Rally Finland 2011 Day 2 SS10,11

SS10 Jokimaa (2km) A superspecial stage!
Another Stage win for Sebastien Ogier saw him extend his lead to 1.9s over his team mate Sebastien Loeb who wasnt very impressed after finishing the stage.
He lost another 1.5s to his team-mate in  finishing in 1m33.9s compared with Ogier's 1m33.4s:At the stage end he said..
 “My windscreen was broken by a stone from Ogier’s car. All the hard work of the day is gone.”
Second fastest through the stage was Fords Jari-Matti Latvala.
He ran the superspecial alongside Dani Sordo. It was Latvala who came out on top but only by 0.1s

Petter Solberg came through 0.1 faster than Sebastien Loeb.
Next two drivers to take on the superspecial were Kris Meeke and Matthew Wilson. Meeke was 0.6 faster than Wilson
Kris Meeke said after the stage
“It’s getting rutted now after just a few cars so I think it’s going to get slower and slower.”
Kris was right the stage got more difficult for the cars behind him and they all posted slower times including Hirvonen who was on a charge all day winning 5 stages after his accident the previous day.

1 Sebastien Ogier 1h23m02.0s;
 2 Sebastien Loeb +1.9s;
3 Jari-Matti Latvala +8.4s;
 4 Petter Solberg +33.8s;
5 Mads Ostberg +1m08.3s
; 6 Dani Sordo +1m30.5s

SS11 Mynnilä (12.07km)
SS11 saw the return of the drivers favourite game, tactics.
Sebastien Loeb set a a competitive 5m47.4s only then to pick up a 10s penalty for checking into the stage late. Ogier saw Loeb had checked in late to the stage and therefor he had to react quickly because as we all know Sebastien Ogier doesnt enjoy road sweeping. Well he reacted setting a time of  6m00.8s.

Loebs late check in also gave Ford and Jari-Matti time to react, the team gave Latvala a target time so he slowed and clocked in at 5m53.5s, and its fair to say he was all a bit confused at the stage end.
I’m a little bit confused with the times and I didn’t know exactly what to do. When I looked at the board I slowed down, I got the target time, we worked it out from there.”
Hirvonen was second quickest on the stage enough to bring him up to 6th place for the final day of stages.
“Tomorrow I know the stages really well. I’ve been trying as hard as I can today and now we’re up with the boys.”


STAGE TIMES FOR SS11 WERE

Pos	No	Driver	Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	1	S. LOEB	5:47.4	0.0	0.0
2.	3	M. HIRVONEN	5:47.8	+0.4	+0.4
3.	6	M. ØSTBERG	5:51.1	+3.3	+3.7
4.	4	J. LATVALA	5:53.5	+2.4	+6.1
5.	52	K. MEEKE	5:54.5	+1.0	+7.1
6.	11	P. SOLBERG	5:54.7	+0.2	+7.3
7.	5	M. WILSON	5:56.2	+1.5	+8.8
8.	15	H. SOLBERG	5:56.9	+0.7	+9.5
9.	8	K. RÄIKKÖNEN	5:57.1	+0.2	+9.7
10.	2	S. OGIER	6:00.8	+3.7	+13.4

ROAD POSITIONS FOR TOMMOROW AND THE OVERALL CLASSIFICATIONS AFTER DAY 2 ARE

Pos	No	Driver		Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	1	S. LOEB	M	1:29:01.3	0.0	0.0
2.	2	S. OGIER	M	1:29:02.8	+1.5	+1.5
3.	4	J. LATVALA	M	1:29:03.9	+1.1	+2.6
4.	11	P. SOLBERG	M	1:29:30.5	+26.6	+29.2
5.	6	M. ØSTBERG	M	1:30:01.4	+30.9	+1:00.1
6.	3	M. HIRVONEN	M	1:30:30.0	+28.6	+1:28.7
7.	37	D. SORDO		1:30:37.5	+7.5	+1:36.2
8.	52	K. MEEKE		1:30:52.3	+14.8	+1:51.0
9.	25	J. HÄNNINEN	S	1:31:05.3	+13.0	+2:04.0
10.	15	H. SOLBERG		1:31:07.4	+2.1	+2:06.1

Rally Finland 2011 Day 2 SS8,9

SS8 Koivukehä (17.8km)

SS8 saw Mikko Hirvonen bag another stage win. He had his eyes set on a top 5 maybe even a podium finish?
Mikko Hirvonen positively rocketd through SS8. 9m19.3s , 3.0s faster than his team-mate, 4.0s quicker than Sebastien Ogier and 5.1s faster than rally leader Sebastien Loeb.

Norwegian Petter Solberg lost some time on the stage when he had to slow down after Jari Ketomaa rolled on the stage.Petter Solberg completed the stage in 9m26.2s

Dani Sordo came through with a time of 9m37.4s:
“We drove a bit in the glass of Ketomaa - he has rolled. It’s slippery elsewhere on the stage.”

His team mate Kris Meeke was through 4.4s quicker.
The notes seem to be working well and I’m getting into a better rhythm, we’re taking it step by step. There’s more to come from me - we just have to keep building.”

AFTER STAGE 8 THE OVERALL CLASSIFICATIONS FOR THE TOP 10 WERE AS FOLLOWS
1 Sebastien Loeb 1h07m33.6s;
 2 Sebastien Ogier +0.7s;
 3 Jari-Matti Latvala +5.0s;
  4 Peter Solberg +29.7s;
 5 Mads Ostberg +55.7s;
 6 Dani Sordo +1m16.7s.
7.J. Hanninen +1m22.5s
8. Kris Meeke +1m38.2s
9.Mikko Hirvonen +1m39.0s
10.Henning Solberg +1m53.2s

SS9 Hyväneula 2 (29.9km)
SS9 saw Mikko take another stage win and Sebastien Ogier stealing away the rally Finland lead from his team mate.
He was 1.1s quicker than his team mate on the stage which was enough to move him into the lead
“It was another good stage. We all pushed to the maximum and it’s difficult to make a difference. I’m happy with the way I drove and the car is working well.”

Jari-Matti came in at 2.9s slower than Ogier after a scary moment on the stage.
 “I had a moment at the beginning of the stage. I’m running the car quite low, I hit a rut and the sump guard ground out. It moved the car around and I lost control. Still, we have more stages this afternoon.”

Mikko Hirvonens fastest stage time moved him above kris on the leaderboard after kris experienced some problems with the mini on the stage
 “The car wouldn’t start before the last stage. We tried everything, looked around all the leads, and then I tried it one more time before we were going to give up, and it worked. The wipers won’t go off now! I’m not turning off the engine until we get to service. The time’s not bad though.”

Kris Meeke time was 14m10.0s, losing  little this time in comparison to team-mate Sordo’s 14m07.4s:

SS8FANVIDEO

STAGE 9 TIMES WERE

Pos	No	Driver	Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	3	M. HIRVONEN	13:53.3	0.0	0.0
2.	2	S. OGIER	13:54.3	+1.0	+1.0
3.	1	S. LOEB	13:55.4	+1.1	+2.1
4.	4	J. LATVALA	13:57.2	+1.8	+3.9
5.	11	P. SOLBERG	13:57.7	+0.5	+4.4
6.	6	M. ØSTBERG	14:05.2	+7.5	+11.9
7.	15	H. SOLBERG	14:07.0	+1.8	+13.7
8.	37	D. SORDO	14:07.4	+0.4	+14.1
9.	52	K. MEEKE	14:10.0	+2.6	+16.7
10.	8	K. RÄIKKÖNEN	14:15.8	+5.8	+22.5

AFTER STAGE 9 THE OVERALL CLASSIFICATIONS WERE

Pos	No	Driver		Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	2	S. OGIER	M	1:21:28.6	0.0	0.0
2.	1	S. LOEB	M	1:21:29.0	+0.4	+0.4
3.	4	J. LATVALA	M	1:21:35.8	+6.8	+7.2
4.	11	P. SOLBERG	M	1:22:01.0	+25.2	+32.4
5.	6	M. ØSTBERG	M	1:22:34.5	+33.5	+1:05.9
6.	37	D. SORDO		1:22:57.8	+23.3	+1:29.2
7.	3	M. HIRVONEN	M	1:23:05.9	+8.1	+1:37.3
8.	52	K. MEEKE		1:23:21.9	+16.0	+1:53.3
9.	25	J. HÄNNINEN	S	1:23:26.5	+4.6	+1:57.9
10.	15	H. SOLBERG		1:23:33.9	+7.4	+2:05.3

Rally Finland 2011 Day 2 SS6,7

SS6 Hyväneula 1 (29.9km)

The last stage before remote service for the drivers the first run of Hyväneula.
It was another stage win for Mikko Hirvonen, 14m09.8s, 3.2s quicker than Ogier:
 “That’s good, we’re sliding a hell of a lot so I didn’t push so much at the end.”

Sebastien Ogier set a time of 14mins13s beating his team mate Loebs time by 2.1s.
“We try to push as hard as we can but it’s still not easy because this stage is very fast, very wide, and sometimes we had to change the rhythm. When you are faster than him [Loeb] it is always good because everyone knows how hard it is to beat him.”

Jari-Matti Latvala completed the stage .2s slower than ogier in 14m13.2s,  
“I tried really hard because I’ve done the last few kilometres in a historic rally so I knew the roads. I don’t know why it’s quite so difficult this year.”

Petter Solberg  finished fifth quickest on 14m20.6s, 7.6s off Ogier:
  “It was better, yeah, but I’m still struggling in some places. I’m pushing, I’m trying, but I can’t get the speed. It’s good fun to drive, anyway. I like the stages very much.”

There were spins for both Sordo and Ostberg on SS6
 Sordo completed the stage in 14m32.5s:
“We did a spin in the slow corner in the stage and lost a bit of time, but other than that it was a really nice stage. The times are not so good.”
Ostberg in 14m33.4s.
“I had a spin, we had the wrong pace notes from the recce. The corner was tighter than we thought, the car spun and then I couldn’t find reverse. We lost about 14 seconds.”

SS7 Koukunmaa (13.68km)

It was a Ford one two on SS7 Jari-Matti Latvala set the fastest time .2s quicker than his team mate.
Sebastien Loeb completed the stage in 7m12.1s:
“It’s getting bad now. Very dry, so sliding everywhere. No grip compared with some of the stages in the morning.”

His team mate Sebastien Ogier was 1.0s faster in his DS3
“Not bad, it’s been difficult today because there are big gaps between the stages and you have to keep up the concentration. I made a small mistake towards the end of the stage.”


Norwegian Mads Ostberg pushed hard following his spin on the previous stage and set the fifth fastest stage time 2.5s slower than Latvala.
“I’m really happy I spun on the last stage because it feels better. I don’t know why. Everything is working a lot better now. It’s like I found something out there after the spin.”

Kris Meeke was happy with his performance on SS7 while his team mate Dani Sordo struggled for grip just after his misfire problem went.
“The problem is gone, we’re just trying to push on. The grip is not really there at the moment.”

Rally Finland 2011 Day 2 SS5,

SS5 Evo (8.9km) New Territory for the drivers who will be working from new pacenotes

Hirvonen set another fast time on the new Evo stage. 0.2s faster than Loeb.
4m59.2s was Loebs time Sebastien Loeb:
“It was good to be first on the road here because there was no gravel. We will see how the others do. I had a good stage.”
Sebastien Ogier came through in 5m01.4s, 2.2s down on Loeb.
“This stage it’s not a disadvantage to be first on the road - maybe even it’s an advantage. We try to drive as fast as we can. It’s not easy on a new stage but we try to do our best.”

Latvala finished the stage in 5mins03.5s.
 “They [the Citroens] are going really well. I’m really trying. It’s more difficult now than it was last year.”
Dani Sordo had a problem with a sensor which lost him some time in the stage. He competed stage 5 9.4s off Hirvonens time.
5m04.0s was the time Petter Solberg, 4.8s off Loeb's benchmark time:
 “I did some damper clicks before the stage but we went in the wrong direction - not so good so we’re changing back again now.”
After stage 5 the overall classifications for the top drivers remained unchanged
1 Sebastien Loeb 36m42.0s;
2 Sebastien Ogier +4.9s;
3 Jari-Matti Latvala +11.3s;
4 Petter Solberg +21.9s;
5 Jari Ketomaa +32.9s;
6 Mads Ostberg 35.7s.

Rally Finland 2011 Day 2 2011 SS4

SS4 Hassi (20.35km)
Sebastien Ogier completed the first stage of the day 0.1s quicker than his team mate and overnight leader Sebastien Loeb. At the stage end Sebastien Said.
“It’s not a lot, but it was a very difficult stage so we preferred not to take maximum risk on this one. There are a lot of crests and it’s not easy to see the line.”
Jari-Matti Latvala completed SS4 2.7s down on Ogier’s time and at the stage end he wasnt competely happy
“I’m not completely happy. We need more traction - on the small roads we’re struggling. Maybe we’re too hard on the set-up so I’m going to try something with the [suspension adjustment] clicks.”

Petter Solberg completed the stage with the fifth fastest time after what he said was a big mistake.
 “I did a big mistake in a corner and nearly stopped it completely, I lost a lot of momentum and it cost me a few seconds to Ogier.”
His time was 4.6s of Ogier.


Mikko Hirvonen made up for his problems yesterday by setting a blisteringly fast stage time a whole 10.9s quicker than second fastest Ogier.

The Mini's of Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke struggled to set times as fast as the top few drivers.
Dani Sordo was 28.7s off Hirvonens time, Meeke 32.4s


TOP TEN SS4 TIMES

Pos	No	Driver	Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	3	M. HIRVONEN	11:14.3	0.0	0.0
2.	2	S. OGIER	11:25.2	+10.9	+10.9
3.	1	S. LOEB	11:25.3	+0.1	+11.0
4.	4	J. LATVALA	11:27.9	+2.6	+13.6
5.	11	P. SOLBERG	11:29.8	+1.9	+15.5
6.	6	M. ØSTBERG	11:33.9	+4.1	+19.6
7.	19	J. KETOMAA	11:41.9	+8.0	+27.6
8.	8	K. RÄIKKÖNEN	11:41.9	0.0	+27.6
9.	25	J. HÄNNINEN	11:42.2	+0.3	+27.9
10.	37	D. SORDO	11:43.0	+0.8	+28.7

Rally Finland 2011-Shakedown and Day1

(apologies for late posting)
Shakedown

When shakedown for rally Finland was run yesterday it was seven time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb who set the fastest time. The Frenchman set a benchmark time of 1m35.7s through the 3.19-kilometre Ruuhimaki practice stage.
Loeb’s team-mate Sebastien Ogier was second quickest with a time of 1m36.3s. Jari-Matti Latvala, last years rally Finland winner, was the leading Ford Fiesta RS WRC driver in third overall with a time of 1m36.6s. His team mate Mikko Hirvonen only managed an eight fastest time.

Norwegian Petter Solberg set a time of 1:36.8, fourth quickest.
Kimi Raikkonen, was seventh quickest in his ICE 1 Racing Citroen. The Finn completed six runs in shakedown and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom was satisfied with their performance. “Everything was okay, no problems and we had a good feeling,” he said.
Kris Meeke was 11th fastest in his MINI John Cooper Works WRC.
Russian Evgeny Novikov, who missed out on a pre-event test, completed nine runs to fine-tune the set-up of his M-Sport Stobart-entered Fiesta. He was sixth quickest.
Here are the top 10 times from the Shakedown session:

1. LOEB. Citroen DS3 WRC. 1:35.7
2. OGIER. Citroen DS3 WRC. 1:36.3
3. LATVALA. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 1:36.6
4. P. SOLBERG. Citroen DS3 WRC. 1:36.8
5. OSTBERG. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 1:36.9
6. NOVIKOV. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 1:37.0
7. RAIKKONEN. Citroen DS3 WRC. 1:37.1
8. HIRVONEN. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 1:37.4
9. WILSON. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 1:37.4
=10. SORDO. MINI John Cooper Works WRC. 1.37.6
=10. MEEKE. MINI John Cooper Works WRC. 1.37.6

Stage1
Mikko Hirvonen's hopes of winning his home rally suffered a set back on stage 1 after he went off the road and struck a tree. The Finn reported brake and suspension damage at the end of the stage following the impact to the right rear of his car.
“We went into one left-hander and the engine died,” said Hirvonen, who was almost 40 seconds off the pace. “We went wide, hit a tree lost all the brakes. The suspension is also damaged.”
Hirvonen had to drive his damaged car through two more stages before reaching the saftey of night service.
Jari Ketomaa, making his debut in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC, shocked everyone by setting the fastest time through the stage.
Sebastien Ogier was second fastest and said he had been “flat-out everywhere” . Hirvonen’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala was third quickest after admitting to being cautious and not “pushing to the maximum”.

Sebastien Loeb, running first on the road, was fourth quickest. He said: “I was pushing hard but it’s very dry with a lot of loose gravel. But I’m okay, I did a good stage.”

Matti Rantanen was the quickest MINI John Cooper Works WRC driver with the sixth fastest time.

Stage 1 Lankamaa (23.76km)

Pos	No	Driver	Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	19	J. KETOMAA	11:44.5	0.0	0.0
2.	2	S. OGIER	11:44.7	+0.2	+0.2
3.	4	J. LATVALA	11:48.0	+3.3	+3.5
4.	1	S. LOEB	11:50.5	+2.5	+6.0
5.	11	P. SOLBERG	11:52.1	+1.6	+7.6
6.	18	M. RANTANEN	11:52.6	+0.5	+8.1
7.	22	O. TÄNAK	11:54.5	+1.9	+10.0
8.	37	D. SORDO	11:54.8	+0.3	+10.3
9.	6	M. ØSTBERG	11:58.8	+4.0	+14.3
10.	52	K. MEEKE	11:59.5	+0.7	+15.0

Stage 2 , Laukaa (11.79 kilometres)

Sebastien Loeb set the fastest time on stage 2 with a lead of 1.7s over Citroen team-mate Sebastien Ogier.
With the overall positions at the end of this stage being used to determine the running order for Friday, Loeb will run first on the road.

Jari-Matti Latvala admitted dropping time at the end of the stage to gain a better road position for the second day.
“I had a target time sent by the team and I slowed down at the end of the stage,” said the Finn
There was more despair for Mikko Hirvonen following his off-road moment on the previous stage. The Ford driver reported the right-rear wheel of his stricken Fiesta RS WRC jammed approximately five kilometres from the end of the stage, which caused a puncture. Putting him almost 1m30s adrift of first place.

Hirvonens damaged Fiesta

Dani Sordo set the second fastest time in his WRC Mini. While his team mate Kris Meeke set the fifth fastest time.
Matthew Wilson was third fastest 4.8 seconds off the fastest time.

SS3, Laajavuori 1 (4.19 kilometres)

World champion Sebastien Loeb set another fastest time on stage 3. Loeb, was 1.1s quicker than Ogier with Norwegian privateer Petter Solberg third fastest.

Solberg may have began the stage in seventh overall but his speed through the spectator stage means he will return to the overnight halt in Jyvaskyla in fifth overall
Jari-Matti Latvala was the leading Ford driver in fourth with Mads Ostberg fifth and Henning Solberg seventh.

Mikko Hirvonen brought his damaged Fiesta to the stage finish with only three working brakes following earlier stage problems. The local boys time was 33.7s slower than the standard set by Loeb, whose overnight advantage is 2.8s.

Going into day 2 the overall classifications are as follows

Overall

Pos	No	Driver		Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	1	S. LOEB	M	1:29:01.3	0.0	0.0
2.	2	S. OGIER	M	1:29:02.8	+1.5	+1.5
3.	4	J. LATVALA	M	1:29:03.9	+1.1	+2.6
4.	11	P. SOLBERG	M	1:29:30.5	+26.6	+29.2
5.	6	M. ØSTBERG	M	1:30:01.4	+30.9	+1:00.1
6.	3	M. HIRVONEN	M	1:30:30.0	+28.6	+1:28.7
7.	37	D. SORDO		1:30:37.5	+7.5	+1:36.2
8.	52	K. MEEKE		1:30:52.3	+14.8	+1:51.0
9.	25	J. HÄNNINEN	S	1:31:05.3	+13.0	+2:04.0
10.	15	H. SOLBERG		1:31:07.4	+2.1	+2:06.1

Win a VIP trip to rally Spain 2011!

Would you like to win a VIP trip to rally spain this year,Toolbox from TOOLS Chanel gift set, travel gift certificate, BluRay box, signed Team Solberg T-shirts, caps and hoodies.?
These are some of the prizes you can win if you enter Eurolotto 's competition :) link below
http://www.rallyspain.com/en/
(video below) petter talks about the competition and Eurolotto

 The VIP trip is the main prize!

It includes... a trip to rally spain for X people, hotel and accommodation and VIP tickets to the WRC round in Spain including a meeting with Petter Solberg. In addition to the main prize, there will be 13 daily prizes of varied value. You will automatically get the chance for winning a daily prize upon entering the competition. All participants have a chance to win the main prize,

The terms and conditions of the competition say that you must be over 18 in order to win. Alternatively the guardians can approve of the winner receiving the prize if the winner is below 18 years of age.

All you have to do is to pick your EuroLotto ticket (5 numbers and 2 letters), fill in your contact information and press “send”. Exactly like EuroLotto, there is a daily drawing and if you participate you will have the opportunity to win big daily prizes. For every person that enters the competition, the bigger the prizes get!

Want that trip to rally spain as much as I do?
well get entering the competition!
http://www.rallyspain.com/en/

Preview of Round 8- Rally Finland Thursday 28 July - Saturday 30 July 2011

Our World Rally Championship is back after its summer break ( which I think was way too long) and next weekend the championship will be heading to  Finland!
One of the most exciting, eagerly anticipated round of the championship if not the most, rally Finland is based in the university city of Jyvaskyla in the centre of the country from 28-30 July.


It is one of the most difficult round of the championship for a driver to end on top of the podium.


Driving Flat out through tree-lined straights and flying over blind crests in the forests of Finland the drivers have to be concentrated and focused at all times.

Petter Solberg in 2007

Known as the Grand Prix on Gravel, a win in Finland is a very special win for any driver who succeeds.
Seven-time Neste Oil Rally Finland winner Marcus Gronholm reckons courage and brains are key to success on the world championship qualifier
“To tackle [Rally Finland] you need courage but you have to be clever too,” said Gronholm. “You need to know the road is fast and where it is fastest. The rally is a series of twists, corners and jumps. The pace notes have to be perfect, they tell you where to place the car on the road before taking off, flat-out over a blind crest. You have to have maximum trust and faith in your co-driver on this rally.”

2004 Marcus Gronholm

Petter Solberg- Flying high!

Watch Petter Solbergs flying high experience with  Breitling one of the teams sponsors!

very Brave Petter! Dont think i would have enjoyed that!

countdown to rally Finland- 5 days 19 hours 24 mins

WRC boys - Testing! Testing! Testing!

Sebastien Ogier had a little incident when testing for rally Finland when he rolled his DS3

Sebastien Loeb testing

Dani Sordo preparing for his second outing in the wrc this year!

Kris Meeke testing the miniWRC in Finland!

then leaving the road.....

Kris Meekes off while testing in Finland!

Its not long now until we start the second half of the 2011 wrc season, the drivers have had a bit of a break and now there all rearing to go again! too much time away?
Anyway in the last week or so the Citroen and Mini Drivers have been hard at work putting in the miles at their test days in Finland.
Testing is very important for the teams before rallies but not too important to roll your DS3 or send your Mini into a ditch eh Sebastien Ogier and Kris Meeke?
We'll see if the testing paid off when we head to Finland in 14DAYS 19HOURS 26MINUTES
whos counting?

Longest Monte Carlo Rally to kick off 2012 season

The Organisers of the Monte Carlo have announced that 2012's route will be longest in the events history.
The January event will include 270miles, 60 more than this year's Intercontinental Rally Challenge qualifier .
The outline route itself will remain similar to other years, starting from Valence and finishing in Monaco.

Shakedown for the event will be held on the Tuesday January 17, followed by an opening loop of stages in the southern Ardeche Wednesday.
Day two, Thursday January 19, remains in Valence, with the crews contesting three stages.
Two stages run on Friday morning, then the teams move south to Monaco on Friday afternoon, taking in another stage in the Drome region on the way.
After an evening arrival in the Principality, the crews have Saturday morning off before heading off for two loops of Moulinet-Col du Turini-La Bollene-Vesubie and Lantosque-Luceram.
Sunday morning's three-mile powerstage runs at 10am from Sainte Agnes to Col de la Madone.
In total, the event will feature 17 stages and 1043 miles . This will be Monte Carlo's return to the wrc after 3 years absent. (2008)

Another Monte Carlo win for Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena

Sounds like a basically a whole week of WRC :D Everyone will be happy with that.
The Historic Monte Carlo rally will kick off next years wrc season !

geraldine X
80th Monte Carlo Automobile Rally - itinerary
Tuesday January 17
Shakedown close to Valence
Ceremonial start on the Champ de Mars, Valence
Wednesday January 18
SS1 Le Moulinon-Antraigues
SS2 Burzet-St Martial
Service - Valence
SS3 Le Moulinon-Antraigues
SS4 Burzet-St Martial
Thursday January 19
SS5 Labatie d’Andaure-Lalouvesc
SS6 St Bonnet le Froid-St Julien Molhesabate-St Bonnet le Froid
SS7 Lamastre-Gilhoc-Alboussiere
Service - Valence
SS8 Labatie d’Andaure-Lalouvesc
SS9 St Bonnet le Froid-St Julien Molhesabate-St Bonnet le Froid
SS10 Lamastre-Gilhoc-Alboussiere
Friday January 20
SS11 St Jean en Royans-Font d’Urle, Cimetiere de Vassieux-Col de Gaudissart
Remote service
SS12 Montauban sur Ouveze-Eygalayes
Service –Monaco
Saturday January 21
SS13 Moulinet-Col du Turini-La Bollene-Vesubie
SS14 Lantosque-Luceram.
Service – Monaco
SS15 Moulinet-Col du Turini-La Bollene-Vesubie
SS16 Lantosque-Luceram.
Sunday January 22
SS17 Sainte Agnes-Col de la Madone
Finish - Monaco

Rally Estonia15th-16th July 2011- While waiting for the wrc to finish its summer break...

While waiting patiently for Rally Finland some of the wrc and swrc drivers are taking part in Rally Estonia 15th-16th July to get in as many miles before the second half of the season kicks off.
Mads Ostberg in his Ford Fiesta WRC and Kris Meeke in his Mini WRC have put in their entry for the rally.

Mads recently finished 12 in the last round of the championship Greece after loosing ground after an off and is hoping to repeat the strong run in Sweden when the wrc heads to Finland.

British driver Kris Meeke was at last weeks Goodwood Festival of Speed where he had a lot of fun and where one lucky spectator got to go for a drive with him.

Rally Estonia’s fast dirt stages in the south of the country  are similar to those of the next round of the championship in  Finland and MINI WRC Team will take advantage of the testing before their second apperance in wrc.

The event will also star certain SWRC regulars, including the Czech Republic’s Martin Prokop (Fiesta S2000) and Estonia’s Karl Kruuda (Fiesta S2000). and also two wrc academy drivers my fellow countryman Craig Breen and Alastiar Fisher.

Good Luck to all the boys! Might post something about rally estonia when its over :)
geraldine X

Happy Birthday Kris Meeke!

After completing his mechanical engineering studies Kris Meeke was destined to pursue a desk-bound career as motorsport design designer. However, he elected to switch focus to getting behind the wheel and creating a professional career as a rally driver after winning a young talent competition in 2000. Within a year Kris celebrated his first rally victory – on the Galloway Hills Rally – before going on to win the British Junior Championship under the wings of his hero and mentor, Colin McRae. For the following season he switched to the FIA Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC). There he subsequently attracted attention with numerous top results.

Meeke and Co-Driver Paul Nagle!

 In 2009 Kris and co-driver Paul Nagle entered the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, winning in Brazil, Portugal, Belgium and San Remo before going on to take the overall title.

Future World Rally Champion!

 Last season Kris confirmed his outstanding talent by placing third in the IRC. Now he is ready for the next step: Together with the MINI WRC Team he will contest the World Rally Championship. (taken from kris meeke site)

Kris Meeke

Born 32 years ago today! Happy Birthday Kris!
I will get to meet Kris :D when my dad goes to the Rally School in Monaghan for a day of driving with the man himself! Cannot wait!
Unfortunately Kris is quiet busy at the moment so we havent got a set date yet :(
I will be taking loads of pics and videos whenever we make it up there!


Geraldine X