Monte Carlo 2011

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Originally Posted by Honza H.

Now, let´s turn the page: what change in the overall results may we expect tomorrow? Will Freddy reach the top? Is Delecour capable to speed up a bit? Is it still possible to see an overall win of Hanninen? What about other guys from the top 7?

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Well, tomorrows forecasts are currently very tricky.Local forecast tells that there will not be snowfall in most of tomorrow stages. The weather maps that I just got are showing completely different picture. Snow, snow and in the afternoon - even more snow. Which one is right? Well, my long prediction was generally correct. It was nice weather during the first day and it turned worse today in the afternoon. Currently I would like to say that it turns even more worse tomorrow afternoon.
Assuming, it will be snow and Hanninen is very fast on white stuff (with normal tires:-)). I would position him on podium for sure. But not to the highest step. Did you noticed that there were no retirements in top 10 today? It will not continue like this tomorrow. Current top two drives too crazy to stay on the road for next 5 stages :-P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMwjIa5YGXA

Kopecký did not have spare intermediates, he had spare slicks! :D

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Originally Posted by dimviii

Βut here says that Loix and Hanninen had same combo
http://www.ircseries.com/html/readnews.asp?id=2414

which if it is true is strange the diff between them.

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From your article:
(Petter Solberg started stage seven in second overall in his 207 after demoting Freddy Loix when the Belgian spun his Fabia six kilometres into stage six. Solberg gambled by choosing intermediate tyres for the afternoon stages and fell back to seventh, while Loix chose a combination of intermediate and snow covers and managed to hold onto third place as he slithered through the falling snow. )

I think Loix had 2 snow tyres in front and intermediate in the back in ss7.
In ss8 he took two snows and switched those intermediates away.

Hänninen and Solberg had 4 intermediates and 2 snow tyres.
So they could change snow tyres into front and intermediates to back.
All though I think Hänninen had them snow & intermediate tyre in front
and intermediate tyre & snow in th back.

Wow! Looks like I missed out on a lot of action last night! Not sure if it was wise by Hanninen to consider Solberg as his only remaining competition. Hope Petter can get some stage victories tomorrow, then I can't wait until Sweden!

I don't understand using one snow tyre in front and one rear together with one intermediate infront and one in rear. Such car must be very unstable in braking and acceleration.

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Originally Posted by dimviii

Tommorow at night stages are going to start only 60 crews.Currently Elena is ranking 62th .

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He still has a chance because there will be a new start list on stage 10 for the 60 crews

What a night! Stayed up until 4am watching it and was amazed the whole way. Some drivers were caught out watching each other for tyre choice rather than looking at the actual conditions. A sudden trend among the front runners, making other people think that must be the better choice. Delecour's quote ,".........because it is snowing!" is especially apt, considering the other competitors were looking at him strangely for his wild different but ultimately correct choice of tyre. Sometimes the service park can be all like sheep, wanting to follow the choice of others, believing that the leading crews will make the correct choice.

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Originally Posted by mm1

Ok then, where are you looking at results, I was looking in the official acm.mc site, and there was no sign of him.

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http://irc-results.com/2011/irc/monte
http://rally-base.com/2011/rallye-monte-carlo-2011/

My view to "tyre choice theme" - We were in the middle of SS 5 and then moved to SS 8. Snow starts when last cars went through SS 5. But, after 40 mins of snowing there wasnt so much snow on the road, no ice. Then we decided to move to SS 8, which was near. We arrived there and no snowing (or only very slightly), no snow on the road. More snow was falling later, but most of top gravel crews went in time without snow. Dont forget, that crews must decided their time choice more than hour before start of the stage! I was on the stage with codriver of one retired crews and in time around 1,5 half before stage start he wasnt sure which tyre choice should be the best. He told he will use D10 for safer reason... With tyre choice it is difficult every year on Monte, because conditions are changing and on different part of stages should be different weather. But for sure, slicks was crazy version from beginning, intermedia was risk... Crews which started later had better information about conditions on stages = better tyre choice = better times.