Monte Carlo 2011

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Originally Posted by ridder

Hanninen lost the rally by following Solbergs tyre choice when Solberg said he'll risk on the tires.
Loix probably lost the rally due to the puncture in last stage yesterday.
Solberg drove better and better up to 6th stage and managed to scare Hanninen. Today he was struggling and now technical problems on top of it. Listening to Quesnel he did what he was asked to do, ensured a win for Peugeot.

So a Peugeot wins the rally. But I don't think their performance is going to convince people to buy the 207. It seemed to lack the speed during the first day and compared to zero technical issues for the 4 Skodas, it had quite a few. Broken gearbox for Sarrazin, issues with throttle for Gardemeister and Solberg and now to top it off the exactly same problem that made Ogier retire last year.

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+1

QUOTE=RS;880611]In other words he "did a Mikko"[/QUOTE]

You could also say he "did a Sebastien"

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Originally Posted by RS

I tend to agree the Skoda is better over the year, but don't get too confused because Petter didn't win a stage - Sarrazin, Bouffier, Delecour and Basso all did so the 207 is still pretty good on this type of road!

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All locals with same ss in French championship.Just wait for the next tarmac rally outside France.

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Originally Posted by FabiaFan

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Originally Posted by RS

In other words he "did a Mikko"

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You could also say he "did a Sebastien"

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His performance was more convincing than that of Ogier from 2009...

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Originally Posted by KKS

Oliver, you disappointed in Sarrazin? 3rd is so bad now to Peugeot? http://www.motorsportforums.com/foru...ons/icon13.gif

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I think he meant he felt disappointed for Sarrazin - as in he thinks Stephane deserved 2nd but was sorry for his car problems in SS11.

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Originally Posted by dimviii

All locals with same ss in French championship.Just wait for the next tarmac rally outside France.

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207 can be fast on Canarias depending on who is driving it.

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Originally Posted by KKS

Congratz to Bouffier, Loix and Sarrazin. Great Monte Rally!

Oliver, you disappointed in Sarrazin? 3rd is so bad now to Peugeot? http://www.motorsportforums.com/foru...ons/icon13.gif

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Oliver is getting more and more anoying every time speaks.

Well done to Bryan Bouffier on winning the centenary edition of the Monte, also well done to Freddy, Stephane on their podiums. Also a great drive from Delecour!!
In fact - well done to all who finished!!

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Originally Posted by dimviii

All locals with same ss in French championship.Just wait for the next tarmac rally outside France.

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Yes, wait for Barum, wait for Skodas 1-2-3-4-5....

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Originally Posted by dimviii

Oliver is getting more and more anoying every time speaks.

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He's hard to like isn't he? :D

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Originally Posted by RS

He's hard to like isn't he? :D

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Pretty hard!! lol

Congrats to Bouffier for winning ,and also congrats to Sarrazin for his speed.He was always very fast but not lucky.Also Loix was very fast and did a good rally.Like Basso speed tonight,and i d like to see him in more irc rounds.
Not good rally for Wilks,never fast as last year just steady.Also big dissapoitment Garde.Well done for Delecour.For his age and so much time out rallies is a very good result.Petter......was waiting more from a wrc championship contenter.Didn t like his talking after tonight stages.Think that he couldn t understant that he was so slower from a second class competitors.

ps.Henning was the lucky of the family after his retiment at 1st stage. lol

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

In fact - well done to all who finished!!

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Yeah, not too many did. About 50% retired, that's what I call a rally.

Happy for Bouffier, but hope Sarrazin is luckier next year!

Petter Solberg didn't manage to reach the Service Park. He had an alternator problem...

I have heard that Solberg has retired on the road section with alternator problems. Might be incorrect, but thats what I was just told.

edit: definately retired.

Sarrazin has taken 30sec penalty so Wilks has become 3rd. The team has confirmed this in media report... Official RMC not yet...

Gutting for Stephane - feel so sorry for him...he still only lost his podium by 2.2s and kept 4th from Delecour by 0.5s!

It's not that bad. It's good for Wilks because he is actually doing the whole season! As the team said Sarrazin is only doing this one round and it's better to help one who is doing the season. Sorry but this is good point and valid. :) wish Delecour won!!

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Originally Posted by GigiGalliNo1

It's not that bad. It's good for Wilks because he is actually doing the whole season! As the team said Sarrazin is only doing this one round and it's better to help one who is doing the season. Sorry but this is good point and valid. :) wish Delecour won!!

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Oh I see. Thought it was accidental or a technical problem - if Stephane agreed to it then its noble of him after fighting his way up to 3rd, and then not to stand on the 100th anniversary podium. Makes sense giving the points to Wilks as he had a good rally too and deserves a good result.

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Originally Posted by '[Madeira-Rally

]Monte is almost over.. and no stage win for Solberg... this means something about IRC level....

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+1 :)

I am very happy for Bouffier and Peugeot! It is always nice to see a new winner, especially in legendary rally, and Pug had tough 2010 year. Now this is better!

Happy that I sleeped early and not decided to watch the last two SS. There happened again nothing (only Delecour that wasn't so fast as the IRC top, but that is normal with his age), just as in the first pass. Nice that I didn't must listen to Quesnel, even Corrado Provera had better and more realistic commentary than him.

The third year in a row that the Monte-Carlo isn't won by the fastest driver and the results are mostly made due to the tyre lottery. This is not my rally.

Monte is over !! For me still one of the best rallye in the world-with snow&ice or without! Interesting to read your comments, here is also mine: Bouffier-I'm very happy for him, as I see no other chance to win him in a IRC rally-he took the opportunity and won! That is MC!! Good for Peugeot also, it can happen that Peugeot performance will depend a lot in this year on ''wild cards'' drivers (example Andreucci, Magalhaes). Loix always on a charge, never underestimate him, he had a chance to win. When Wilks will be 100% confident with 207, he will be a serious threat to works Fabias. Sarrazin is fast yust in this rally, nowhere alse he can fight for a top position (I still can not forget his ''epic'' fight with Kubica on Du Var...), so for me he is still yust an average driver. Delecour-as a predict, he is still on a mission, I felt so sorry for him when he mentioned weak performance of his 207 on the uphill stages, he was on of the fastest driving downhill and that shows driver's performance....
Peter Solberg-a bit disappointment as he showed nothing special, but I did not expect win from him as he was never excelent in MC. Bad luck a the end, sorry....
About Basso-he drove completely new car, already with last evo engine!! I hope our R.Turk will get his hands on this car for our championship......
Campana-first in 2WD class-congratulations from my side, too!!

Quesnel was trying to convince us that IRC should be just about private teams. When Sarrazin take a time penalty before the final control to promote Wilks to third, is just proof of this... right Quesnel :rolleyes:

All in the top 10, exzcept for about 2 or 2, can boast a stage win. Sarrazin won 4, Hanninen won 3, Bouffier won 2, and Loix, Delecour, Voullioz and Basso all won one each. I don't care really about a lot of what Ucci said above about the drivers he mentions. I am just glad the IRC has so many drivers who can get stage wins. I like to look at the finished picture.

But one point I don't know if I can agree with. The point about Peugeot rellying on 'wild card' entries. I think I see enough on paper about Delecour to see him as someone who I think will be close to the leader at the end. And Bouffier is heralded as someone who is a name with ability. Though he is still a new name to me.

Roll on the next event!!

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Originally Posted by Dejan

Quesnel was trying to convince us that IRC should be just about private teams. When Sarrazin take a time penalty before the final control to promote Wilks to third, is just proof of this... right Quesnel :rolleyes:

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Aye. Time penalties. What are they about? Laurent Nicolas in a Group N Mitsubishi Evo X has two time penalties.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...1/_MG_9832.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...1/_MG_2184.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...1/_MG_2172.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...1/_MG_2130.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...1/_MG_2120.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...1/_MG_2034.jpg

What an exciting first event of the season...congrats to Bouffier anyway, he did a great job ! :up:

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Originally Posted by Dejan

Quesnel was trying to convince us that IRC should be just about private teams. When Sarrazin take a time penalty before the final control to promote Wilks to third, is just proof of this... right Quesnel :rolleyes:

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It ok as long as you win, but when you do'nt ........
What i do not like is that he is bringing the WRC manufacturer thinking into IRC.
Even if Skoda Motorsport is a real manufacturer team they do not pull those stunts, but let the fastest Skoda car win, or am I mistaken?

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Originally Posted by pino

What an exciting first event of the season...congrats to Bouffier anyway, he did a great job ! :up:

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;) Yes IRC and the Monte have proved that the FIA are totally wrong with WRC! Why haven't they driven at least 2 years in WRC with normal S2000 cars? Then we had see a normal championship with many candidates who can become champion in WRC! :o

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Originally Posted by Brother John

;) Yes IRC and the Monte have proved that the FIA are totally wrong with WRC! Why haven't they driven at least 2 years in WRC with normal S2000 cars? Then we had see a normal championship with many candidates who can become champion in WRC! :o

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Hua !

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Originally Posted by Brother John

;) Yes IRC and the Monte have proved that the FIA are totally wrong with WRC! Why haven't they driven at least 2 years in WRC with normal S2000 cars? Then we had see a normal championship with many candidates who can become champion in WRC! :o

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The phrase "it's not what you've got that counts. It is what you do with it" has never been more apt for me. Yes, they (WRC) have a very good talented driver in Loeb...but aside from a good Sebastian Ogier and Dani Sordo...that is..well...it.

I don't think the WRC is really able to be as good as I saw the IRC be over the last two-three days.

There is only ONE iconic event left in rallying - Monte-Carlo - and it's in the IRC and live on Eurosport!!

Being in the IRC enable the organisers to run the event to how they want it - IRC/Eurosport let them do what they want. Could that happen in the WRC??

...and Bouffier is very symhatic!

Few thoughts:
Why there were so many retirements in the first two (not too difficult) SSs and no retirement (almost) for the rest of the rally?!?
How can such a professional team like Skoda be so mistaken?!?
Does Quesnel believe those small points will really help Wilks? Was the shame worth it?
Why there was such a difference in Baso´s performance day 1/day 3?
Why was the performance of Gardemeister so poor for the whole rally?
Why was the performance of Wallenwein sooo poooor? What can we expect then from Gassner jr. in the SWRC :-(((
Can we conclude that Hanninen is already better than (or at least even with) P.Solberg? Wouldn´t it be "funny" if Hanninen wins SWRC and Gassner will finish last?
Solberg - did he retire because of the alternator or not to spoil his "biography", his statistics?? Why was he so "empty"??
What would be the outcome of this rally if H.Solberg and Mikkelsen finished?
Will Mikkelsen win the IRC?

After MC.. :)

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Originally Posted by FabiaFan

...and Bouffier is very symhatic!

Can we conclude that Hanninen is already better than (or at least even with) P.Solberg? Wouldn´t it be "funny" if Hanninen wins SWRC and Gassner will finish last?

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It's hard to compare Juho and Solberg on this rally , since Juho is into his 3rd season with the Fabia and Solberg drove S2000 for the first time . However , I expected more from Solberg , compared to Ogier last year his performance was poor . Though it's always nice to see him . Also , don't undestimate Gassner jr. , he won't be as fast as Juho but he definately won't be last , trust me .

I'm dissapointed that Hanninen didn't won , he was the fastest by far until SS7/8 , but that's Monte :) Really pleased for Bouffier , he can be a strong contender , he is the deserving winner in my opinion , a very consistent drive :) Sarrazin blindingly fast but not consistent . Fast Freddy gained a great 2nd place , looks great for the championship . Also a very good consistent drive for Wilks , especially compared to the poor 2010 Monte for him . Delecour was the star , but realistically he was FAR of the pace , he should stop now that he scored a good result and concentrate on beating gentlemans on the TRA while giving spectacular passages to people like myself :) Love the way the Eurosport comentators do impresionations of Loix , Delecour , .... Really great company to have while watching , they are very professional and they know what they are talking about , really makes WRC MotorsTV ashamed .

Was a special Monte , looking forward to 2012 ;)


BTW , not trying to start an IRC vs. WRC debate again , but the World championship really sucks doesn't it ?

I think we must give more credit to Delacour, because looking in to splits, he realy was one of the faster drivers downhill and all the time loss was during uphill sections. And besides that, when was the last rally he competed? + no previous experince in an s2k. Which was also Solbergs problem, those three days of testing were not enough, if you have comepeted in a turbo rally car with totaly different engine characteristics for the last n years.
As for WRC vs IRC, last year Monte was also special and then the series faded away (with the exeption of Barum and Ypres, maybe Sardinia). I hope to see some change this year in the WRC. And I think most of current IRC drivers would change to WRC without a shadow of a doubt (see Meeke and Haninen). Loix and some others beeing the exception.
Haninen is a personality I would love to see in the WRC, way cooler than Loeb & co. Somehow I think my wish may come true :)

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Originally Posted by urabus-denoS2000

BTW , not trying to start an IRC vs. WRC debate again , but the World championship really sucks doesn't it ?

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Well, not really. Depends how you look it. I like to see quality rally and both IRC and WRC offer that in my opinion. In different ways.

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Originally Posted by piquet20

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7..._MG_1815-1.jpg

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Great photo!! :D :D :D

My "man of the rally": François Delecour :cool:

Brilliant action from Michaël Burri(first Monte-Carlo, first time in the DS3)and Adrien Tambay(only 3rd rally ever me thinks, comes from circuit racing) :up: