WRC Craziest moments part 1-5 (taken from youtube- rallymadkassam is the user-check them out for some more crazy wrc moments and loads more wrc videos from years ago)
I decided to post these videos of wrc craziest moments because there pretty funny and theyre a reminder of what the championship was like over 10 years ago!
Wrc has been and still can be pretty crazy when things go wrong!
watch crazy moments involving some animals,
some very spectacular crashes,
the hard job a co-driver has,
marcus and timos funny crash,
funny quotes for wrc legends like Gigi Galli,
and loads more Wrc craziness :)
The 1st half of the season ended with the rally of the Gods!
After the first six stages of the rally Norwegian Privateer Petter Solberg was leading after an amazing drive on the opening day, winning four of the six stages, and setting the second fastest time on the other two.
He entered the 2nd day with a lead of 51.2 seconds.
But unfortunately on day 2, sweeping the road for the other drivers, cost him the lead.
Sonething that caused alot of controversy at Rally Acropolis was the use of tactics which ultimately helped Sebastien Ogier win the rally over his team mate Sebastien Loeb.
After an average 1st day, with a better road position for day 2 Sebastien Ogier set blistering fast times and made his way up to 2nd overall on SS7, later stealing the lead on SS10 while Solberg struggled while sweeping the stages.
The rally acropolis drama occured on the night stage which ended day 2.
Petter Solberg suffered running first on the stage and it didnt really help when Chris lost where they were in his pace notes.
Sebastien Loeb took the lead into day 2 after Sebastien Ogier reported losing time in the dust, eventually to admit he slowed down on the stage to get a better road position for the final day.
On the final day of the rally Loeb and Ogier switched positions a number of times only for Ogier to come out on top winning the rally and taking away maximum points after also winning the powerstage.
Sebastien Loeb was least of all happy, feeling that the team had played the tactical game against him to favour the younger frenchman. He later agreed with his team boss that if the roles were reversed the team would of done the same for Loeb, but he still felt that he should of won the rally because he had swept the stages for two days and was still as fast as his younger team-mate.
Mikko Hirvonen, in the lead factory Ford Fiesta RS WRC, closed to within 2.6s of Loeb starting the Power Stage but had to settle for third. The result means Loeb now heads the Finnish driver, who was fastest on stage 16. Hirvonen put in a brilliant performance on Sunday but just didnt have the pace from the start of the rally.
Jari-Matti Latvala was quickest on four of Sunday’s five stages in the second works Ford, but time lost earlier in the event due to mechanical failures restricted the Finn to ninth in the final classification.
So the first half of the season is complete and it seems like it was just yesterday that we were watching rally Sweden.
The Championship looks like this going into the 2nd half of the season...
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHP
Rally Argentina ; 26-29 May 2011
Round 6 of the championship saw the teams head back to argentina after time away.
The event popular for its jumps, water splashes and the lunar landscape of the high altitude El Condor stage.Stages in Argentina are renowned for being slightly slower but more technically demanding than some of the other tests drivers experience in the WRC.
The surface of this rally also increases the chances of punctures.
Sebastien Loeb won the rally for this 6th time in his career. It was quiet a spectacular win for the World Champion after recovering from a one minute penalty handed out on day one for an early check-in, he started day three in third overall, 47.7s behind event leader and team-mate Sebastien Ogier who made a terrible mistake on the final day of the rally when he rolled on the opening stage of the day. The damage ultimately dropped him to third at the finish following damage to his DS3 WRC’s powersteering. He was extremely lucky that his rally was not over.
Fords Mikko Hirvonen took the final podium spot after a good drive on one of the roughest and toughest rallies on the calendar.
His team mate Latvala, who was leading the rally at one point suffered a front-left suspension link failure. Despite attempts to repair the damage, the Finn retired four kilometres into SS14 of the rally. He restarted the rally for the final day under Superally regulations.
It was dissapointing for Latvala who had set some of the fastest times on the opening day. In the first run throughover El Condor - Cuesta Blanca, Latvala drove at a top speed of 208kph and an average of 196kph.
Unlucky Petter Solberg who could well of challenged for the win, suffered a mechanical glitch on the final stage of day 2. A distraught Norwegian reached the stage finish punching the steering wheel of his car after a power steering failure resulted in him falling 1m16.1s adrift of leader Sebastien Ogier.
He made up enough time on day 3 to finish the event in 4th position taking extra points for winning the powerstage.
When reviewing Rally Argentina I must include the quote made by Ken Block.Argentina ran one fifth of its rally on Tarmac with gravel tyres. On asking the drivers to describe the feeling you get from this sensation Ken Block summed it up best: “It feels like you are driving on gummy bears”. tooooo funny !
A spectacular pic of Ken Block and Alex Gelsmino flying through the Argentine air!
Rally Argentina was most definelty the most exciting round of the season at that point. Five drivers battling it out for the win, three different rally leaders and the eventual winner only stealing it in the final 3.9 kilometres!
This is why we love rallying !
Round 5 of the championship saw the italian rally return after a year away.
Rally Sardinia began with the exciting news-Volkswagen officially announced its intent to enter the WRC with the Polo R WRC. The VW campaign will begin in 2013 with a 5 year commitment to WRC competition.
The exciting announcement was made the same weekend that the MINI John Cooper Works WRC car made its debut to the championship. Drivers Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo showed the pace of their new car.
Dani Sordo managed a 6th place overall, a great start for the Mini team but unfortunately Meeke had some problems. He set a faster time than champion Sebastien Loeb on the opening stage,then set the 3rd fastest time on the 2nd stage, putting him in 4th overall. But on the next stage Meeke felt something braking for a 5th gear corner and ran wide into some loose gravel. He was forced to retire from the day and restart under Super Rally rules on the following day, which put him out of the running.
Meeke wasnt the only one to have problems in Sardinia.
Ford man Jari-Matti Latvala's rally was over just as it started when he rolled his Fiesta on the very first stage. The roll was a result of an error in the pacenotes called by his co-driver. Latvala was able to restart the following day, but was only able to battle his way back to 18th place.
After a long battle with Mikko Hirvonen, world champion Sebastien Loeb took his 64th career WRC victory despite being forced to clean the roads throughout the entire rally. “Leading from nearly the start that’s really a good job,” said Loeb. “Mikko was pushing very hard behind so we really had to take big risks all the time. We lost time in some places because of the cleaning but we took it back in some other places. It was really a hard fight but I did not believe at the start of the rally that I could make it like this.”
Mikko Hirvonen made up for missing out on the win, by coming second and picking up 3 extra points for winning the powerstage.
Norwegian Petter Solberg finally got a break from all the bad luck, finishing in third place, despite some minor problems picking up his first podium of the season.Solberg was just 5.8 seconds behind Mikko going into the power stage, but it was too large of a gap to be made up and Solberg was forced to settle for the 3rd and final podium spot.
Sebastien Ogier started the final day of the rally sitting 4.9 seconds ahead of Petter, but a broken suspension on the 2nd to last stage forced Ogier to settle for a 4th place finish.
Sebasitien Loeb's win and Ogier's 4th place kept the Citroen team ontop of the manufacturers championship, 17 points ahead of their rivals the Ford WRT.
The Jordan rally started later than usual after a problem shipping the cars and equipment to the dead sea delayed the rally getting underway. The organisers of Rally Jordan had to abandon the stages the drivers were suppose to tackle on day 1 leaving the rally a two day event.
One less day to recover from any time lost road sweeping at a gravel rally like in Jordan, championship leader Mikko Hirvonen knew in advance that it was going to be quiet a challenge.
A fridays midday wrap it was Citroen 1,2,3 in the overall classifications with Sebastien Ogier leading the rally. After some fast times from Jari-Matti Latvala and the fight for the lead heating up, the final stage of day 1 came and it was time to choose whether or not to play the controversial tactical game.
Loeb, Latvala and Solberg slowed down for better road positions but Sebastien Ogier pushed hard to take a 31.6 second lead into the final day of the rally.
The decision not to play the game paid off for Ogier who ended up winning his second rally of the season and taking away the three extra points for the powerstage win scoring him maximum points for his drivers championship.
Jari-Matti Latvala picked up 2nd place on this event, missing out on the win by the closest margin in wrc history 0.2seconds .
Third position went to Ogier's team mate Sebastien Loeb who lost time after a hairpin error.
Jari-Matti's team mate Mikko finished the rally in 4th position after a tough job of sweeping the road on day 1.
There was drama for Petter Solberg again on this rally, haven been in the position to fight for a podium it was a big dissapointment for him to crash out on SS17 of the rally.
So another rally win for Citroen WRT and a D.N.F for Petter Solberg :(
Round three of the wrc saw the drivers and teams head to the Algarve for Rally Portugal!
Rally Portugal saw something that doesnt happen often.....Sebastien Loeb not fighting for the win.
but... settling for second place to his team mate Sebastien Ogier, who took his first win of the season.
The final podium spot went to Fords Jari-Matti Latvala 3 mins 22.1seconds off Sebastien Ogiers final time for the rally, despite the Finn having problems on the event.
Leading the rally at one point Jari-Matti's hopes of victory were dashed when a driveshaft broke in his car on SS12 of the event and he had a puncture on the stage following.
It was not a rally for the second Ford driver either. There was a bit of drama between him and Sebastien Loeb when on stage 9 Hirvonen who was into the stage before Loeb got a puncture and stop to change it.
He resumed his charge in front of Loeb who lost time running in the dust clouds created by Hirvonen’s Ford Fiesta RS WRC.
Loeb switched on his windscreen wipers in an effort to see where he was going in his Citroen DS3 WRC but lost vital ground to leader, the Ford-driver Jari-Matti Latvala.At the end of stage stop control Loeb nudged the bumper of Hirvonen’s car with his before telling WRC TV that Hirvonen had “destroyed” his race. Loeb felt that Mikko did not stop to let him pass to protect his team mate Latvala who was leading the rally.
After cooling down Sebastien and Mikko made up. Sebastien realised that it was the choice of Ford to tell Mikko to keep driving and Mikko admitted that if in the same situation he would of also been angry and just like that they put the spat behind them!
Another troubled rally for Petter Solberg who despite being fastest on the opening stage of the rally, suffered a setback in his fight for victory when he picked up 4 punctures on the second day of the rally.
Having lost so much time on the stages and not having the 4 wheels on his car needed to make it back to service safely the team decided that having already lost 10 minutes it was beneficial to stop and re-enter under Superally for the final day. Petter Solberg (did what he had become very good at this season) climbed back up the leaderboard to finish 6th place.
Another problem for the Finns happened when on SS15 Mikko Hirvonen dropped back to 5th afterhis Ford Fiesta RS WRC suffered a broken driveshaft 10 kilometres from the finish of stage 15.
The 3 extra points for the powerstage win went to Sebastien Loeb, 2 to Jari-Matti Latvala and 1 to rally winner Sebastien Ogier.
So it was the second rally where the DS3 came out on top. Leaving Rally Portugal it was clear to see that maybe the Fiesta was bit fragile, a couple of driveshaft failures and a couple of suspension issues.
It may have been another win for Citroen but no-one was admitting defeat!
The WRC then headed to Guanajuato for the second round of the championship. The first two rounds of the championship couldnt have been more different. From the snow and freezing temperatures in Sweden to the fast rock-strewn stages of Mexico,where high temperatures and altitudes provide the main challenge.
Rally Mexico saw Sebastien Loeb back on the top step of the podium as he took his first win of the season.
Rally Mexico also saw Sebastiens team mate Ogier buckle under the pressure of his charging team-mate and crashing out on the final leg. Although you might say that is why Loeb and Elena took the win you must remember that they also fought back from a 50second penalty incurred when they were late starting stage 15 following a gearbox problem.
The win was the first for the new Citroen DS3.
Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen finished second in their Ford Fiesta RS WRC with team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila third.
One man on course for his first podium position of the 2011 season was Petter Solberg, but unfortunately it wasnt meant to be as he suffered an electrical fault to stop his Citroen DS3 WRC in its tracks on stage six.
But never one to give up, Petter fought his way up from 13th to 4th place gaining valuable points including 1 extra for third fastest on the powerstage. Rally Mexico was also the first rally in which Petter and his team were registered for manufacturers points so the team picked up their first 12 points.
Their were electrical problems for American Ken Block which saw him pick up a 10minute penalty for missing the guanajuato night stage thursday evening. He managed a 12th place finish.
The Citroen WRT proved that although they didnt have a good start to the season, they had a car that was capable of fighting the fiesta.
Rally Sweden 10 - 13 Feb 11
Rally Sweden kicked off the new season and the start of a new wrc era with a new breed of wrc cars. Everyone was very excited and no-one really could predict how it would all plan out.
We learned alot from the first round. We learned that the Scandanavians are still the masters of driving on snow. The podium was occupied by all Scandanavians.
Mikko Hirvonen won the season opener followed closely by Norwegian Mads Ostberg who suprised everyone with an impressive drive leading the rally after day 1 setting a pace that the big boys just couldnt compete with. The final podium spot went to another Ford man Jari-Matti Latvala.
Suprisingly you might say, 7 time wrc champion Sebastien Loeb could only manage to finish 6th on the event. You can put that down to the fact that he needed more testing with the new car on snow or you could blame his job of road sweeping. He lost bags of time on day 1, first on the road sweeping away the fresh snow He also had punctures. It was a rally that I'm sure the World Champion would like to forget.
Rally Sweden also featured the first powerstage of the season won by Sebastien Ogier who picked up the 3 extra points, 2 points went to Sebastien Loeb and 1 to Jari-Matti.
The powerstage was eventfull to say the least... when Petter Solberg entered the stage commentators picked up on the fact that the car was driving particularly slower than Solberg would drive, when the tv coverage switched to the onboard camera we all got a shock to see that it was infact his co-driver Chris Patterson driving the car and Petter Co driving (well telling him exactly what to do.. up a gear....down two gear....quick)
It turned out that Petter had been caught speeding on the friday afternoon road section and issued with a driving ban which came into force just before the powerstage which forced Patterson to drive the stage despite the fact that he had never driven their DS3 before (Bet Chris never thought he'd have to !)
Chris brought the car home to fifth overall a good start to the season for the Petter Solberg WRT.
Rally Finland will start the 2nd half of the 2011 WRC season.
One of the most popular rallies with WRC fans and one of the most challenging with the drivers Rally Finland will definetly be one to watch!
We last saw Rally Finland last year when Fords Jari-Matti Latvala took the win in his home Country, while Sebastien Ogier came 2nd and his team mate Sebastien Loeb 3rd.
Rally Finland saw some accidents from the front runners
Mikko Hirvonen and Henning Solberg never managed to finish the rally
MIKKO HIRVONEN CRASH
HENNING SOLBERG CRASH
So going into rally Finland fresh and relaxed from a short Summer break the drivers will be ready for the finnish roads.
The podium last year looked like this .....
How will it look on the final day this year?
We've got a while to wait!
Its now 37 days 15 hours and 48 mins until Rally Finland kicks off !
