Rallye Monte Carlo 2015

[denkimi]

did i mention luck anywhere in my sentence ? are you one of the special kids of this forum as well ?

so you're saying loeb controls the weather then?

[satukata]

Live picture 4km from SS1 finish: heavy snowfall. Elevation= ca 700m
http://webcam.annot.com/

now its snowing heavily! I hope some snow!

any other info about road conditions?

[N.O.T]

so you're saying loeb controls the weather then?

i am saying you should either wake up or change sport...

[tommeke_B]

That's what over use of the dodge/burn tool in Photoshop can do...

Better don't watch Lavadinho's photos too much... His editing is horrible..

[Mintexmemory]

I hope Loeb and Meeke can fight with VW boys tomorrow too..

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!!

[dimviii]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-ihXaY8heM

[Negaiss]

now its snowing heavily! I hope some snow!

any other info about road conditions?

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.

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.

[dimviii]

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

[Mirek]

monte was almost never about driving... was about conditions and choices...

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.

[dimviii]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3osPiwKXy1M