58th Rally Sweden 2010
Mikko Hirvonen dominated Rally Sweden, first round of the 2010 World Rally Championship, not only winning the event outright but following his victory at Monte Carlo leading the WRC and IRC series as well. Hirvonen had a close battle with reigning World Champion Sebastien Loeb before making a superior tactical decision on the second afternoon which left Loeb struggling behind in second place. With Hirvonen's teammate Jari-Matti Latvala finishing third, BP-Ford took the lead in the Manufacturers' title. Fords were also prominent in the battle for success in the new Super 2000 categories. This was won by Per-Gunnar Andersson's Skoda Fabia S2000, but the FIA's WRC Cup for Teams in this category is now led by Janne Tuohino's team Janpro. Private two-wheel drive Fiestas also won two other classes as well.
The Swedish Rally returned to the World series after its year's rotational gap, and snow and ice provided classic winter rally conditions. The search for guaranteed wintry conditions means this event is quite the longest rally in the current World series in terms of total distance, with crews facing early mornings and late evenings. With the impending end of the current World Rally Car formula there was little mechanical interest at the top of the field, the technical attention was instead on the Super 2000 cars behind, cars which will form the basis of the next generation World Rally Cars. Almost overnight the performance of these cars has outstripped those of the orthodox Group N cars with which they had in the past been formally matched, and various new categories have been introduced for them this year. While the previously dominant Peugeot 207 car waits for technical revisions later this year, the battle for S2000 supremacy is currently closely matched between the newer Ford and Skoda cars, in which former World championship driver Per-Gunnar Andersson was unbeatable. He had decided to abandon plans to drive a Mitsubishi Group N and instead rented a Skoda for this event, despite never having rallied a S2000 previously. And in some unusual circumstances at the end of the second day, Martin Prokop's Fiesta S2000 made a fastest stage time overall!
Times have changed in some ways. One day before the start of the event the FIA announced a change in the championship points system in rallying, covering the top ten rather than the top eight finishers in each category. In terms of general competition emphasis there was little change, and in most categories there were fewer than ten crews starting the event, anyway. In other ways it was once again Citroen versus Ford, their drivers the same as before, with Petter Solberg promising to be a thorn in the side - if things went right for the Norwegian, which they didn't this time. Like last year there were to be five teams registered for the WRC, the Citroen Juniors, Ford's Stobart and Munchi's team. The excitement of the season was that former F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen was to do almost the whole season, and on this occasion the retired twice rally World Champion Marcus Gronholm was to make a return to the sport. Gronholm had always said that the Swedish Rally was his favourite event, and most of all one particular stage called Sagen, where the road had a different style and where there is always snow on the rally. His rally hopes were to be dashed by electrical troubles, but the two times the rally went to Sagen, he made second and then fastest scratch time, so he went home happy. For Raikkonen, rallying excellence does not come easily. This was his first ever event in a World Rally Car and only his second WRC appearance, in which a half-hour excursion off the road was a disappointment. On one special stage however he made a sixth fastest stage time. That stage, however, was the story of the event for other reasons.
The fight between Hirvonen and Loeb was classic. For half the event the gap between them was never more than 8.4 seconds, in a sport where the slightest twist can have great consequences. The stages on Day 2 were formed of two loops of four stages. In the morning the stages were in good wintry conditions, in the afternoon after sixty-odd national championship cars had destroyed the surface and created damaging ruts in the icy gravel, the name of the game was to preserve the effectiveness of the studs in conditions when it mattered most. Rally cars are allowed to carry two spare tyres, and at critical moments between stages the crews can swap tyres round and put the unused spare tyres on to the front wheels. The big question was at what point in time in the loop they should do this. Stages varied substantially in length. Hirvonen swapped tyres after the first stage of the loop, suffering very badly on the shortest stage, the last of the loop. Loeb changed tyres after the second, after losing a lot of time on the second stage. This manoeuvre gained Hirvonen the winning margin. From a lead of 4.2 seconds after stage 12 (midday Day 2), he led by 28.8 after stage 15, falling back to 16.6 after the final stage of the day. It was a brilliant strategy.
There were interesting and often confusing battles down the field, mainly amongst the Super 2000 cars. Competitors could enter in many different guises. Drivers could register themselves for the Super 2000 WRC, their teams could enter for the WRC Cup, they might choose to enter neither and seek success in the Group N category and they could swop entries from one category right up to the starting time of the event. And Andersson played another card, he chose the "Guest Driver" option, meaning he was eligible to score SWRC points on this event without having to contest the whole full series. He had already originally made his entry with a private Group N Mitsubishi before changing his plans, renting a Skoda Fabia S2000 instead. Second best S2000 driver was Andreas Mikkelsen who entered neither championship. Third best S2000 driver was Janne Tuohino who drove a measured event confident in the knowledge that he was in line for maximum WRC Team Cup points. After one year of competition, much was expected from the Fabia of Andersson (despite this being his first S2000 rally), Patrik Sandell and Eyvind Brynildsen, but the brand new Ford Fiestas were an unknown quantity, even though Hirvonen had driven one to victory at the Monte Carlo IRC event. The Fiestas did not disappoint. They had some problems, notably all four cars smashed their tailgate windows and they had windscreen misting problems.
Orthodox Group N were completely outclassed by the S2000 cars, notwithstanding the new rule allowing 33mm rather than 32mm turbo restrictors. This year the Production Car WRC is limited to the Mitsubishi and Subaru cars without challenge from the S2000s. Patrik Flodin in his Impreza was the top PCWRC driver but was unable to challenge the six Super 2000 cars, which still counted as equivalent cars in Group N, in front of him. Fellow Subaru driver Anders Grondal took second place in front of reigning World Champion Armindo Araujo, who was struggling with handling troubles on his Mitsubishi Evo X, while Martin Semerad finished fourth in his Evo IX.
Loeb was clear in his mind. "We made a tactical mistake. We changed our tyres not at the best moment, and after that I could not catch up, so we settled for second place"... And that was the headline story of Sweden 2010.
Martin Holmes 14th February 2010
6th Rally Guanajuato Bicentenario / Rally Mexico 2010
Citroen gained revenge for their Swedish defeat in fine style when their cars took the top three places in Mexico and Sebastien Loeb finished three places in front of his championship rival Mikko Hirvonen, their fourth successive win on this round of the World Championship. Ford's plans fell apart on the first day when the conditions were far more slippery than they expected, and this demoralised the team from that moment onwards. Loeb gradually moved ahead and into the distance, but the battle for second place between Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier and the privateer Citroen of Petter Solberg will remain in the mind for a long time. Petter eventually won the battle by 1.1 second. It has been four years since Ford has failed to win even one stage on a gravel world championship rally. Things were that desperate! Ford had one consolation, their S2000s finished 1-2-3 in the SWRC category, the only such cars to complete the full route, leaving disconsolate Fabia drivers Nasser Al Attiyah retiring as a result of a service error and Eyvind Brynildsen losing a lot of time off the road on Day 1. Armindo Araujo won the PCWRC category, leading Toshi Arai who lost time on Day 2 when he damaged a wheel and had to stop on a stage to change this. In the championship tables BP Ford retained their lead in the Makes' championship, though this has been narrowed by Total Citroen to six points. All the other series had changes, with Sebastien Loeb taking the lead from Mikko Hirvonen in the Drivers' series, Martin Prokop and his Czech Ford National Team now ahead in their respective SWRC and WRC Cup series while Armindo Araujo heads PCWRC.
Shakedown told the story before the event ever began. Citroen C4 cars took the top five times, and from then onward Ford were mystified as to why they were off the pace. The only misfortune for the Citroen Total team was that Dani Sordo damaged his car on Day 2 when lying fourth and missed many stages. After Kimi Raikkonen crashed on Day 1 he was refused the chance to continue. There was little different about the rally, the highest altitude stages in the championship, the continually unexpected and severe impacts to the cars. The only unusual feature about the weather was that there had been rains in the region and competitors got the feeling that conditions would not be so dry as usual. Then 48 hours before the start the sun dried out the roads to their traditional parched condition and the nightmare for Ford began.
It was two years since the WRC had been to Mexico, an occasion when Jari-Matti Latvala had led through the first day before a turbo pipe failure dropped him back, and Fords came to this year's event cautiously optimistic. This is an event where pre-rally testing is banned. Engine tuners can simulate the effect of the high altitudes but not the set-up specifications required to counter the changes in handling created by power outputs being some 25-30% less than usual. It was of course the final time that present day World Rally Cars will be in Mexico, so Ford left for home knowing they had only once ever won this event. It is an event where the unusual happens. In the later days for Subaru it was an event where they traditionally did well but nowhere else, much of this considered the result of changing handling characteristics because of power reductions. Petter Solberg had won here in 2005 and nearly won it a second time. He loves the event, as we could see from his smiles when he was ordered to run eighth car throughout the stages on the first day. He could well imagine the agony of the drivers ahead, like Hirvonen and Loeb, as he proceeded to win the first three stages and held the lead throughout the first day! Hirvonen was really unsettled but Loeb conquered his emotions better and came back to base in third position at the end of the first day, restarting behind Petter and Sebastien Ogier. From that moment onwards Loeb could not lose and was fastest on eight of the nine stages held on Day 2. What was for losing, however, was second place. All through the second day the gap between Petter and Ogier was seldom more than five seconds, with the Norwegian ahead. On the first stage of the final day the Frenchman went ahead, just, but on the final stage - a rallycross-style course - the drivers were paired to run against each other. The 2003 World Champion joked, "This was no different from my driving an A-final in a rallycross race in the old days. I wonder what Ogier is thinking." This memory did Solberg proud, he finished the race 1.2 seconds ahead, safely in second place.
This event was small, only two world championship rallies had started with smaller fields (the invitation-only Monte Carlo in 1997 with 23 and USA in 1988 with 29) but thanks to the SupeRally rule 25 cars were classified at the end. The proposed route was familiar apart from the use of a downtown street stage (trialed in 2009 when the event was called Rally of Nations) which was within walking distance of the Leon's Poliforum exhibition centre and location for the headquarters of the rally. The other new stage was planned as a television superspecial, but unfortunately the authorities regraded the road before the event (removing all the sharp corners as they went) so the stage was not run. Rally Mexico continued to be the shortest event in the world championship - less than half the total distance of the Swedish.
World Rally Car drivers had mixed fortunes, on Day 1 Kimi Raikkonen had an electrical lead to the fuel pump fail in the morning, then in the afternoon he crashed heavily and the team knew the car could not be allowed to carry on. Dani Sordo was lying the fourth out of four remaining Citroens, ahead of all the Fords at the end of the first day, when he damaged the car and missed the rest of Day 2. Matthew Wilson and Ken Block between them missed most of the Day 2 stages because of mistakes, eight of the nine entered championship drivers were classified.
In the Super 2000 category Michal Kosciuszko led through the first morning before stopping with a broken alternator belt. This let Xevi Pons, who was soon engaged in a battle with Martin Prokop, into the lead. Prokop went cautiously after damaging the engine block and did not resist the challenge from Pons and settled for second. Kosciuszko restarted on Day 2 only to stop again, this time with a broken propshaft bearing. He was eventually classified a finisher. Nasser Al Attiyah was gradually learning the car and was settled in to third place when a heavy landing broke the inlet manifold. What should have been a routine component change went wrong and he was too late to continue. Eyvind Brynildsen went off the road and damaged the car when he had a pacenote confusion. He restarted on Day 2 but only just managed to reach the service park with fuel problems. The hero of the rally had to be the handicapped driver Albert Llovera who used hand controls on his Fiat. Llovera said he had never faced a rally anything like as tough as this one in his life, his hands almost raw at the finish.
Reigning World Production Car Champion Armindo Araujo won this category with ease after his nearest rival, Toshi Arai, had to stop and change a wheel in a stage. The third orthodox Group N car was the non-championship driver Nicolas Fuchs from Peru, who finished ahead of the young Argentine driver Miguel-Angel Baldoni. This was expected to be Araujo's final appearance with an Evo IX, the same car which brought him the championship title in 2009, before concentrating on the Evo X in future.
Martin Holmes 7th March 2010
2nd Jordan Rally 2010
There were plenty of games at the Jordan Rally. As the championship competitors strived to get the best advantage for the treacherously slippery gravel tracks which did their best to upset their plans. It was tactic territory, where Citroen and Ford tried everything to disadvantage their rivals, taking advantage of the sport’s confusing but very specific rules.
BP Ford’s hopes were severely upset when their lead driver Mikko Hirvonen damaged his suspension on a rock on the first stage of the second day. He restarted for the final day but his misfortune left his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala the burden of staving off no fewer than five pursuing Citroen drivers. In the end Latvala vanquished all the Citroens except the one which really mattered, that of the multiple champion Sebastien Loeb. It was a rally where teams incurred sacrificial levels of penalties on their drivers in the furtherance of their aims of finding better running conditions. In Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier’s case a penalty of nearly nine minutes, in Hirvonen’s case no less than a quarter hour.
Sporting fun or stupid games? Opinions varied widely, but the current levels of driver skills and mechanical reliability mean that tactics are now central to the sport, and never more so that in Jordan. Latvala explains: "Running first car on the road can be expected to create a disadvantage of half a second a kilometre. The big difference is not so much the adhesion round corners, it is confidence you have when you must brake, where you are be able to trust the grip.” Latvala started happily. Pre-event championship positions meant he ran third car on the road, not a perfect slot but much better than Loeb and Hirvonen who were in front of him. On Day 1 Latvala pulled out a half-minute lead before the running order forced him to set off in front on Day 2. It took all of four stages before Loeb had caught up with him, and then the fun began. Loeb had a 24 second lead going in to the final day. Victory was at risk if he had to run first car, and this was when the teams performed their strategic manoeuvres. One team eyed the other, one plot was countered by another, and with unprecedented levels of sacrifice the stage was set in Loeb’s favour
It is the uniqueness of the event which really intrigues the sport. Team organisers were revved up by disclosures that the sport’s Global Promoters wanted to drop the event from the series in favour of unproved rally in Abu Dhabi. Codrivers, however, find the constantly undulating, hard-based, gravel topped roads where blind crests abound one of the greatest challenges of the season. Mechanically, it is one of the least demanding venues. All ten World Rally Cars reached the finish, including a popular third place for the private Citroen run by Petter Solberg, and a delight was Kimi Raikkonen finishing eighth, only the second driver to score world championship points in both F1 and the WRC. Hirvonen’s misfortune has cost Ford dear. The Citroen Total team have now pulled into the lead of the championship with 101 points against the 87 for the BP Ford team, while after just three rounds Sebastien Loeb now holds a 25 point lead in front of Jari-Matti Latvala - exactly one event’s maximum point difference, in the Drivers series. Turkey comes next, in two week’s time, an event being held on roads never seen by any of the world championship drivers before. Turkey is essentially another gravel event but there will be a lot of stretches of asphalt which drivers will have to tackle on gravel tyres. As for Latvala, celebrating his 25th birthday on the day of the finish in Jordan, second place as a number two driver didn’t come too bad. "Last year I did not have such a happy birthday. That was the day my car went rolling down the hillside in Portugal.”
25 year old Patrik Flodin scored his fifth victory out of five events, in four different countries, when he won the Production Car category in Jordan Rally, but it was with a little bit of luck. On the second day he had a puncture 500 metres from the end of a stage, then later he noticed he had a deflating tyre on a road section just in time to change the wheel before the next control. Then as he built up a safe margin over his challengers he then had a broken chassis cross member on his Subaru and had time to nurse his car to the finish. Flodin’s closest challenger was reigning PCWRC champion Armindo Araujo who struggled with his Mitsubishi Evo X but eventually cruised to a safe second place. An encouraging third place went to Nick Georgiou, who this year has been selected as one of the five Pirelli Star Drivers. In Jordan, Georgiou was running independently, taking time to acclimatise himself with the Evo X model before the official PSD events start in two weeks’ time in Turkey.
In the SWRC, for the second event running, the Spanish driver Xevi Pons won the category with his Ford Fiesta S2000 but only after Skoda drivers Per-Gunnar Andersson and Nasser Al Attiyah, and fellow Ford drivers Michal Kosciuszko and Bernardo Sousa took turns in leading. On the first day Jari Ketomaa had a bolt jam the flywheel and his Fiesta had to be pushed over the start line, Andersson damaged his suspension and Al Attiyah went off and damaged the radiator, Janne Tuohino went off the road and Patrik Sandell had a broken steering link, Kosciuszko missed a stage with alternator belt failure and then Eyvind Brynildsen had alternator trouble. Only Pons and Sousa were still going. On Day 2 Ketomaa made one stage before he stopped with alternator belt failure, Sandell stopped again, this time when he hit a rock and badly damaged the gearbox and Tuohino had a seizing propshaft. Nasser Al Attiyah had lost a lot of time with throttle linkage trouble and then Sousa damaged his car on the final stage of the day. As he struggled back to service the car ran out of fuel and he was seen being pushed by another car. Exclusion resulted. Kosciuszko was now second, despite missing a stage! On the final morning Kosciuszko went off the road, rolling heavily. He was concussed and taken to hospital for checks. Then just when it seemed all was going quiet, Tuohino retired again once again with alternator belt trouble - and we heard that the Ford Fiesta of Khalid Al Qassimi, leading the MERC category also retired after alternator belt troubles. Of the nine S2000 cars which started in the category six were classified as finishers but only category winner Pons completed the whole route. Brynildsen struggled through to the finish second with transmission troubles, stuck nearly all the time in front-wheel drive ahead of Andersson, Al Attiyah, Sandell and Ketomaa.
Held over the second and third days of the world championship event was the subsidiary event for the Middle East Championship which was won by Yazeed Al Rahji in a Peugeot 207 S2000. Drivers were allowed also to contest Day 1 as well of the main WRC event, and generally the two events worked well side-by-side. There were result difficulties at the end of the rally, and eventually Misfer Al Marri was declared to have finished second in a Prodrive Subaru ahead of Nasser Al Attiyah in his Skoda Fabia S2000. Al Qassimi had lead for over half the event, challenged at the beginning by Al Attiyah before he had throttle trouble .
Martin Holmes 3rd April 2010