vw CHamps Latvala tarmac king wrc: Australia Issue 22, September 2014
wrc: france
erc: cyprus Rallyday, Molly Taylor, For my Friends, Skoda Fabia R5, Mitsubishi Mirage R5, Ciesla on WRC+
thierry neuville is enjoying his n ew status he gained in germa ny, that of WRC rally winner Image: Hyundai Motorsport
there was once again no stopping the vw ’s Image: VW Motorsport
Keep en eye ou
t for this man... Image: Steven van Veenendaal
wizzing past, p
ontus tidemand Image: Steven van Veenendaal
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Your monthly dose of WRC reports, news and of course the best images of the most exciting sport on the planet. We strive to bring you the best possible emag about the WRC. To be able to do so we need your support!
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Rally-eMag September 2014 / Contents
This month Who made it? Publisher: Rally-eMag Words: Steven van Veenendaal, Harry van Veenendaal. Photography: Bas Romeny, Timo Anis, Andy Crayford
Who helped? Logo design: Minse Blom Backcover artwork: Dam Charles Distribution: Issuu.com
Who we thank! PR Photography from: Peugeot Sport, Hyundai Motorsport, Citroen Racing, FIA ERC, Volkswagen Motorsport, M-Sport.
How to reach us?
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Email: info@rally-emag.com Web: www.rally-emag.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ emagrally Twitter: @emagrally Issuu: www.issuu.com/rally-emag
WRC Rally Australia
WRC Rallye de france
rallyday
wrc+
Classics Galore
VW Of course. Who else?
Latvala conquers asphalt
Page 32
Oliver Ciesla discusses the launch of the platform
Page 11
Page 20
Page 36
ERC Cyprus Rally ERC vs MERC Page 43
Rally-eMag September 2014 / News
This month’s wrap up
Skoda is testing its new official Fabia R5 while private team Mpart launched their Mirage based Mitsubishi R5. Images: Skoda Motorsport/Andy Crayford.
Big changes! Ehr, no...
The World Motorsport Council gathered this month to discuss regulatory changes for the upcoming WRC seasons. Oliver Ciesla of WRC Promoter had high hopes of the meeting as his radical plan to change the structure of rallies by adding a shootout stage at the end was up for discussion. The plan had been discussed with, and approved by, all manufacturers and the WRC commission. It was not to be however as the WMSC once again rejected the idea (after having done so before at the September meeting) and as it stands now we will not see a radical overhaul of the final stage any time soon. The main takeaways from the meeting were the fact that next year teams will be allowed less spare parts at remote services and events are encouraged to run new and long stages to solidify their identity. Not quite the radical overhaul many were expecting... 9/52
Two new R5’s!
Next year will see the debut of two brand new R5 cars. Skoda is in the advanced stages of testing its new Fabia R5 and the private Mpart team launched the Mitsubishi R5, based on the Mirage road car. Both cars are likely to enter the ERC in 2015.
Never change a winning team Just before the start of the penultimate WRC round of 2014 in Spain, Jost Capito presented his 2015 line up. He repeated what we already heard him say: “We have the best drivers in the WRC of today so why change?” But in Spain he officially announced that Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen will stay with the Volkswagen team in 2015. “We have had enormous successes op to now,” the Volkswagen Motorsport Director said. So we owe these drivers a lot. Furthermore we feel this is
not the end of our success, we expect a lot more therefore we stick to the winning team! But before we start with next year we focus on 2014. This means Spain where Ogier could clinch this year’s driver’s crown, but Latvala will not just surrender and so it could very well be that the battle will continue in Wales! It was Ogier who best voiced the feelings of all drivers: “Driving with the best car, what else could we want?
Coates Hire Rally Australia / Overview 11/52
coates hire rally australia
Based in: Coffs Harbour Date: 11-14/09/14 Number of stages: 20 Shortest stage: Hyundai Super Special Stage, 1.66 km Longest stage: Nambucca, 49.37 km Total stage distance: 319.58 km Surface: Gravel
Coates Hire Rally Australia / Revieww
VW of course Who else? No one really doubted it, but before you can start spraying champagne to celebrate the championship, you first have to acquire more points than anyone else. And Volkswagen did it again! After the first match point they missed in Germany they grabbed their second chance in Australia. The second World Constructor’s title was theirs! Next stop: driver’s championship, one thing is certain after Australia it’s either Ogier or Latvala, both Volkswagen drivers. Speaking of dominance… Words: Harry van Veenendaal
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Images: PR
Coates Hire Rally Australia / Review 13/52
Since Australia 2013 Volkswagen has been winning all rallies until in Germany they ‘just’ scored a third place with Andreas Mikkelsen. Ogier and Latvala both ended their rally in the vines. This meant their first match point went down the drain. That hurt, especially as it was their home event, but Germany always seems to be a tough one for them. However they kept their cool and came to the other side of the world in a rightfully self-conscious mood. “We have a good chance of being able to celebrate winning the manufacturers’ title here.” Said team boss Capito. In the M-Sport camp the situation was quite confident too. “Mikko (Hirvonen, ed.) managed to win here three times before,” says Malcolm Wilson. “In 2006, 2009 and 2011”) We can add to that his third place last year, then in a Citroën, and you can speak of quite a bit of experience with the Finnish driver. Although not in top form he can still be fast. After his misfortune in Germany, Kris Meeke is quite eager to show what he is worth. Hyundai team principal Michel Nandan is still on a high after Hyundai’s German success but he tunes down expectations. “Australia is still part
of our development process, so a three car finish will be our first target.” That about sums up the people who will be the challengers down under. After shakedown another name propped up: Mads Østberg. He was second in shakedown after his teammate Kris Meeke. Following Østberg were Neuville, Latvala, Ogier and Hirvonen, Paddon, Mikkelsen and Kubica were only tens of seconds behind. Let the fight begin As usual Ogier was complaining about his starting position, still he managed to finish the first stage grabbing the lead. Kris Meeke fully made use of hís starting position and stole first place from the current world champion. Meeke managed to fight off his rivals but in the last few stages he lost the lead and ended up fourth. The leading trio was completely Volkswagen with Ogier leading Latvala (by 0.4 seconds!) and Mikkelsen (3.5 seconds) Meeke was 0.6 seconds behind the Norwegian.
Coates Hire Rally Australia / Review
Not fighting for the lead is Thierry Neuville. He damaged his rear suspension after hitting ‘a rock or something’ in stage 5 (Bellingen). He loses some 2 minutes and drops from 6th to 11th. Rain Friday night brought heavy rains and although the rain had stopped at sunrise, most drivers opted for a soft compound tyre. Meeke though could have been braver, he claimed. “A harder compound could have worked here…” However the fight between overnight leader Ogier and his teammate Latvala continued ever so fiercely. Latvala was 0.4 seconds behind Ogier but on the monster Nambucca stage he passed his rival again when he managed to be 4 seconds quicker.
Tyres The day was won by tyre choice. Before the rerun of the Nambucca stage some forecasters predicted rain. And Latvala played safe by putting two softs on the rear of his Polo; the result was devastating for the Finn. The showers moved elsewhere and on the completely dry roads the soft tyres overheated and failed to give the amount of grip he would have wanted. He lost over 13 seconds, and the lead to his archrival. Cutting corners doesn’t help Kris Meeke was in a tight fight for third place with Andreas Mikkelsen when he cut a corner near the end of the Valla stage. He went into the corner a bit too fast and had to cut the corner more deeply than he intended. All four wheels were on the grass and that’s against the rules. The penalty however was quite severe. He was set back one place in he clas-
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Kris Meeke was once again Volkswagen’s main rival, an oversizced cut cost him dearly.
sification. Unfortunately however Mikko Hirvonen was 1 minute and 1 second behind him so he lost this amount of time. That is quite a heavy punishment that cost him dearly in he final classification as came out later. Fight back? Latvala fights back and wins the first stage of the last day. But at the end of that day it’s Ogier, with three stage wins on the last day who wins over Latvala (2) and Meeke (1). However, due to his ‘inconsistent penalty’, as Yves Matton called it, he misses the last step of the podium in favour of Mikkelsen. “It’s a pity,” comments the Northern Irishman. “As this one of my best WRC drives yet. The VW 1,2,3 is fantastic and both Ogier and Latvala deliver more than enough points for Volkswagen’s second constructor’s crown. One down, one to go!
After a subpar Rally Germany Ogier was flying again.
Coates Hire Rally Australia / Round-up
Round-up M-Sport World Rallyteam At M-Sport they had a party as this was their 250th rally in the FIA World Rally Championship. Malcolm Wilson was a bit amazed: “I can’t quite believe that we are already at our 250th event. It’s a significant milestone for us at M-Sport and it is a clear sign of the hard-work and commitment of every single member of the team – both on the events and back in the workshop in Cumbria”. Through the years the team achieved quite an impressive list of results including 200 podium finishes and more than 50 victories. For the Ford brand it meant two World Rally Championship titles. “Here’s to another successful 250.” He finished his speech.
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‘Oz’ has always been friendly to the team, so the spirit was quite good. No podium for Ford this year howev-
er. Though Mikko Hirvonen was quite happy with his driving it just did not come his way. He ended up being fifth. “It wasn’t a bad weekend, we’re up to fourth in the championship now and I think we can be pleased with that.” Elfyn Evans was in Australia to learn. It was the last event he hadn’t been to yet and so a good result was not his first priority. So at times that must have been a little frustrating for the young Welshman but at the end of the rally he admitted he was happy as he had done what he came for: “My goal was to learn everything about this event. And I think we managed to do that. So now I have the tools to improve on this result next year,” said Evans who ended up being 8th.
Volkswagen World Rallyteam Ogier was completely back on track again after the rare ‘off day’ he had during Rally Germany. “My mind was on other things then,” he admitted. The speculations around the new regulations bothered him more than was good for him. “But now I realise that is not good for my health. If I’m behind the wheel of my car I should be focused on driving and not on other things”.
Both Latvala and Mikkelsen did what they came for with the VW triple as the shining evidence. As predicted earlier the German manufacturer got hold of their second title, the driver’s title is still open, but there are still three qualifying events and it’s already clear that the World Rally Champion 2014 will be a Volkswagen driver, Ogier or Latvala.
Coates Hire Rally Australia / Round-up
Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Chris Meeke seems to become the man for Citroën. After his Germany disaster he grabbed himself by the shoulders and did a very good run. Mikkelsen was on his back but he managed to fight him off until his corner cutting exercise. As we indicated elsewhere in this report it cost him his third place. Still his driving was impeccable and we tend to agree with him when he said: This is my best one yet! Mads Østberg could not say so. In the beginning he was hampered by technical woes, but when that had been seen to he still had difficulties in fencing off Hayden Paddon. A broken suspension did not help and the Norwegian finished in 16th. Not a result that will enthuse Yves Matton when he is considering his line up for the new season.
RK M-Sport World Wally Team
Hyundai Shell World Rallyeam The drivers present in Australia apart from Thierry Neuville are the heroes from that part of the globe: Australian Chris Atkinson and ‘Kiwi’ Haydon Paddon. Especially Paddon is in good form as he showed in Finland where he challenged local hero Juho Hänninen. Chris Atkinson is lacking a bit of rhythm as his last drive for the Korean outfit was in Mexico, way back in March. Since then Atko has not done much racing. Not long before Australia he did some testing in France to get acquainted with the car again, but that was it.
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Best driver of the team was Hayden Paddon. He convincingly won the local battle with Australian Chris Atkinson and even finished before his number one
teammate Thierry Neuville. After his victory in Germany, the Belgian was quite confident but also realistic: “We still have to learn a lot”, he said. “But at least we know, we have the speed. On the fifth stage a small off caused a damaged suspension and after repairs had been made he was already too far back to really be in contention. But his talent and determination brought him in seventh place overall. Paddon had a good weekend and ended in a sixth spot he really can be proud of. For local hero Chris Atkinson, things will get really difficult now. He never found a rhythm and being first on the road as of day two did not help either. His chances of getting a full year WRC drive are becoming slimmer and slimmer.
The most important factor we can say about Robert Kubica’s Rally Australia, was that we saw him at the finish line. The ninth place however was not what he aimed for. A small mistake cost him dearly and it meant he had to drive fast to make up for the loss of time and not to improve his classification. Still he leaves his first attempt down under with a points finish. Apart from that Kubica now seems to start to enjoy driving on loose surface. “For me the biggest challenge was the ever changing character of the stages. Obviously we had to get used to that but I think we can say we did a good job. It’s also very important that I actually enjoyed this event that means I even can say I have enjoyed driving on gravel” His first full year of driving a fully fledged WRC has not been or will not be in the last events, an easy one. But at least the feeling seems to be coming now and that is important for the rest of the season and perhaps for the seasons to come.
Coates Hire Rally Australia / Results 17/52
Final Result 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Ogier-Ingrassia Volkswagen Polo R WRC Latvala-Anttila Volkswagen Polo R WRC Mikkelsen-Floene Volkswagen Polo R WRC Meeke-Nagle CitroĂŤn DS3 WRC Hirvonen-Lehtinen Ford Fiesta RS WRC
2:53:18.0 +6.8 +1:18.0 +1:44.0 +1:53.6
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Paddon-Kennard Neuville-Gilsoul Evans-Barritt Kubica-Szczepaniak Atkinson-Prevot
Hyundai i20 WRC Hyundai i20 WRC Ford Fiesta RS WRC Ford Fiesta RS WRC Hyundai i20 WRC
+2:56.2 +4:28.2 +5:10.0 +6:39.8 +9:29.4
Coates Hire Rally Australia / Standings
Championship standings (Drivers) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Ogier 214 points Latvala 164 Mikkelsen 125 Hirvonen 83 Neuville 79 Ă˜stberg 74 Meeke 67 Evans 61 Prokop 36 Solberg 26
Manufacturer standings
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Volkswagen Motorsport CitroĂŤn Total Abu Dhabi WRT M-Sport WRT Hyundai Motorsport Volkswagen Motorsport II Jipocar Czech National Team RK M-Sport WRT Hyundai Motorsport N
348 points 150 142 138 124 40 23 20
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Rallye de France / Rally Review 20/52
Rallye de france-alsace
Based in: Strasbourg Date: 03-05/10/14 Number of stages: 18 Shortest stage: Strasbourg, 4.67 km Longest stage: Vosges - Pays d’Ormont, 34.34 km Total stage distance: 303.63 km Surface: Tarmac
Rallye de France / Rally Revieww
latvala conquers asphalt Last year Sebastien Ogier grabbed the championship crown in France. This year he was all set to do it again. This time however it was not Sebastien Loeb he had to conquer, but his teammate Jari Matti Latvala. Only a couple of points were separating him from his second title, all he had to do was finish ahead of Latvala‌
Words: Harry van Veenendaal
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Images: Steven van Veenendaal
Rallye de France / Rally Revieww
For the French it must have been a strange feeling. No Loeb in his home territory. Loeb confided he had been tempted to come to his beloved Alsace region again and even agreed with Daniel Elena, his trusted, co-driver to re-join in the Rallye de France. “I would not have been fighting with the big boys of today,” he said.” But it would have been fun.” However date changes in WTCC made it impossible for the nine times World Champion to be present again. WTCC duties forced him to the other side of the globe in China for the first Chinese WTCC round in Beijing. So no Citroën DS3 for him but another Citroën the C-Elysée. So it was up to just Sebastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala who had to do it. Good or bad? There was quite a bit of unrest among the media fraternity. The cause was a photographers briefing where a high ranking police official threatened to confiscate equipment, media passes and tabards if a photographer was caught working outside the designated media zones. These rules would strictly be maintained. The abundance of ‘gendarmes’ (that’s
what the local police is called) made clear they were going to keep their word. So all the photographers were inside (or close to) the special ‘PhotoBoxes’. We understand safety rules but this goes a bit far. First of all this means that all photographers will get the same shots, but more important they will all include the same commercial banners, placed in such a way that they are in good view of all the camera’s and disguising ‘couleur locale’. That’s of course the very essence of rallying, the cars passing a characteristic inn or just some stunning scenery. An abundance of banners lining the track doesn’t mix with that. We don’t want white cars without sponsor logo’s we don’t want a starting ramp without flags but there are ways in between. No chaos this year So Rallye de France was a disaster? No by no means. We remember the event as an event suffering from utter chaos in all areas. This does not apply to the 2014 edition. Traffic circulation was well organised, especially around Rally HQ.
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Clinching ten world championships in a row is not bad for the popularity of a sport in a country.
Rallye de France / Rally Revieww
On the stages too there was a lot of public interest, so you can not expect to arrive at a stage five minutes before it starts and still be able to park comfortably. But if you arrive in time you can park normally and walk to the spectator areas. An enormous amount of officials guide you to them. France is not a rally where, as a spectator you can see very many stages, it is too busy for that. But there is no chaos with doubly (or even triply) parked cars that block evacuation roads.
stages were intended mostly for VIP’s. If you did not have a ticket to one of the grandstands it was quite difficult to catch a glimpse of your favourite. So perhaps the organisation could have a second look at safe spectator areas for nonVIP spectators. As usual these stages did not bring much for the competition but both stages in Strasbourg and Mulhouse probably were necessary for commercial purposes. Of course the FIA wants to bring the rallies as close as possible to big cities, but for us Strasbourg would have been enough. The street stage there, plus Street stages Rally HQ at convenient distance from the inner This year the Rallye de France did not come city nicely fulfils the wishes of the FIA. to Haguenau, but still two street stages were included in the just over 300 kilometre of stages Rally HQ that formed the 2014 edition. It was clear these And then there is Rally HQ. It’s an almost per-
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The French love their rallying. Bitg crowds lined the stages and they stayed to watch even the cars ranked in the 90’s. Can’t really blame them given those cars, can you?
fect venue for an event like this. It seems to have an abundance of parking spots, a spacious service park, and a nice rally village with the usual merchandise stalls, flavoured with local businesses, the press conference stage and, last but not least, the overwhelming presence of the Volkswagen Stage. Here a moderator is busy all day talking to audiences varying from 2 to 200 people. It absolutely adds to the general atmosphere. Last but not least the Zenith centre, a large multi purpose hall including everything you could possibly want for Rally HQ. We thoroughly enjoyed the spacious press-rooms and rest area where apart from drinking a cup of coffee you had space for an informal interview, away from the hustle and buzzle of the service park.
Volkswagen came up big with a massive party tent with DJ’s pumping up the crowds at night.
Rallye de France / Rally Revieww
Kris Meeke was the only non-Volkswagen driver who could stay anywhere near the Germans.
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The battle The fight was on with Latvala winning the first stage, Mikkelsen took over the lead but on the last stage of the morning loop (SS3, Pays de Salm) Latvala came back again and retook the lead. The rest of the day Mikkelsen fought back but could not prevent Latvala from inching away from him. At the end of the day Latvala had a lead of just over eight seconds. Meeke was doing an excellent drive again and followed in third place, with a healthy gap to Sordo, Ă˜stberg and Hirvonen. Neuville had found a ditch that threw him back on the leaderboard and was also slowed down by a lack of power. His 21st position made him just into a supporting act.
Up front Latvala once again led an asphalt rally, could he keep his cool this time?
And Ogier? The hunt for his second world title was temporarily stopped, when Ogier already hit trouble on the second stage. After having lost 0.3 seconds to his rival Latvala, he spun on the next stage. Soon afterwards his engine began to cut at certain revs and consequently the Polo lost power. At the end of the stage the pair had lost 4 minutes and to make things worse, Julien Ingrassia made a rare mistake. He checked in 4 minutes early. Jost Capito knew what happened: “A faulty sensor on the gearbox was sending wrong information to the engine. On the way from the second stage to the third co driver Ingrassia was looking for the problem and overlooked the fact that the rally had been delayed and clocked in at his normal time,
which for that moment was four minutes early.� Their game was over for the weekend. No championship celebrations in France for crew. But they stayed in the rally, obviously to restrict losses by trying to win some Powerstage points. Meanwhile at the top Latvala made one thing clear: he wanted to win his first asphalt rally. Mikkelsen was clear also; he would not be helping his teammate in his pursuit. Still at the end of the day it was the Finn who had been fastest on four of seven stages and was first with an 8 seconds lead over Mikkelsen. Another 14 seconds later came Kris Meeke, who drove a solid rally but could not come closer to the VW duo.
Rallye de France / Rally Revieww
Evans pushes The following quartet was battling fiercely. Between Sordo in fourth and Kubica in seventh were Østberg and Hirvonen and a mere thirteen seconds. There had been problems for Neuville who lost power due to a broken turbo and Evans. The young Brit had to push his Fiesta into the regroup zone. “On stage 3 some warning lights came on,” said Evans. “Some distance after the stage the engine completely stopped, but we could see the control zone before getting into the regroup, so we started to push. We made it but it cost me quite some effort and I do have a bit more training before I can enter the Strongman contest.” By pushing their car into the control zone the team lost quite a bit of time but they could start again that afternoon and of course that’s better than Rally 2.
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First Finnish asphalt victory in fifteen years. Although there was still quite some competition during the rest of the rally, the dice had been thrown and Latvala was going straight for his first asphalt win. This time unlike in Germany he did not make any fatal mistakes and ended his asphalt challenge unscaved. On Sunday afternoon he could spray the victory champagne for the first time on sealed WRC roads. The last Finn to achieve this had been Tommi Mäkinnen and that was in 1999! PowerStage: as expected Sebastien Ogier only had one goal after his problems on the first day, that was winning the PowerStage and obviously he did. It earned him three ex-
tra points, which means that in Spain he only has to gain one point more than Latvala to be the 2014 champ. But Latvala now knows how to fight the asphalt stages so Spain could be interesting. We still put our money on the Frenchman but the last few rallies he encountered some glitches so it’s not over yet. Abbring beats WRC 2 drivers In WRC there was a nice battle between Gilbert, Sousa and Chardonnet. Gilbert’s Fiesta R5 was too strong for Sousa’s Fiesta S2000 and Chardonnet’s DS3 R5. All drivers had some problems but Gilbert came out as winner. However a non WRC 2 beat them all. Dutchman Kevin Abbring was given an extra drive by his partners in the Peugeot Rally Academy. In ERC he proved to be very fast but technical problems threw him out of contention (to) many times. In France however he showed his value. After day one he was already fastest non-WRC driver beating all WRC contenders by half a minute, despite a bad starting position that forced him to overtake slower competitors. On the second day he took another thirty seconds and then he started to back down a little on the last day. He won RC2 with a 40 second margin on WRC2 winner Quinten Gilbert. The Dutchman was delighted: “I hope some people noticed me.” We think people did notice him. His team manager Bruno Famin was delighted: “Neither driver nor car put a foot wrong in Alsace. Kevin managed his performance extremely intelligently.” When it comes to composing his 2015 team this is not an unimportant statement.
Elfyn Evans showing some grit. He had to push his car back into service after a technical issue during the opening loop. After many disappointments due to technical woes in the ERC, Kevin Abbring got to show his skill on th world stage, and did so by dominating his class.
Rallye de France / Rally Revieww 26/52
Round-up M-Sport World Rallyteam At M-Sport Elfyn Evans is gradually becoming the number one driver. Not that we can just write off Mikko Hirvonen, he is still one of the fastest men around, just not the fastest anymore. And where young Evans is coming closer to the absolute top, our Finnish friend seems to slowly drop away from this top. In France Evans was going very fast when an alternator gave way. No electricity anymore so the engine stopped running. In order for him not to have to start in Rally 2, he had to push his car into the timing zone. Then all of the sudden the Fiesta is quite heavy! But he managed to push it in. The time penalty prevented him from having a very strong finish but he kept up the good job and regularly presented himself in the top spots. And to prove our point: eventually Hirvonen finishes fifth and Evans sixth!
Jipocar Czech National Team
Volkswagen World Rallyteam Volkswagen is in a very comfortable position. They know they will be the double champions again. So they can be relaxed, even if their biggest challenger encounters a peculiar amount of bad luck. But even if a faulty sensor throws back Ogier they have the other drivers to stand in. And Jost Capito being the marketeer he is, secretly might even think, ‘that is good, now we keep the excitement a bit longer’. And to be perfectly honest we would tend to agree with him. We have the strong feeling Ogier will not fail, but we also are happy to see the relaxed
fighting spirit of Latvala and also of Mikkelsen. Ogier can wrap it up in Spain. The ‘only thing’ he has to do, is to finish before Latvala. But we have seen that that is not a walk over. Even Mikkelsen could play a roll, if he finishes in front of Ogier and behind Latvala he might even complicate things for Ogier, but let’s not forget the Frenchman is still leading the championship! Still I think in Britain they are keeping their fingers crossed for a Latvala win in Spain! It would mean a real showdown in the Welsh forests.
This year doesn’t bring Martin Prokop what he hoped for. In France this was no different. More and more it becomes clear his times are uncompetitive. He was even challenged by Dutchman Dennis Kuipers who had only two outings this year. For him it was a good thing that Robert Kubica went off in the last stage, it earned him one meagre point. As a birthday present he could have wished for more.
Rallye de France / Rally Revieww 27/52
Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Chris Meeke seems to become the man for Citroën, we said last month. We tend to say that again today. He now is a regular podium challenger, although he did not really challenge the Volkswagen elite. He choose to drive consistently and evaded a tricky fight for the top of the podium. A new podium would bring him closer to a 2015 deal then a finish in a ditch challenging for a win, an attitude that fits a good professional driver. Something we hope he will be able to continue so that in 2015 he perhaps will be able to really challenge the Mikkelsens, Latvalas and Ogiers of this world. Unfortunately we cannot say that of Mads Østberg he had a difficult rally again. He was doing reasonably well and on his way to fourth place when he encountered some mechanical glitches that cost him a seventy second penalty. He never really came back. He won the penultimate stage but couldn’t catch Elfyn Evans anymore and ended a colourless seventh. The only thing you can say it brought Citroen some extra points in the contructors championship, together with the points Kris Meeke harvested Citroen is on course for second place.
RK M-Sport World Wally Team
Hyundai Shell World Rallyeam
It was a difficult weekend for Hyundai. The set up did not seem to fit with the new Michelin tyres and they could never be as fast as the car and drivers could be expected to be. An eighth place was not what Thierry Neuville hoped for. But at least he had an excuse, because in the early stages of the rally a turbo broke. However on the rest of the rally he had a problem adapting to the new Michelin tyres. When finally he found a suitable set up it was too late. But again a lot was learned and that is what you want in a learning year!
on asphalt as we know from his good performances on this surface. However in France he wasn’t entirely happy with his car’s behaviour. Like his teammates he complained about a car that was a bit too hard. However he was very consisted and fought off all his direct competitors but that did not include the top three drivers.
It was Bryan Bouffier’s last outing in the Hyundai this year. It seems doubtful that this performance will earn him a regular seat in the Korean team for next year. He had some understeer problems but although he found a solution he never Second driver in the regu- recovered completely. His lar Hyundai team was Dani furthermore steady drive Sordo again. A fast driver brought him ninth place.
Asphalt is what Kubica likes. So he was very fast no doubt about it. But we said it before ”Kubica was very fast until…” Unfortunately France was no exception to this rule. After a strong performance he classified himself before asphalt ace Dani Sordo in fourth spot. On the final morning however he first spun and almost slipped off the road when there was some gravel on the road, This was not enough to warn him and to slow down a bit. He had an eleven second cushion between him and Sordo But still he choose to attack on the last stage and rolled out of the rally, throwing away a career best fourth place…
Rallye de France / Result 28/52
Final Result 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Latvala-Anttila Volkswagen Polo WRC Mikkelsen-Floene Volkswagen Polo WRC Meeke-Nagle Citroën DS3 WRC Sordo-Marti Hyundai i20 WRC Hirvonen-Lehtinen Ford Fiesta RS WRC
2:38:19.1 +44.8 +1:05.3.0 +1:48.7 +2:00.7
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Evans-Barritt Ostberg-Andersson Neuville-Gilsoul Bouffier-Panseri Prokop-Tomanek
Ford Fiesta RS WRC Citroën DS3 WRC Hyundai i20 WRC Hyundai i20 WRC Ford Fiesta RS WRC
+3:00.8 +3:02.5 +4:08.4 +4:12.9 +6:07.5
Rallye de France / Standings
Championship standings (Drivers) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Ogier 219 points Latvala 190 Mikkelsen 143 Hirvonen 93 Neuville 83 Meeke 82 Ă˜stberg 80 Evans 71 Prokop 38 Sordo 30
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Manufacturer standings 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Volkswagen Motorsport CitroĂŤn Total Abu Dhabi WRT M-Sport WRT Hyundai Motorsport Volkswagen Motorsport II Jipocar Czech National Team RK M-Sport WRT Hyundai Motorsport N
373 points 175 164 157 127 41 25 22
Rally-eMag / Interview
the new voice of rally?
For those fans that are not able to travel the world and attend the WRC events, the online radio show WRC Live provides the next best thing. For years the show has covered all WRC events with interviews, stage end reports and host Becs Williams talking all those things together. Recently we have grown accustomed to the stage end interviews by Colin Clark and George Donaldson, each providing interesting radio in their own unique way. The latter of those two has decided to retire as stage end reporter leaving a vacancy to be filled for what has to be one of the best jobs in the world.
Molly Taylor
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Words: Steven van Veenendaal, Image: PR
Is: Rallydriver competing in the Junior WRC & One-off reporter for WRC Live.
For Rallye de France (at least) that vacancy was filled by perhaps the fastest lady in Australia, Molly Taylor. Although usually a rally driver herself, Molly was confronted with a difficult situation that so many young drivers face: lack of budget. “We are constantly working flat out to find the budget for rallies, but for France it just was not there. But this is a good way to stay involved in the sport and be around the ser-
vice park to make sure you stay on the radar.” Being a driver, Molly is not really trained for the job, but relishes the new challenge. “It’s the first time on the other end of the microphone for me! As a driver I often had to give answers, but I never had to ask the questions. I’m very excited about it though as it is a whole new experience for me.” It all came about when her codriver, Seb Marshall, was having a chat with WRC Live host Becs Williams and they discussed the departure of George Donaldson from the team. One thing led to another, and here Molly is with the microphone in her hand. A full time switch to the media side then? “I hope not! As much as I am looking forward to this challenge, my focus is still on driving. We are currently working very hard to find the budget to compete at Wales Rally GB. So for now, I’ll only be joining WRC Live for Rallye de France.” We wish her all the best in securing those funds, although it would not be bad at all to have her on the other side of the mic full time!
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rallyday
Feature / Rallyday
Feature / Rallyday
Rallyday Since 2001 the annual Rallyday event offers fans the opportunity to experience rallying up close and personal. Castle Combe circuit in Wiltshire is transformed into a rally arena where fans can get shake hands with some of the big names in rallying and feast their eyes on some of the most iconic cars to have featured in the sport.
Rallyday Is: An annual rallying event aimed at bringing spectators close to the action.
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Words: Steven van Veenendaal Images: Andy Crayford - Crayfordmedia.com
The event has a 4x4 Rally Raid Zone, a Clubman Rally Stage and the Feature Rally Stage with Elfyn Evans as the main crowd puller. Fans are offered the chance to ride along a rally car over the stage but the main attraction though, as usual, was the plethora of classic rally cars at the event. Ford Sierra Cosworths, Mini Coopers, Audi Quattro’s, Opel Manta 400’s are just a selection of the goods on display, not to mention the large collection of Metro 6R4’s. The cars were on display in the service were the fans could get within touching distance, but also made their way around the Feature Rally Stage. Andy Crayford was there for us to capture these great machines in action!
Swedish team Mpart launched their new Mirage based Mitsubishi R5 at Rallyday with plans of running in the ERC in 2015.
WRC Star Elfyn Evans put on a spectacular display in his Ford Fiesta WRC.
Feature / Rallyday
Ford Sierra Cosworth
Ferrari 308 GTB
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Opel Manta 400
Lancia 037 Rally
classic
cs galore
Mini Cooper S
Lancia Beta S2
Ford Escort MK I
Lancia Fulvia
wrc+ Top or flop?
Oliver Ciesla Is: Managing Director of WRC Promoter GmbH
Early this summer we spoke to Oliver Ciesla about all kinds of developments in WRC. He promised us that something big was going to happen. It turned out to be WRC+. The platform was launched at Rally Finland and has so far covered four rallies. So when we were in France and talked to Ciesla again, the time was right to ask him about how those first few months of the new platform had been. Next month’s issue of Rally-eMag will feature part two of the interview, in which we discuss the latest developments concerning the WRC regulations. Words: Harry van Veenendaal Images: Steven van Veenendaal
Rally-eMag / Interview
WRC+ Is getting a lot of positive feedback. Not just from the fans, but also from the teams who very excited about the new possibilities WRC+ gives them.
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How did people receive WRC and how many people are using it? I’m happy to talk about WRC+, it’s a fantastic project but at this moment we are not disclosing any figure such as subscriber figures. At this stage it’s a baby it has to grow and as you might be well aware of, that it takes a while for Pay TV subscription channels in sports, to recover a break even. That is the same here. But I would like to look from the positive side: It was quite a technical challenge because all the on-board footage together with the live maps, produce a tremendous amount of data that had to be processed and it was exciting to see whether our calculations really worked. But right from the first step we were really glad that the technical solu-
tion was working so well so reliable which is the first thing you have to deliver. And this was done by the colleagues from Laola1, which is our sister company, they just did a great job.”
so full of information it literally changed a bit the way how you work because it gives you access to a perspective from inside the car at a certain moment hat was not available before.
Subscriber loyalty We monitor subscriber loyalty closely and we found out that once they are subscribing they stick to it and the few fans that step out is a completely irrelevant number. Which is a good sign, this means it basically delivers for the fans what they want to see. Furthermore from the social media, we get feedback from the fans and it seems that they really enjoy it. So the colleagues here in the service park which includes particularly your colleagues from the media. We understand that this tool is
The professionals The same of course applies for he team principals, the directors and the technical guys. They suddenly have the opportunity to sitting in the car, every car form two different perspectives then the live maps: it’s really become a play toy hat is becoming an operative tool for some 300 people working here on the weekends. So that is, let’s call it a positive side effect.
Rally-eMag / Interview
And so to put it in a nutshell: we are really happy how it started. With all the feedback that we received we are already about to enhance the offer like for example we are looking at how, in the future we could get live timing, split times right on the same streams instead of asking the fans to have the second stream open. Of course that is possible as you can use the WRC+ service on two separate devices with one subscription. But usually what fans do is: they have the live maps on and parallel they have the website on or their app and listen to the radio. Now we try to get the split times, the radio, everything on the same device so you get it all from one source. In this way we’re trying to make it better and better.
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Is there any criticism about the price? Absolutely nothing, we have the feeling that the price is not an obstacle in all fairness it is difficult to find one price that is a fair price for the whole world. For obvious reasons it is an impossible challenge to find one price if you compare western
countries to third world countries. You have to find a middle way here. At this moment we do not have any criticism about the price, so we think that for those that are rally fans today this is not an obstacle. We think 5 euro’s is just fine, quite cheap actually, but in, say Mexico, five Euro’s is quite a lot of money, so it’s really difficult to find one single price… That is exactly the challenge that we are facing. We want to deliver an additional entertainment for the fans that are following us today, to get them deeper involved, to give them more and to really bind them to the sport more intensely and maybe for this we could have asked more. But at the same time we also pursue the objective to spread awareness of the rally broader. In an ideal scenario the investment in this new platform allows us to bring the rally in countries where today broadcasters are not interested where is no demand. We extend the service and we bring the rally to people where broadcasters today don’t give us coverage.
“In all fairness it is difficult to find one price that is a fair price for the whole world”
The most important step now for the WRC is increasing its fanbase, specially in those countries where the sport is not very big yet.
Rally-eMag / Interview
Collaboration with local TV stations is one of the steps to succes for WRC+
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So we want to grow broader in our awareness and then a higher price to attract new fans would be counterproductive, because, if you were not a hard-core fan, the barrier to watch it for the first time, would be too high. So we try to balance that and well let’s see what happens. The future will show. How are the teams responding to it? They always say we need more exposure How do they react to it? We only had positive feedback, also from the side of the manufacturers. They fully understand that specially during the initial period, this is not a tool that is significantly increasing the exposure from one day to the other. But on the perspective of experience it is better to have this alternative plat-
WRC Promoter is ready to send the footage skywards.
form then not having it. Plus they appreciate the benefit for themselves being at the service park, being at home reviewing the stages; having in particular the opportunity to sharing the visibility of what they do with their brand’s activities with all the colleagues in house now. Or even with the sponsors that they have on the car. Now these sponsors can see what happens. They do not have to come to every rally to see this. It’s not only that all the bosses from Volkswagen, Hyundai Ford and Citroen don’t need to come to the rally to see what is happening. They also don’t need to wait until the show is on TV in their country. They go on WRC+ and every time they can sit in the car with the drivers they are paying and see what the guy is doing. It’s basically helping them to communicate internally to promote their investment internally and
see what is happening. So it’s a great tool to communicate internally and externally. There is one problem with the countries, like here in France, where you cannot subscribe. France Britain and Scandinavia for example, these are quite important markets for rally. How are you going to deal with that? There are two ways to look at that issue: I think it would be a disaster if we would be sitting here and we’d launched a channel and we would not be in conflict with one TV company in the world. This would mean we would not be on TV at all! So we are glad we have this problem, because it means that we do have important broadcast partners that are loyal to the rally.
Rally-eMag / Interview
We respect their exclusivity this is where we come from and this is good. So now we are launching this new service in a period where the agreements that we have with our partners Canal Plus in France and BT Sport in the UK as well as SPT and Viasat in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark come to an end after Rally UK this year which gives us the opportunity to sit and talk to them and hopefully find a conclusion that satisfies them to keeping them as partners to the WRC and at the same time allowing us to bring this content as an additional service to the fans. You see the timing was good. We have an overlap here of (since Finland) some six, seven rallies, in three or four countries. We had to accept that, but on the global scale on the long term, I think this is OK. But it is our our intention that WRC+ will also be available for the fans in France the UK Sweden Norway Denmark from next year onwards.
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Wouldn’t it be possible to cooperate with the local TV stations? Absolutely and as a matter of fact we do have this cooperation with Canal Plus and working closely in producing the live stages here. What we have to bear in mind forever is that in France compared to many many other countries rallying enjoys a very high awareness and interest. With nine, no ten years a world champion that is easy to understand. Also big companies like Citroën and Michelin have been part of the game for many years so the rally in France is very well known and there is a big demand for our WRC content,
especially when the rally is here. But as you might know, for example let me pick a country Holland maybe, there is not the same demand, not in the market and consequently not from the broadcasters side to allocate 20 hours of air time to show WRC from France live. I would be happy to giving it to them and we tried last year. We then offered the live stages from France to all our thirty broadcast partners. But the broadcasters choose not to allocate 20 hours of airtime to the WRC. But if there could be an objective to being there maybe in x years it would be nice. The way we start doing it now is, let’s call it an education process to create the habit, to provide the continuity that every Sunday the last stage will be broadcast live maybe a second and a third stage That is the kind of habit that we wish to build up. But building up means starting from 1,2,3, to maybe 20 in the future. But we need the markets that go with us and we need the fans that go with us. At the moment we are providing a product to the global market But that market is absolutely not yet ready for this. It has no demand, no appetite for this quantity so we start with small quantity in the best possible quality and ideally, whenever the fan wants, wherever he is. He or she can enjoy it through one of the devices they choose to use. This is how we start building it up. And if things go well in more and more markets we hope to get a demand: “Can we have more, can we have more…” and that would be a sound growth also in quantity.
“It is our our intention that WRC+ will also be available for the fans in France the UK Sweden Norway Denmark from next year onwards.”
ERC: Cyprus Rally / Overview 43/52
cyprus rally
Based in: Nicosia Date: 18-21/09/2014 Number of stages: 15 Shortest stage: CNP Asfalistiki Superspecial Stage 5.98 km Longest stage: Lythrodontas – 21.57 km Total stage distance: 232.02 km Surface: Mixed
ERC: Cyprus Rally / Review
ERC vs MERC Located between Europe and Asia, and being partly controlled by the Cypriot Republic and partly by Turkey (although this is still highly disputed and only recognized by Turkey itself), the Mediterranean island of Cyprus forms a crossroad between continents, cultures and‌ rally championships! Rally Cyprus this year was both a round of the European Rally Championship (ERC) and the Middle Eastern Rally Championship (MERC). As such, there was no shortage of high quality entries with the front-runners from both series squaring off against one another. Words: Steven van Veenendaal
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Images FIA ERC
ERC: Cyprus Rally / Review
A disastrous rally for Nasser Al-Attiyah as engine problems prevented him ever showing his pace.
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ERC vs MERC The MERC is high caliber championship featuring WRC regulars Nasser Al-Attiyah and Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, both in Ford Fiestas and Khalid Al Qassimi in a Citroën DS3 RRC who are sure to put up a big fight for the ERC contenders. Yazeed Al-Rajhi is not registered for the MERC but also made the trip to Cyprus and should be in the mix fighting for the top positions. ERC Championship leader Esapekka Lappi was not around but Craig Breen, Kajetan Kajetanowicz, Robert Consani and Bruno Magelhaes were out to defend European honours.
Craig Breen warned before the rally that it’s critical to have complete confidence in the car as you run tarmac sections on gravel tires.
speed. In addition to the rough gravel roads the rally also features some tarmac stages and this variation of surfaces makes it very difficult for the drivers to find the right rhythm. Many compare the Cypriot rally to the Acropolis in Greece, although Craig Breen begs to differ “The rallies are quite different actually. In Greece you have one day on tarmac and one day on gravel, here it’s all mixed. You have to have a perfect feeling with the car and be completely confident with the rear of the car on the gravel tires on the tarmac.” Not lacking confidence was Nasser Al-Attiyah, the Qatari flew back from Australia after having won the WRC2 category and just missing out on the Confidence top ten overall. Moreover he has won the Cyprus Roads renowned for their car-breaking abilities rally three times already. “We are here to win this make the Cyprus Rally a matter or survival over race, I will try my best and I think it is possible.”
Trouble The smile on his face didn’t last very long though. On the qualifying stage he was already in trouble. A problem with the ECU meant the computer was reading the wrong information from the engine. Warning lights flashed up and Al-Attiyah duly decided to stop to prevent damaging the engine. Consequently he did not record a time on the qualifying stage and was forced to watch as all his competitors got to pick their starting positions before him. The result was that Al-Attiyah got to start first on the road on the opening, not the place you want to be, effectively acting as road sweeper for those behind.
ERC: Cyprus Rally / Review
More trouble Once the warning signs had come on during shakedown Nasser Al-Attiyah immediately switched of his engine to prevent serious damage. Those warning signs turned out to be a bit more problematic than merely a faulty ECU. On the opening street stage through Nicosia the engine started to overheat and Al-Attiyah was forced to nurture his car through the stage. The following morning things went awry again as the crew left the servicepark. Once again the engine started overheating immediately and the team decided to retire from the rally to avoid further damage to the car. Efforts to restart the event the next day under Rally 2 rules were also in vain, prompting the definite exit from the rally of one the outright favorites for victory.
Middle Eastern domination The Middle Eastern drivers proved their early on as Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Khalid Al-Qassimi and Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari all entered the top four. Kajetan Kajetanowicz was the only European driver to break the Middle Eastern dominance by winning a stage and slotting in at second overall. Craig Breen was having another unlucky event. The stage mode on his Peugeot failed to activate and consequently he was forced to run much of the morning loop in road mode. This led to a late check-in at SS5, which cost him well over a minute in penalty time. After the morning loop he was in eighth overall.
ond penalty for leaving service late in the morning loop. He showed his pace in the afternoon though by winning three of the remaining four stages and snatching the lead from Al-Rajhi. The latter wasn’t unhappy about losing the lead. With the final day coming up and the end of day classification determining the starting order for the following day, Kajetanowicz would have to act as road sweeper voor Al-Rajhi on the final day. The difference between the two was only 3.8 seconds, a margin that surely would not exceed the disadvantage of road position. In other words, Al-Rahji was on pole position to take the win.For both front runners the margin for error was very small though. Only thirty seconds behind them the pair of AlSecond isn’t too bad Kuwari and Al-Qassimi was duking it out for third In the afternoon Kajetanowicz struck back. The and ready to pounce on the front runners should Pole was hampered by a puncture and a ten sec- they encounter any sort of problems.
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Jumping into thre lead at the end of day one: Kajetan Kajetanowicz.
One man was happy enough with Kajetanowicz’s lead. Yazeed Al-Rajhi knew he was in the best posiiton to take victory given the road positions on the final day.
ERC: Cyprus Rally / Review 47/52
Final showdown Early Sunday morning and everyone was ready for the fight between Kajetanowicz and Al-Rajhi to continue. One man though, had different plans. Khalid Al-Qassimi blasted into the by winning the opening stage. In his quest for third he would have to make up half a minute to Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and Al-Qassimi made his intentions clear early on. Meanwhile Kajetanowicz knew he had a very difficult task ahead of him. Containing Al-Rajhi who had better road position would be a difficult trick to master. More so when his turbo starting reaching alarming temperaturs. Kajetanowicz though simply did not have an answer for the sheer speed of Al-Rajhi. The Saudi Arabian blitzed the opening stages and immediately put the fight to rest. He took over half a minute from Kajetanowicz and in the process retook the lead and opened up a seemingly insurmountable gap.
The end Fighting a succession of problems throughout the rally, Craig Breen finally had to retire when his Peugeot didn’t just overheat but also started to lose water. He was not alone in retiring though, in the end only Kajetanowicz and Magelhaes of the ERC front runners made it home. The MERC guys fared much better. Al-Rajhi could cruise to victory after his spectacular display on the final day’s opening two stages and di exactly that. Avoiding major risk he held on to his lead that eventually grew to nearly fifty seconds. Behind him Kajetanowicz secured second to lead all ERC drivers. The battle for third seemed ignited by Al-Qassimi’s storming pace on the leg’s first stage but he could not give it the required follow-up to make life hard for Al-Kuwari who duly took the final step of the podium.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi played his cards right. He dropped to second after day one to set himself up in the perfect spot to clinch victory.
ERC: Cyprus Rally / Result 48/52
Final results
1.AL-Rajhi - Orr 2.Kajetanowicz - Baran 3.Al-Kuwari - Gilian 4.Al-Qassimi - Patterson 5.Magalhaes - Magalhaes 6.Demosthenous - Laos 7.Antoniou - “Chips Junior” 8.Panteli - Alexandrou 9.Pushkar - Mishyn 10.Tlustak - Skaloud
Ford Fiesta RRC Ford Fiesta R5 Ford Fiesta RRC Citroen DS3 RR C Peugeot 208 T16 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X Skoda Fabia S2000
3.03.44.4 + 48.9 + 1.30.5 + 2.05.7 + 3.23.3 + 7.44.0 + 9.42.5 + 11.56.1 + 12.37.8 + 15.26.0
ERC: Cyprus Rally / Standings 49/52
Championship standings 1. Esapekka Lappi 2. Sepp Wiegand 3. Kajetan Kajetanowicz 4. Craig Breen 5. Vaclav Pech 6. Vasily Gryazin 7. Ott Tanak 8. Bruno Magalhaes 9. Robert Kubica 10. Robert Consani
Skoda Fabia S2000 Skoda Fabia S2000 Ford Fiesta RRC Peugeot 208 T16 MINI JWC S2000 Ford Fiesta RRC Ford Fiesta R5 Peugeot 208 T16 Ford Fiesta R5 Peugeot 207 S2000
123 104 94 74 63 53 44 44 39 39
ForMyFriends / Rally-eMag
Bas’ ForMyFriends
Bas Romeny travels the world to watch the WRC. Between his eyes and the rest of the world he usually holds a camera. You can see the results of that throughout this magazine.
During events he often he sees ‘other things’ than rally cars going over crests. He decided to send a selection to his rallyfriends. And this section he shares them with all his friends at Rally-eMag. Here he shows you his observations and his thoughts at the moment he took the pictures.
Latvala did his utmost at shakedown ..as we can see.
In the race for the “biggest”
How French can you go?
Due to an injury Bas was only able to shoot during the first day of Rallye de France, so this month we’ve included some ‘golden oldies’ from the event.
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Great ambiance at shakedown
When we had icons... Sorry Ogier, your time will come
ForMyFriends / Rally-eMag
He won! Ala la! First asphalt win!
When it was fun when the ceremonial start took place on a beautiful place ..
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When the power stage ended and we could make pics
When I woke up at sunrise
see you next time...