I hope Loeb and Meeke can fight with VW boys tomorrow too..
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I hope Loeb and Meeke can fight with VW boys tomorrow too..
yes,just a little tease to Ogier fans mate from a retired champion.Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
The real party starts tomorrow.
Nice to see Craig Breen clearly fastest of the WRC-2 runners... :)
18 Breen 208 T16 2’39’7
19 Koci Fiesta R5 2’43’3
20 Lefebvre DS3 R5 2’44’2
rallies are not about spectacular,its about time.Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanvv
I prefer both, but you can't find that in a hairpin. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by dimviii
:D Sordo: "Loeb began and after it was dirty. He is an intelligent man. "
yeah, thats what i also said. And i have nothing against Loeb, im rooting for him.Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanvv
Another Shakedown for everyone at 20.00 CET ?
No one is blaming You. Me neither, neither I'm rooting for Ogier, just having fun.Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
but if tomorrow the conditions are the same as today on shakedown then Loeb has a huge disadvantage because of his starting pos.
like the new colors
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B75O_d1IUAAvCyb.jpg
We'll see, may be some snow is expected for tomorrow stages, if so then Ogier will be in the disadvantage. But that is Rally after all:)Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
monte was almost never about driving... was about conditions and choices...
Looks more like Wales Rally GB in the shakedown today...
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8563/...910f3390_b.jpg
so loeb was just lucky 7 times?Quote:
Originally Posted by N.O.T
every rally is about driving, especially monte.
did i mention luck anywhere in my sentence ? are you one of the special kids of this forum as well ?
That's what over use of the dodge/burn tool in Photoshop can do...Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
Where can we find SD times from the rest of the field?
so you're saying loeb controls the weather then?Quote:
Originally Posted by N.O.T
now its snowing heavily! I hope some snow!Quote:
Originally Posted by bluuford
any other info about road conditions?
i am saying you should either wake up or change sport...Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
Better don't watch Lavadinho's photos too much... His editing is horrible..Quote:
Originally Posted by Fly_Half
So for the sake of argument at the start of the final stage Loeb is 1st and Meeke 2nd - Loeb wins I assume and Matton will just have to hope Meeke keeps that form for the rest of the year. Nothing like winning to give that boost to the confidence though!!Quote:
Originally Posted by satukata
Yes! Heavy snow in high places and rain at low places right now - current radar http://www.vigilance-meteo.fr/de/eur...ap/290/?#radar.Quote:
Originally Posted by satukata
But snowing will stop in few hours (at night). There will be lots of snow in the region of stages 1 and 2, but most of it can melt tomorrow during the daytime.
Colder air starts to come in tomorrow evening so there is a chance, that wet roads turn icy during first two stages.
A year has passed already since we were last in Gap, shaking hands and wishing each other a Happy New Year after the winter break.
Little has changed since 2014 and, once again, there has been a healthy flow of spectators in the service park. And you can bet that where the crowds formed, there was a ‘Seb’ – or a ‘Seb-car’ – nearby!
It’s effectively been some time since we last saw so many people in front of the Citroën area. Unsurprisingly, they tended to gather at one end, near the DS3 WRC with the letters L-O-E-B on the side windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of the seven-time Monte winner (2003/04/05/07/08/12/13). Each time he did appear, the familiar chant of “Seb, Seb!” broke out spontaneously.
There have been similar gatherings at Volkswagen Motorsport’s ‘garage’, in this case waiting to catch sight of Sébastien Ogier. The VW driver may not enjoy the same household reputation as his Alsace-bred rival, but here he is on home soil, since he was raised in the mountains north of Gap. That said, some of the local onlookers could be heard whispering “Is that him?” as they pointed to his co-driver Julien Ingrassia, or to team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala…
Eight years younger than Loeb, Ogier has won the Monte twice (2009/14) and is looking to take a step closer to his former team-mate’s record this week, but rally fans are hoping that their media-fuelled rivalry will produce a memorable battle to celebrate Loeb’s fleeting return from ‘retirement’.
The latter ended his formal WRC career with a roll on the 2013 Rallye de France. Funnily enough, he began his comeback event with another roll, this time on a road section during this morning’s recce! It appears he was distracted and slipped off the road negotiating a hairpin…
This afternoon’s shakedown was always going to provide an interesting indication of the pair’s current respective form and Loeb promptly posted the session’s best effort (2m21.0s). That was more than a second clear of Ogier over the snow-free 3.52km run!
Clearly, the Citroën driver hasn’t lost his touch and it seems we are effectively heading for the clash of giants everybody has been hoping for.
That said, the two Frenchmen will spend much of the rally running up to 14 cars apart on the road (with Ogier at the front of the field) and there is a chance that this difference will affect their stage times and tactics. But in whose favour? That remains to be seen and, to a large extent, will depend on how the week’s weather turns…
We shall see!
http://en.best-of-rallylive.com/News...ical-advantage
Even then it was a lot about driving. I will give You one example. In 2012 I was standing at the uphill section towards Col de Gaudissart. The road was covered by ten centimeters thick solid ice. It was raining and a the ruts were full of water. Loeb looked nearly slowest of all the competitive field driving slowly precisely in thew ruts but he won the stage. For example Solberg was all over the place but ended in a snow barrier one hundred meters from us. This was probably the most weird rally experience for me when the slowest looking were fastest and the fast looking were slow.Quote:
Originally Posted by N.O.T
Meeke answers fans questions
http://www.krismeeke.com/news/2015-0...monte-prebrief
i d like to see that from more drivers!
no... simple as that... judging the condition of a whole stage from a single corner just won't do... nope... no. I am talking about driving skill not surviving...Quote:
Originally Posted by Mirek
Sebastien Loeb made a sensational return to the World Rally Championship with the fastest time in this afternoon's Monte Carlo Rally shakedown stage.
And his time - four tenths of a second quicker than Citroen team-mate Kris Meeke - was even more impressive considering he had rolled his recce car on the way to a stage this morning.
Loeb set the benchmark time through the 2.13-mile shakedown stage on his first run. He attempted the test four more times, but the road condition was deteriorating all the time.
Loeb said: "The first run was perfect. After that, the road was a big mess with mud everywhere. I couldn't drive as I would drive if it was clean, so I didn't [push]."
When the competition proper starts tomorrow, Loeb will be running in 14th place because he scored no points in last year's championship.
"With the new regulations, we will stay there as well," said Loeb. "Depending on the conditions, maybe it's good [to be 14th] or maybe we have no chance.
"We will see where we are. I can only try my best."
The Frenchman's recce shunt happened when he came over a crest and missed a corner.
A spokesman from the team said: "It wasn't a problem. Sebastien didn't miss any of the recce or anything like that, he was able to change the car and continue straight away."
Meeke was happy with his time, the Dungannon man's final run coming on studded tyres as he sought to find the feeling with the wrong tyres - a scenario which is certain to come the way of the crews with heavy snow forecast overnight.
Defending champion Sebastien Ogier was third fastest, 1.1 seconds off Loeb, with his Volkswagen team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen a tenth of a second down in fourth place.
Robert Kubica was fifth fastest on his debut with his new RK World Rally Team, with fellow Ford Fiesta RS WRC driver Elfyn Evans 0.1s behind him in sixth place.
The crews will depart Gap tomorrow morning to make the official photograph in Monaco before attending a start of the season party and the ceremonial start tomorrow afternoon.
The first stage - a 13-miler from Entrevaux-Rouaine - gets underway at 20:21 local time.
SS9 this morning... hope there's more like this...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B75r6J_CAAAi7C8.jpg:large
They don't even put the rear bumper on even during shakedown??
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...90d9c08d3bb4ec
Another video from WRCantabria:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb4f5ZL8qJI