very big names, while in contrast the once infamous GTC Rally in the southern Netherlands drew a mere 30 crews.

Bye Bye Freddy F

or the past two season the Bel- gian Rally Championship, is close that is the Belgian Rally Champigian Rally Championship has competition. Freddy Loix has been onship. This year he already sebeen completely revamped. cured his title in Ypres, in Nine varied events, an outmid-summer! standing amount for such a small country, make for a The main news at the end challenging championship. of the season then, was that Combine that with the inFreddy calls it quits. After a creased media attention, with great carreer that included half-hour shows on national factory drives in the WRC, television as the prime examERC and BRC, Fast Freddy ple, and you have yourself a is set for retirement. It seems championship that attracts likely we’ll see him out on the interest of all local rally the stages again for the occadrivers. sional event (he just loves the sport too much to go cold It showed, without exception turkey), he will not be back the events have had solid ennext year to defend his title. try lists with a plethora of R5 As sad as it may be to not see drivers entering most of the him out on the stages anyevents. Of course Belgium more, it might be good news has the advantage of having events dominant the last two years, win- for the championship. With Freddy like Ypres and Condroz that draw ning 6 out of 8 events and 6 out of gone, there is no telling who will high-level competitors no matter 7 last year. Of course there is no succeed him as champion, and that, what, but the other events had no blame for Freddy, he used similar was the last thing the championship reason to complain either. The one material as his rivals and simply was lacking. 2017 Will be an awething that has been missing though outdrove them. It did however cast some season for Belgian rally fans. in the first two years of the new Bel- a little bit of a shadow of the party Freddy Loix Image: FIA ERC

Images: BRC Media

Cherain-Veraud

rallye du condroz-huy How lucky are the Belgian rally fans to have two very prominent figures at the helm of two of the WRC teams? Alain Penasse makes sure there is always something special going on Hyundai-wise at the Ypres Rally and Yves Matton has been sending fleets of Citroens to the Condroz Rally. This year Stephane Lefebvre and Mikko Hirvonen were scheduled to make the trip.

Hirvonen had to cancel right before the event due to testing obligations and was replaced by Craig Breen. The Irishman showed how much he has grown and matured as a driver this year, by winning the event despite immense pressure from a plethora star drivers (Lefebvre of course, but also Cherain, Duval in an Hyundai i20 and his daytime-job boss Yves Matton in a Citroen C4 WRC). Breen had to fight hard but kept his cool and stayed out of trouble to finish the year in style.

Image: BRC Media

After skipping the previous rally in Flanders, Freddy Loix returned to the BRC for the East Belgian. It would be his first non-win af the season. Pacewise ‘Fast Freddy’ was up there with the front-runners but after a check-in error cost him thirty seconds it was clear he was out of contention for victory. Chris van Woensel utilized the power advantage of his Mitsubishi Lancer WRC to take an early lead, ahead of Cedric Cherain, who traded his Fiesta for a Fabia ahead of the event. Cherain would quickly get to grips with his new machinery though and as the rally progressed he reeled in van Woensel, overtook him, and never looked back.

“I want to win here and think I proved today that I am the fastest here” were his words before the final loop of stages.

No mistakes meant he was indeed rewarded with the win.

Breen-Martin

Image: Dre Galiart

east belgian rally

f one thing became clear this season, it’s that the Dutch Rally Championship is in dire need of change.

Interest from manufacturers, competitors, volunteers and media is at an all-time low. Glaring examples are the GTC Rally that only managed to attract 30 entrants and the Twente Rally that had to withdraw the new stage they had designed due to a lack of officials. Of course interest from volunteers comes and goes with the entered drivers and cars and the fact that all of the best drivers with top cars opted to skip the rally, didn’t help.

So where does that leave us? Involved parties (drivers, organizers, officials and the Dutch Autosport Federation) are mostly pointing at each other to find blame for this situation, but has that tactic ever really solved any issue? It is getting increasingly difficult to organize rallies in The Netherlands, mostly due to increasing safety regulations and insurance challenges. A couple of tragic events in the recent years have caused municipalities to become very wary in granting licenses to run

events and insurers are charging top dollar to cover them. In a downward spiral interest from drivers and media coverage has plummeted leaving the championship at the rock bottom it currently find itself.

In order to salvage the championship the Dutch Autosport Federation has appointed a promotor to revitalize it. The challenge now, lies in finding the best way to do so. He could look at neighbouring countries like Belgium and the UK where we have seen a huge boost in recent years with the introduction of the R5 cars and rebranded championships. But those countries have very different motorsport cultures than The Netherlands, where people by default do not enjoy being told how to run their business too much. The same applies to rallying, “If I want to run my 2010 spec WRC, then I should be allowed to!”

As the public adores these cars, they have no difficulty in finding supporters for their case, but the underlying result is a championship littered with different class cars, that provide no form of fair competition. In the end

it’s that fair competition that lies at the heart of all successful sports, without it, any sport is doomed to eventually succumb to waining interest. But perhaps in The Netherlands, other solutions might work better, like we saw at the Twente Rally that despite all their difficulties did launch a refreshing concept by running various events simultaneously based on the age of the cars. It attracted some wonderful youngtimers (who doesn’t like and E30 M3?) but also creates a risk of running a championship where everybody wins (their class), once again detracting from the competitive spirit of the sport.

We can conclude one thing; the promoter does not have an easy task at hand. He’ll have to figure out what the best solution is in the highly political landscape that is Dutch rallying.

The first signs are promising with rumours about foreign events being added to make the calendar more attractive and the possibility of an R5 cup. In the coming weeks we’ll learn more before the season gets underway mid-March at the Zuiderzeerally.

Images: Steven van Veenendaal

I

Dutch Turmoil

GTC

twente

kuipersbuysmans

vd Heuvelbakker Despite the lack of competitors, the GTC Rally would turn out to be one of the best events of the season with a close fight for victory from start to finish. Jasper van den Heuvel had the title within his grasp and didn’t need to go for the win but once he got in a fight with de Jong, his competitive instincts took over. De Jong drops fifteen seconds on Saturday with a spin but mounts a charge and wins stage after stage to close the gap to just 4 seconds before the final stage. In his all-out assault he makes another small mistake that finally cost him the win, and handed van den Heuvel his title.

van ierselvisser-bos

Image: Dre Galiart

The Hellendoorn Rally would be a battle of the classes. Dennis Kuipers spearheaded the field in his 1.6 liter WRC while Erik Wevers made a rare appearance in his older, but more powerful 2 liter Subaru Impreza WRC. Bernhard ten Brinke had an outside chance at victory in his Skoda Fabia R5 but ruined them on the opening night.

Pushing a little too hard to keep up with the WRC boys he overshoots a junction and hits a barrel, ending his challenge. Kuipers is in a class of his own throughout the event and dominates from start to finish to take a well-earned victory.

With the title secured, van den Heuvel could skip the Twente rally, none of the WRC/R5 pilots bothered to attend the season finale either, providing an opportunity for other drivers to step into the spotlight. It was Martin van Iersel who took the brightest light when he climbed to the top step of the podium. Perhaps the biggest achievement was that of the organizers, who managed to put on an event despite a lack of competitor and volunteer interest. It meant scrapping one stage and creatively turning another into a rundkurs to maintain an acceptable competitive distance.

Image: Dre Galiart

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