Rally Turkey was a rally like no other I’ve competed on. An incredible test of endurance and determination.
The recce was a challenge in itself, we picked up two punctures on our recce car. The rough nature of the stages made writing difficult, and the dust made navigating tricky. However, we were rewarded with some of the most beautiful stages I have seen, this rally was held amongst truly stunning scenery.
The route of the rally was nicely compact, with short liaison sections and easy access to the stages.
The rally itself was a war of attrition, we had to go slowly in places to preserve the car and then speed up to maximum attack on the smoother sections. The trick was knowing where to go fast, and where to go slow; and that meant making really good pace notes.
The soaring heat and choking dust made life inside the rally car a challenge, it’s where our focus on fitness and preparation really helped. We had to change three punctures in the stages, another area we’ve practised hard to save precious seconds. The Fiesta R2T held up really well against the ruts and boulders on the stages, some of the rocks on the line were size of a beach ball! We damaged the rear suspension and had to complete one loop of stages with not much in the way of damping on the rear right, which led to some interesting handling characteristics. However, the M-Sport team were fantastic, and worked incredibly hard to keep each car running perfectly in the tough conditions.
The rally start was a great experience on the sea front in Marmaris, a huge amount of fans lined the streets and there was a huge party atmosphere (in fact there was a huge fan presence across the whole rally). The city centre stage that night was one of the best ones I have done, featuring open sections as well as tight hairpins.
Friday was probably the toughest and roughest leg, with stages to the north, Saturday saw (relatively) smoother stages to the east, and Sunday saw four shorted stages finishing right outside the service park. Friday and Saturday had a mixture of long, endurance-sapping stages of nearly 40km, and short high intensity tests, so strategy was key.
FIA World Rally Championship 2018 / Round 10 / Rally Turkey 2018 / September 13-16, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Well, what an amazing and epic event we were treated to! Here’s my full stage by stage report. After Thursday’s evening stage, Andreas held a small lead over the field, with Ott, Thierry and Seb in third, fourth and twelfth respectively. Seb was down there because of a small spin.
Friday
With six stages to run, including the double run of Çetibeli at 38km, which was the first stage of the day, there would be drama from the off. The start list looked like this – Neuville, Ogier, Tänak, Lappi, Mikkelsen, Latvala, Evans, Ostberg, Breen, Suninen, Paddon, Al Qassimi. Could Craig, who’d suffered badly on Friday’s in recent events have a better first day?
Well, what we saw was Craig take the stage victory from Hayden and Andreas in third. The best placed championship challenger was Thierry who was in sixth, with Seb and Ott eighth and ninth. Craig said, it was all he could do, just to keep the car in the middle of the road and just survive to the end. Elfyn Evans had some intercom problems, which held him back from pushing.
Craig Breen and Scott Martin took the early lead on Friday, before their usual curse came along. Photo credit, Citroen Racing
Now, into SS3 and this was the first surprise, as Thierry won the stage, despite being first on the road. Quite amazing, and this was enough to move the Belgian into fourth overall, with Hayden falling behind, down to sixth. Seb also moved up one place after setting the third fastest time impressively, only 2.6 seconds slower than Thierry in the stage. Craig remained in the overall lead though, from Andreas who was finding some good form.
This form continued into SS4 for the Norwegian, and he won the stage. Craig was cautious in this one, after he had a big impact near the start of the stage, meaning he thought there was a puncture, and this meant that we had a new leader, with Andreas moving to the top of the leaderboard. In fact, it was a good one for the Hyundai team, as Hayden also moved up to fifth, now ahead of Jari-Matti. Through all of this, Mads had held a very positive third overall throughout the morning.
The afternoon stages would really shake things up though. Craig’s Friday curse would return in SS5, getting a puncture 13km into the 38km stage. It got worse for the Citroen team, with Mads suffering a tyre delamination and Al Qassimi getting a mechanical failure as well! Through all of this came Seb, who won the stage from teammate Teemu and Latvala third. Andreas now held the lead from the Frenchman, who’d taken ten seconds out of Andreas’ lead.
Into SS6 then, and a few drivers would end up with broken cars. First up was Elfyn, who broke his differential after hitting a rock he couldn’t avoid. Then, Mads broke his suspension as well. Craig passed them both in the stage. Meantime Thierry won the stage, and with Seb almost nine seconds slower, the championship leader was now up to second overall, less than two seconds off the lead.
The final stage of the day, SS7 was won by Ott, from Esapekka and Seb, but the big news was that Andreas who’d held the lead throughout the afternoon lost eleven seconds and fell to third. Our overnight leader was Thierry who was just three tenths of a second ahead of Seb.
STANDINGS AFTER DAY 1
Neuville / Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) 1:52:28.2
Ogier / Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 0.3
Mikkelsen / Jaeger (Hyundai i20 WRC) + 2.6
Latvala / Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 16.3
Tänak / Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 31.9
Paddon / Marshall (Hyundai i20 WRC) +35.1
Lappi / Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 36.8
Breen / Martin (Citroën C3 WRC) + 50.1
Suninen / Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 1:02.9
Here’s the thoughts of the drivers – Top three first.
Thierry Neuville
“We are involved in a fantastic fight for the leading positions, which is a great way to start this new event. The conditions we have faced today have been really tough. We had a good clean run this morning, and didn’t expect to be so involved. The dusty conditions lessened our disadvantage from being first on the road so we could keep in touch. These roads have been a completely different challenge to any other we’ve faced this season, which keeps things fresh. We had to take things a bit more carefully this afternoon. We lost a lot of time in SS5 and had to take some risks in the subsequent stage as a result. We then lost several seconds in the final stage, needing to reverse after making a mistake. It was a reminder that this rally could be won or lost on the smallest of things. It is exciting, just how we like it!”
2017 FIA World Rally Championship Round 10, Rally Turkey 13-16 september 2018 Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC Photographer: Fabien Dufour Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Sébastien Ogier
“Today has been a bit of a surprise as the conditions were often better for us in the front which is pretty rare on gravel. I gave it everything I had and I’m pretty happy with my drive. We lost a lot of time in the dust this morning, which is the only frustrating part of the day, but there was not much more we could have done.
“I stayed in my rhythm for the long stage this afternoon and wasn’t pushing very hard – just trying to stay clean and not be too aggressive on the rocks. I had a lot of tyre wear after that and I finished the day without a lot of tread left!
“It’s still going to be a long rally, but we will try everything we can. Our best chance is to keep the consistency, so let’s see what we can do.”
Andreas Mikkelsen
“I am pleased to end the opening day inside the top-three, and to be involved in a close fight for the lead with Thierry and Séb. We’ve had a strong start, though not perfect, in very demanding conditions. After starting the weekend with a stage win on Thursday night, we made a clever tyre choice for the Friday morning loop, which really paid dividends. We had a clean drive, avoiding the big rocks, pushing where we could but playing it safe at the same time. I knew the afternoon would be harder. We ended the day with a lot of caution, first because of a right-rear puncture and then tackling the final stage on very used tyres. Overall, two stage wins so far, we led the rally for three stages today, and we have more to come on Saturday. Plenty of cause for optimism!”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Jari-Matti Latvala (4th)
“This morning started with a good time in the first stage even though there was a lot of dust in the air from the cars in front. I lost some time in the next stages but this afternoon was much better: The stages were very rough but I tried to be clever and focus on being consistent and not making mistakes. We end the day in fourth and only 16 seconds from the lead. Tomorrow the stages are in a slightly better condition than today and I feel good about our chances.”
FIA World Rally Championship 2018 / Round 10 / Rally Turkey 2018 / September 13-16, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Ott Tänak (5th)
“The conditions in the morning were maybe not as bad as expected. It was just quite a lot of loose gravel and very low grip, and that’s one area we still need to work on. The afternoon was very tough but we could improve our position by avoiding any incidents. Then the last stage was quite smooth and there we had a good run. We are working really hard with the engineers to improve for tomorrow. We are still very eager to fight for the top positions and we are not far away.”
Esapekka Lappi (7th)
“This morning was quite a struggle but we got through it without any issues. We knew that the stages would be rougher on the second pass, so we made the car stiffer in service to protect it more against the rocks. However, this meant that we had less grip and we lost a lot of time on the long stage as a result. Then I made a lot of changes on the road section and we got the grip back. I’m looking forward to tomorrow: Hopefully we can continue like we ended today. Everything can still happen, there are many kilometres to go.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Hayden Paddon (6th)
“It has been a hard day’s work for pretty much everyone out there today. Some of the roughest conditions I have ever seen! We had a plan from the start, aiming to be sensible, look after the car and keep the driving nice and clean. We didn’t really get an advantage from our road position so we just stuck to our pace notes. The afternoon was even harder, and it is testament to the strength of the cars that they withstood the stages as much as they did. We had a broken damper on the final stage, which didn’t help matters but we’re P6 in an incredibly close fight. Considering the conditions, that’s not a bad start.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing WRT
Craig Breen (8th)
“It’s very frustrating to have picked up two punctures when I was really taking care to drive in the middle of the road. But the race isn’t over yet. Neuville and Ogier showed today that it’s possible to be quick even if you’re one of the first on the road, so tomorrow I’m going to try and produce the same kind of pace we had today.”
Mads Østberg (Rally2)
“It’s a shame to finish the day like this, a day that had started so well. We were right in the mix for the podium, whilst attempting to look after the car. Unfortunately, these really rough roads got the better of a suspension arm on our C3 WRC.”
Khalid Al Qassimi (Rally2)
“I was getting my bearings with these stages and with the car, hoping to gradually up my pace, when our day was brought to a premature end with a technical issue. With times posted and the pace shown by the other guys this morning, the team certainly deserved a better outcome.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Teemu Suninen (9th)
“It’s been really rough out there today but I think I’ve learnt a lot. I have never experienced conditions like this and I still don’t know where the limit is. But when I drive flat-out and don’t think too much about managing the car and the tyres – like on the first stage this afternoon – the times are really good. There’s still a lot to learn to be more consistent, but the car has been really nice to drive and really strong so I hope we can continue to improve tomorrow.”
Elfyn Evans (Rally 2)
“It was a tough day. We had intercom issues on the first stage [SS2] and then transmission issues on the two after that [SS3 and SS4]. The afternoon loop was going pretty well and we had really good speed before picking up a slow puncture towards the end of SS5. Then in the next one there was a massive rock on the inside of the line. We missed it with the wheel, but it hit the wishbone and unfortunately that was it – just one of those things.”
Elfyn Evans and Dan Barritt had a frustrating Friday. Photo credit, M-Sport WRT
Saturday
With six stages to run on Saturday, the running order looked like this – Suninen, Breen, Lappi, Paddon, Tänak, Latvala, Mikkelsen, Ogier, Neuville, Ostberg, Evans, Al Qassimi.
The first stage of the day was SS8 and it was a long one again at 34km. Thierry would hit trouble, after an impact meant his suspension on the left front of the car smashed through his bonnet. He’d lose three and a half minutes, falling to ninth overall. Seb now took the lead after setting the fastest time through the stage. Sadly, Mads retired from the rally, after suffering a technical failure with his car. His teammate, Craig spun in the stage, leading to a stall and then also having to turn the car around as well, losing a few seconds. Overall top three now was Seb, Andreas and Jari-Matti.
Andreas won SS9, and closed the gap to Seb after the M-Sport driver suffered a broken wishbone on the front right of his car. The Frenchman did well to minimise the time loss to just eighteen seconds, his lead now seven and a half over Andreas.
It would change again in SS10, with Seb winning the stage. Unfortunately, he’d arrived at the stage six minutes late, and this meant he’d been given a one-minute penalty. He fell to fourth overall, 46 seconds from first place. Andreas was now the new leader, with Ott and Jari-Matti now up to second and third. Esapekka Lappi slid off the road as well, and was hanging off the road, nose first, like the coach in the original Italian Job! The car would later fall down, completely off the road.
It would all change again in SS11 after the service break. First up, Craig was driving through with smoke coming from the car. He and Scott stopped a couple of times to try and see where it was coming from. They would continue to the end of the stage, albeit at a slower pace. Then came news that Seb had stopped, nineteen km’s into the stage! The M-Sport crew had slid wide on a left-hander and become stuck! There was drama also for leader, Andreas. He had a puncture on the right-rear, but he was still pushing on! He’d finish the stage, but after a couple of spins and stalling his engine, he’d lose one minute 40 seconds! Ott Tanak would win the stage from Elfyn Evans, this putting the Estonian into the lead! Very significant given the championship situation with Thierry and Seb now looking like their best chances for points now lay with the power stage on Sunday. Sadly, Craig was also out, after his car caught fire, completely burning out. He was gutted. Andreas was another to be working on his car after the stage. Turns out the front diff had failed and left his car with just rear wheel drive. No wonder he’d spun so many times!
Into SS12 then and Jari-Matti set a great time, winning the stage from Elfyn Evans! Ott’s lead was just eight seconds over his Toyota teammate. Meantime, we had confirmation that Andreas i20 definitely only had rear wheel drive! For the Norwegian this was frustrating, but just a case of getting to the end of the day now. Now, with all these problems for the top drivers and cars, Henning Solberg was now in sixth overall in a Skoda Fabia R5, with Chris Ingram and Kopecky also just behind him in identical cars, seventh and eighth overall.
The final test of the day, SS13, saw Ott fastest again from Elfyn, with Jari-Matti third quickest. Top three overall was now Ott, Jari-Matti and Hayden. Andreas lost more time with his car still without it’s four-wheel drive working. Further back, Elfyn’s pace had lifted him up to seventh overall now.
FIA World Rally Championship 2018 / Round 10 / Rally Turkey 2018 / September 13-16, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Summing up the second day, it’s worth noting that the top four had not had any problems with punctures or suspension damage. On an event with such rough roads, it had been those driving at a good pace, but not as fast as the others, had paid dividends. Now there just remained a few stages on Sunday to get through.
End of Saturday Standings
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 3h34m22.5s
2 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +13.1s
3 Hayden Paddon/Seb Marshall (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1m10.5s
4 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +3m22.2s
5 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +6m25.4s
6 Henning Solberg/Ilka Minor (Skoda Fabia R5) +11m55.5s
7 Elfyn Evans/Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +16m49.0s
8 Jan Kopecky/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5) +17m05.9s
9 Simone Tempestini/Sergiu Itu (Citroen C3 R5) +17m50.4s
10 Chris Ingram/Ross Whittock (Skoda Fabia R5) +18m38.2s
Let’s hear then from the drivers after this remarkable day! Top three first.
Ott Tanak
“Overall it has definitely been a positive day for us. I said from the beginning that winning this rally would not be about speed but about reliability and avoiding any issues. So far, I think we have done a good job: both myself and Jari-Matti have come through without any real problems and it is nice to be in this position. There are still four stages to go and we have seen today that it is very tricky and a lot can happen. We just need to keep focused and hopefully we can bring it home.”
Jari-Matti Latvala
“It has been a good day for us, particularly in the afternoon when I had a much better feeling and the car was generally working really well. Here you have to try to find a sensible limit with the driving. The grip is pretty high in some areas and that gives you the opportunity to push, but you have so many bad rocks and bumps, so it’s very easy to damage the car. Tomorrow it will be important to be consistent and stay cool.”
Hayden Paddon
“It has been complete mayhem out there today. We have stuck to our plan, and it seems to have paid off. It didn’t quite work out yesterday but this has, at times, felt like a different rally compared to Friday. It’s been much more loose and particularly tough on the tyres. In the afternoon loop, we had to take it a bit steady towards the end because our tyres were practically bald. I have learned my lessons from previous rallies, where we’ve gone out too fast too early and ended up by the side of the road. It can be frustrating when you look at the stage times, but it seems to be a good tactic. I’m happy to be in P3, although sad for my team-mates who were forced to relinquish their respective leads of this rally.”
2017 FIA World Rally Championship Round 10, Rally Turkey 13-16 september 2018 Hayden Paddon, Seb Marshall, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC Photographer: Fabien Dufour Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Hyundai Motorsport
Andreas Mikkelsen (5th)
“It goes without saying that we are incredibly disappointed. We had built up a comfortable lead heading into lunchtime service and really felt in full control. At the start of SS11, we knew almost immediately that we had a driveshaft issue on the front-right. Going into rear-wheel drive, we knew that it would be impossible to fight for the lead anymore. We got to the end of the stage and did all we could to fix the issue. It was important to just keep going, which we managed. Making it to service means we retain fifth place overall and can fight tomorrow for important points for the team. That said, I really think we could have won this one.”
Thierry Neuville (Rally2)
“I am devastated that we had to retire from the rally today. We started the day in the lead and in positive spirits, but just 8 kilometres before the end of the opening stage I felt like I had a puncture. The car became slow to turn. Suddenly the bonnet started to move and the damper popped out, which is when we knew we were in big trouble. We finished the stage and tried to fix the car but there was no chance to continue. I am really disappointed but it’s part of the game, and part of rallying, especially in rough conditions like we’ve faced this weekend. All we can do is fight back on Sunday with the target of maximum points in the Power Stage.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Teemu Suninen (4th)
“It’s been another really rough and difficult day but I think we managed everything quite well. I tried to stay on quite a safe pace with the driving and that was the way to stay out of trouble. Of course, I would have liked to have had a bit more pace, but we were opening the road and still have a lot to learn.”
Teemu Suninen drove a great Saturday’s stages. Photo credit M-Sport WRT
Elfyn Evans (7th)
“It’s been a pretty good day for us. We were taking it quite carefully and not taking any unnecessary risks, but the times were pretty encouraging and we’ve managed to climb back into a reasonably good position.”
Sébastien Ogier (12th)
“Today has been a really tough day for us and I probably made one of the silliest mistakes of my career. It happened at the exit of a tight right-hand corner with another very tight left-hander straight after – so I was going very slowly.
“But I wasn’t listening to Julien very well and braked too late. We slid wide and came to a halt at a tree. The car had no damage and I could get it to move again. I reversed, but when I wanted to move forwards the ground was so soft that the car just sunk and got stuck.
“We fought very hard this morning to get back on the road. It was a hard time but we made it back to service and were still in the fight for some really good points. If this didn’t happen we would probably be in the lead, but we’re not.
“It seems like things don’t really want to go our way at the moment, but that’s motorsport. There are some bad days, but I’m sure some good ones will follow again soon.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing WRT
Khalid Al Qassimi (14th)
“After a tough first loop, we adjusted the set-up with the team and I was a lot more comfortable in the afternoon. I was able to up my pace, despite a few issues with the intercom.”
Sunday
The final day then. What dramas would it hold? Just four stages and a total of 34km in length. The start list looked like this – Mikkelsen, Suninen, Paddon, Latvala, Tänak, Evans, Ogier, Al Qassimi, Neuville, Ostberg, H. Solberg, Kopecky.
The first stage of the day, SS14, would double up later as the power stage, which meant Seb and Thierry would be looking to get through well, and making sure that their stage notes were on point, ready for later. Thierry would go fastest from Mads, with Seb third quickest. Overall, Ott increased his lead to 15 seconds over Jari-Matti with Hayden looking good to take his first podium of the year.
Seb won SS15 and moved a little closer to Elfyn. This would become significant later. Mads was just four tenths slower, whilst the rally leader was third in the stage, taking his lead over Latvala to 17 seconds. We had four WRC2 cars in the top ten as well, with Solberg sixth ahead of Elfyn and Kopecky, Tempestini and Ingram eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.
Into SS16 then, the penultimate stage and once more the top three fastest were Seb, followed by Mads and Ott. Elfyn clocked into the stage early, meaning that he’d picked up some time penalties. Seb was the driver to benefit from this having now moved into tenth position. The Welshman confirmed his team had asked him to do it.
The final stage then. Who would take the stage victory and the points? Thierry blasted through the stage, setting a benchmark 4 mins 59.58 seconds. What could Seb and for that matter Ott do? Well, the Frenchman went through 1.6 second slower, giving him second fastest at that point. Finally, Ott completed the rally, and had taken his third victory in a row, plus was third fastest in the stage, 3.8 seconds behind Thierry.
FIA World Rally Championship 2018 / Round 10 / Rally Turkey 2018 / September 13-16, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
What a result for the young Estonian! He’d scored 28 points, with his win and third place in the power stage, and with that moved ahead of Seb in the championship! Just amazing! What a crazy rally. Proper endurance stuff, just getting around and knowing where to push and when to be sensible.
FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY TURKEY
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 3h59m24.5s
2 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +22.3s
3 Hayden Paddon/Seb Marshall (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1m46.3s
4 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +4m10.9s
5 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +7m11.7s
6 Henning Solberg/Ilka Minor (Skoda Fabia R5) +13m40.6s
7 Jan Kopecky/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5) +18m25.2s
8 Simone Tempestini/Sergiu Itu (Citroen C3 R5) +19m37.1s
9 Chris Ingram/Ross Whittock (Skoda Fabia R5) +20m21.3s
10 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +20m51.2s
FIA World Rally Championship 2018 / Round 10 / Rally Turkey 2018 / September 13-16, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Here’s the thought’s then of the drivers!
Ott Tanak
“This rally was so difficult. From the beginning, we knew that it will not be the fastest driver that will win this rally but that it would be the smartest. We were the most consistent and we managed to do the whole rally without any issues or having to stop on any of the stages. Obviously, it has been a great team effort and they have been able to build a very strong car. The championship is now wide open so let’s keep pushing.”
Jari-Matti Latvala
“This is a great result for the team. The main thing today was to get the one-two finish and we did it. Everything went according to plan. I tried to be clever and not do anything stupid and I had a consistent run. We are trying hard to win the manufacturers’ championship so these points were very valuable, and the remainder of the season now looks very exciting. For me, it is very nice to be on the podium again. Things have started to look better since Finland. Now let’s keep it going this way.”
Hayden Paddon
“I am really happy to take our first podium of the season. It has been a very tough rally. We have adopted a particular strategy this weekend that has required us to hold back and be patient. Thankfully that approach has paid off and we have been rewarded with third place – it’s been a while since we’ve been on the podium! It hasn’t been the rally that the team wanted or deserved. I am fully behind them coming back in the final rounds of the season and I am personally looking forward to Wales Rally GB.”
2017 FIA World Rally Championship Round 10, Rally Turkey 13-16 september 2018 Hayden Paddon, Seb Marshall, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC Photographer: Fabien Dufour Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
M-Sport Ford WRT
Teemu Suninen (4th)
“This was definitely the roughest rally I have ever done so to finish fourth is a great result for me. It’s the second-best result of my career, and I can be happy with that. It was also nice to reward the team with some good points because they all really deserved that this weekend.
“On Friday we set a really good time on the long stage [SS5] and it was positive to see that we were only two seconds away from the fastest time. Saturday was really difficult with all the loose gravel and honestly I couldn’t do much more with all the wheelspin – but I hope that will be good practice for the future!”
Sébastien Ogier (10th)
“It’s been a frustrating weekend, but that’s part of the game and we have to accept it. I gave it everything I had this weekend and did everything I possibly could without reward. At least we secured some points at the end of the rally and hopefully we will get some rewards soon! It’s definitely a three-way fight for the title now, and it’s still all to play for.”
Elfyn Evans (12th)
“It was a frustrating Friday with a lot of different issues which eventually resulted in retirement when striking a rock on the line which couldn’t be avoided. We had a pretty solid day on Saturday and were able to show good pace whilst keeping out of trouble. But today we had to drop time and assist Sébastien with his championship defence.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Andreas Mikkelsen (5th)
“It was very important for us to finish the rally with a safe, clever drive today. We took it easy on all four remaining stages, including the Power Stage, because we needed to secure the points for the manufacturers’ championship. Finishing fifth is not what we wanted, nor what we were capable of. Despite our speed, which we showed by leading the rally on three separate occasions, unfortunately the issues we encountered yesterday prevented us from capitalising on our potential. We have lost a lot to Toyota this weekend, so we now look forward to a strong return at the next event in Wales GB.”
Thierry Neuville (16th)
“I was absolutely flat-out in the Power Stage, and could not have done any more. We really needed those five points. We are fighting for the championship against some very hard guys to beat, so we had to give it everything. In all honesty, I feel we should have taken the win this weekend. We were clearly the fastest, especially on Friday when we were first on the road and leading at the end of the day. Were it not for a small issue on our car, we could have achieved so much more here. I am disappointed, but as a team we win and lose together. We will dust ourselves down and come back strong in the final three rallies.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing
Mads Østberg (23rd)
“Today we had the same kind of pace we had on Friday, with several very good times. It’s a good way to finish what has been a very tough weekend for the team. I think we certainly deserved a better outcome.”
Mads and Torstein had a very interesting event. Photo credit, Citroen Racing.
Khalid Al Qassimi (15th)
“Today, I adopted a thoughtful approach to my driving, carefully avoiding the stones, to make it to the end. This has been one of the hardest rallies I have ever done. The team finished on a positive note and that’s the main thing.”
Well, what an incredible rally! We are in for an amazing final few rallies this year. First up is an autumnal Wales in two weeks, followed by the only tarmac/gravel rally that is Rally Spain at the last weekend of October, and finally down-under to the Gold Coast in Australia for the season finale in the middle of November! Who will win? I’ve got no idea, but it’s going to be fun to watch!
2018 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 10
1
T. Neuville
177
2
O. Tanak
164
3
S. Ogier
154
4
E. Lappi
88
5
A. Mikkelsen
75
6
J.M Latvala
75
7
D. Sordo
60
8
T. Suninen
54
9
E. Evans
53
10
H. Paddon
49
11
M. Østberg
48
12
C. Breen
47
2018 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 9
Well, let’s get this out of the way at the start. What delights has Turkey got for us……? Sorry. Anyway, it’s the first WRC event in Turkey since 2010 and let’s take a look at the results from that event.
The top ten was dominated by Citroen and Ford, but you’ll recognise a few names. Kimi’s co-driver is part of the Toyota team now, whilst Craig Breen’s co-driver was guiding Matt Wilson back then.
Now, here’s the full stage info.
RALLY TURKEY SCHEDULE (GMT+3)
THURSDAY 13 SEPTEMBER
9.30am: Shakedown (4,70 km)
6.30pm: Ceremonial start (Marmaris)
8.08pm: SS 1 – Super Special Turkey Full Speed (2,00 km)
8.33pm: Parc fermé (Asparan)
FRIDAY 14 SEPTEMBER
7.00am: Service A (Asparan – 15 min)
7.58am: SS 2 – Çetibeli 1 (38,10 km)
9.21am: SS 3 – Ula 1 (21,75 km)
10.24am: SS 4 – Çiçekli 1 (12,57 km)
12.24pm: Service B (Asparan – 30 min)
1.37pm: SS 5 – Çetibeli 2 (38,10 km)
3.00pm: SS 6 – Ula 2 (21,75 km)
4.03pm: SS 7 – Çiçekli 2 (12,57 km)
5.48pm: Flexi service C (Asparan – 45 min)
SATURDAY 15 SEPTEMBER
7.42am: Service D (Asparan – 15 min)
8.35am: SS 8 – Yesilbelde 1 (34,24 km)
10.08am: SS 9 – Datça 1 (10,70 km)
11.11am: SS 10 – Içmeler 1 (20,37 km)
12.16pm: Service E (Asparan – 30 min)
1.24pm: SS 11 – Yesilbelde 2 (34,24 km)
3.08pm: SS 12 – Datça 2 (10,70 km)
4.11pm: SS 13 – Içmeler 2 (20,37 km)
5.01pm: Flexi service F (Asparan – 45 min)
SUNDAY 16 SEPTEMBER
9.25am: Service G (Asparan – 15 min)
10.08am: SS 14 – Marmaris 1 (7,14 km)
10.46am: SS 15 – Ovacik (8,05 km)
11.24am: SS 16 – Gökçe (12,65 km)
1.18pm: SS 17 – Marmaris 2 Power Stage (7,14 km)
2.15pm: Podium
This year’s event promises to be one of the open yet, with all new stages. Stage notes creation, therefore will be key and we may even see the crews making changes between the morning and afternoon running of each stage. There are 312.44km of competitive stages over the event, with the longest stages on Friday and Saturday, Çetibeli which is first thing on Friday and Yesilbelde on Saturday morning, 38.10km and 34.24km respectively.
Let’s hear then from the drivers –
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“Rally Turkey will be a step into the unknown for everyone. We don’t know much about the stages, but we have had the chance to see some video footage. It seems like the roads will be very rough. From our position as first on the road, I am expecting a tricky weekend. I like new rallies and new challenges; it keeps the championship fresh and offers teams and crews something entirely new to tackle. My main target is to enjoy the rally and, of course, to do all we can to preserve our position at the head of the championship.”
2018 FIA World Rally Championship Round 07, Rally Italia Sardegna 7-10 June 2018 Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC Photographer: Austral Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Andreas Mikkelsen
“I took part in Rally Turkey back in 2008, which was held in a completely different part of the country to where we will be rallying next week. It’s going to be a totally new experience for all competitors and one that will undoubtedly spring some surprises. From what we have seen, it appears we will be competing on rough roads and in very hot conditions, which will be tough on the crews, cars, tyres and brakes. All in all, it will be a nice new challenge and one I am looking forward to.”
Hayden Paddon
“I can’t wait to get back into WRC action; it feels like a long time since Finland! Turkey promises to be an unpredictable rally for everyone. I competed there back in 2010 but in a different part of the country so that experience is not comparable to what we’ll encounter next week. It looks like the stages will be twisty, rough and very hot, resembling an old Cyprus rally. As with any new event there are lots of unknowns, but we’re as prepared as we can be. We’ll definitely give it a good crack.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Sébastien Ogier
“Rally Turkey will be an interesting event for sure as no one really knows what to expect. This is the first completely new event for a long time and, even though I contested the rally in 2010, next week’s event will be completely different.
“There will be a lot of work to do on the recce, and Julien [Ingrassia, co-driver] will have to write brand-new notes for every single kilometre! It’ll be a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and to discovering what these new stages will be like.
“Our goal is to deliver the best possible result, but the loose gravel will make it a challenge. We’ll be the second car on the road and there will be a lot of fast drivers benefiting from a cleaner and faster road behind. We’ll need to try and stay as close as we can on Friday morning and then see where we are after that.
“The most important thing is to score a strong haul of points for our championship defence, and that is what we will focus on.”
Seb and Julien – Photo credit M-Sport
Elfyn Evans
“We’ll be taking a step into the unknown with a brand-new rally next week. I’m sure it will be an interesting weekend and I’m looking forward to discovering what the Turkish stages have to offer.
“For sure it will be hot, and we’ll need to be prepared for that. It also looks as though it could be quite loose which would give us a good road position for the first day; but it also has the potential to be fairly rough and everyone will need to have their wits about them.
“We completed our pre-event test on some pretty rough roads in Greece and the Fiesta proved as strong as ever. We’ve had to do a lot of preparation to get ready for this one, and the hard work will only continue next week.
“We’re as prepared as we can be and I think we’re all looking forward to experiencing something completely new – where the aim is to be in the fight for the top positions.”
Teemu Suninen
“Whereas most of the rallies this year have been new only for me, this one will be new for everyone. That will make things really interesting and could bring me an opportunity as we will all be equal on experience before the first stage.
“No one is allowed is test in Turkey so we’ll all experience the roads for the first time during the recce and then the shakedown. Set-up wise, I’ll discuss with my team mates first to see what they have experienced and discovered. Otherwise, I will need to make my own conclusions and choices.
“As for what to expect, I have never been to Turkey before and will travel out a little earlier than usual to get a feel for everything. I’m expecting it to be a very hot rally and very demanding, but I hope to deliver a good result.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Jari-Matti Latvala
“This is the first time for many years that I am preparing for a completely new WRC event. There are many unknowns: you have to do new pace-notes, you don’t know the characteristics of the roads and you don’t know how they will change for the second pass. I remember from when we went to Turkey in 2008, near Antalya, that it was very hot. The long stages were very demanding and very hard on the tyres. From what I have seen so far, I think there will be some similarities to that rally and also to the Acropolis Rally. The pre-event test was really good for me. I was very happy with the car and we made some good steps with the suspension.”
Ott Tanak
“Obviously we have had some very good results recently, but I am still taking it rally-by-rally. It is difficult to have any expectations for Turkey as we don’t have a lot of know-how about the rally. Everybody is talking about it being a rough event: we will have to wait and see how it is on the recce. We certainly know that it will be hot. I think that our pre-event test in the south of Portugal was good preparation for that and we are doing everything we can to be ready and be competitive. Now there is not too much more we can do until we get there and see the stages for ourselves.”
2018 FIA World Rally Championship / Round 07, Rally d’Italia, Sardegna / June 7-10, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Esapekka Lappi
“We should expect the unexpected in Turkey. The information we have is that it will be rough with a lot of loose gravel, and that tyre management will be key. For that reason, the long afternoon loops will be crucial, I think. We saw on our test that the tyre wear is quite high when you have rough roads and it’s 35 degrees outside. In general, the test went very well and I think we managed to find some nice settings with the car. I am looking forward to the challenge: it’s a chance to learn something new. So far, being early on the road on loose gravel has not been a strong point for me, so I will try to improve that.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing WRT
Craig Breen
“The aim is really to get through the opening leg without any hiccups. If we manage to do that, we should be right up there, in the mix and well placed for the rest of the rally. It’s difficult to take any real information from the on-board footage recorded by the organiser in a production car. One thing is sure, however: the course looks very interesting, with a good variety of roads, some narrow, technical and rough, others much quicker.”
Mads Østberg
“We’re expecting it to be hot this weekend. It’s going to be a technically-difficult, demanding rally for the cars and that’s what we prepared for during our pre-event test in the Aude. I’m feeling pretty confident because I always produce decent performances on this kind of surface. And the C3 WRC is even more efficient and easier to drive than it was in Sardinia, which is the last event contested on similar types of road. We’re also going to be able to use some of the things we learned in Finland on this surface.”
Mads and Torstein, Photo credit Citroen Racing
Khalid Al Qassimi
“I’m delighted to be back behind the wheel of my C3 WRC, especially at a new event. It’s always exciting to contest brand new stages for the first time, especially as we’re expecting fairly difficult conditions. I’ve always felt comfortable at events like this. I have some good memories of the Acropolis Rally, for example. It’s always a question of finding the right balance between pushing and looking after the car.”
I think we can expect the key players to be at the front once Friday is done, but those extra drivers to watch will be Hayden and Elfyn I believe. Can Ott Tanak continue his fine form and close the gap further to Thierry and Seb in the fight for the championship?
Shakedown took place on Thursday morning, with Ott showing great pace, and the two top championship protagonists in third and fourth.
SHAKEDOWN STANDINGS
Tänak / Jarveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2:52.9
Latvala / Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2:53.1
Ogier / Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2:53.5
Neuville / Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) 2:53.6
Sordo / Del Barrio (Hyundai i20 WRC) 2:53.8
Breen / Martin (Citroën C3 WRC) 2:54.3
Evans / Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2:54.3
Lappi / Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2:54.7
Ostberg / Eriksen (Citroën C3 WRC) 2:55.4
Suninen / Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2:55.9
Mikkelsen / Jaeger (Hyundai i20 WRC) 2:57.3
Later in the same day, we had the first stage of the day and with Ott taking and early lead from Kalle Rovanpera who is driving a Skoda Fabia WRC2 in this event! Real giant killing driving! In fact, there were a number of WRC2 drivers inside the top ten.
Onto Friday’s action and with six stages, who would emerge in front? The start list looked like this – Neuville, Ogier, Tänak, Lappi, Sordo, Mikkelsen, Latvala, Evans, Ostberg, Breen, Suninen.
Seb won SS2 from Thierry and Ott third and with it took the lead by just eight tenths of a second from the Estonian. The road was becoming quite gravel strewn by the time Craig came to it, with him finding he needed to be cautious, and getting his braking points right, so made it through with no moments.
Onto SS3 and there was a change in the lead, with Ott five seconds faster than Seb in the stage. Everyone who finished the stage before Craig had a clean run, but three or four km’s into the stage the heavens had opened and it was really wet! His Citroen teammate, Mads had a spin in a hairpin as well, so not a great stage for their team.
It was a Toyota 1-2 in SS4 with Ott faster than Esapekka, and Thierry taking third, closing the gap to Ogier a little. Further back, Latvala passed Elfyn, moving into sixth.
It was time for service, and the opportunity to change some aspects in the car set up.
Into the afternoon stages, and Ott won SS5 by just three tenths of a second from Seb. There was a big change though, with Elfyn jumping from seventh to fourth overall with a great stage time. Mads sadly had a car problem, losing engine power. Craig was also on the move in his Citroen, passing Andreas in their battle for eighth overall.
FIA World Rally Championship 2018 / Round 09 / Rallye Deutschland 2018 / August 16-19, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Well, SS6 had dried out since the run in the morning and Ott won again, increasing his lead a little bit over Seb. Mads lost some more time with his engine problem dropping out of the top ten. There was another change in the top ten, with Dani getting past Esapekka Lappi into sixth.
The final stage of the day and SS7 was won by Ott again, whilst Lappi and Sordo were ahead of Seb. Ott’s lead over Seb was now 12.3, with Thierry in third overall. Craig was optimistic that Saturday would be better too.
Here’s the top ten then after Friday’s stages.
STANDINGS AFTER DAY 1
Tänak / Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 59:22.6
Ogier / Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 12.3
Neuville / Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) +27.4
Evans / Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 37.8
Latvala / Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 38.8
Sordo / Del Barrio (Hyundai i20 WRC) + 42.7
Lappi / Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 42.8
Breen / Martin (Citroën C3 WRC) + 58.0
Mikkelsen / Jaeger (Hyundai i20 WRC) + 59.0
Suninen / Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 1:21.4
Ostberg / Eriksen (Citroën C3 WRC) +1:28.1
Here’s the thoughts of the drivers then – Top three first
Ott Tänak
“I think we have had close to a perfect day today. The driving was clean and the car was working really well. Everything was new for me, driving this car on these very specific stages, but I could adapt quickly, the rhythm was there from the first stage and I was able to push hard all day. This afternoon it was more difficult because it rained during lunchtime and every corner had a different level of grip, but we had a clean run with no mistakes. Tomorrow is a different day with more demanding stages on Baumholder, but the mindset is still the same. There is a long way to go and we just need to keep focused and keep concentrated.”
Sébastien Ogier
“I’m pretty happy with my day. I was pushing hard all the time and the car feels good. The chassis is working really well this weekend and I had a lot of fun driving.
“Hats off to Ott [Tänak] for a really strong day – but of course it is frustrating to see him just that little bit faster than us on almost every stage; making the gap 12 seconds at the end of the day.
“We need to keep trying tomorrow and with Baumholder having a different characteristic you never know what’s going to happen.
“The main target is to stay ahead of Thierry [Neuville], but the second target is to win the rally – so I’m only halfway there! Tomorrow will be a long day and we have to keep trying.”
Thierry Neuville
“I think we have done all we could today with no real mistakes. We had one minor problem this morning, which we were able to resolve and we can reflect on a safe start to this rally. In the morning loop we took the safer option with two spare tyres, and lost some time because of the extra weight. It was also quite dusty. It’s been difficult to match the times of Ott and Seb, but we are in the podium fight, which is good. I am not in the mood to take big risks being in the lead of the championship.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Elfyn Evans (4th)
“It’s been an okay day and I think we can be pretty happy with the way things have gone. It was a bit of a shame to lose so much time this morning, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes and we have to keep trying. It’s extremely close in the mid-pack, but we’ll give it a good push for the podium positions tomorrow.”
Elfyn Evans, Dan Barritt. Rally Deutschland. Photo credit M-Sport
Teemu Suninen (10th)
“The feeling has been getting better and better and I have been really happy with the car. This is my first time with this car on Tarmac, but already the level is quite good. There is still a lot to learn and the main thing is the braking and turning with these cars, but I’m enjoying and looking forward to another challenge tomorrow.”
Toyota Gazoo WRT
Jari-Matti Latvala (5th)
“This morning I lacked a little bit of confidence in the conditions: with my road position there was more dirt coming on the road than I was used to here before. In service we made some changes with the front differential and the afternoon was definitely better for me. I was very happy with what we did on the second run over Mittelmosel in particular. It’s going to be a good fight tomorrow. For me, tomorrow’s stages are the best ones on this rally. It’s wider and you can use racing lines more, and that’s what I like. Also, the roads will be cleaner than today and that should suit me better.”
Esapekka Lappi (7th)
“I was quite pleased with the morning loop. The conditions were quite nice and the car worked really well. The afternoon was then quite tough. The vineyard roads got really dirty in some corners and I struggled a lot in these places. The car feels fine, it’s just a lack of confidence on my side because I don’t want to make a mistake and I am backing off too much. Still, tomorrow is a long day and we have a good road position, and we are only five seconds away from fourth place.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Dani Sordo (6th)
“It has been a difficult start to the rally for us. I wasn’t particularly happy on the morning loop and struggled to find grip. We have continued to push as hard as possible but the times at the front are very quick and we haven’t been able to match them. We have suffered with understeer and just haven’t been able to get into the required rhythm. The stages tomorrow will give us a different tarmac challenge, so we will continue to do what we can. The fight for fourth place is very close!”
Andreas Mikkelsen (9th)
“We have spent the day working hard on adapting my driving style as well as making some adjustments to the car. It was clear during the morning loop that I had to be more aggressive on the steering. We looked closely at the situation at service, and my engineer did a great job to help us make improvements. The afternoon was definitely a step in the right direction. Changing my style of driving after ten years is not the work of a moment but I hope we can continue in this way for the remainder of the weekend.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing WRT
Craig Breen (8th)
“It really does seem that I can’t get a break on a Friday. Things didn’t go the way I had hoped, but there’s still a long way to go. The weather is forecast to be dry and sunny tomorrow and I’ll have a decent road position, so hopefully I can show what we’re capable of.”
Mads Østberg (11th)
“I’m still learning about the car, and getting used to racing on tarmac again as well. Given the conditions, the morning went fairly well for us in terms of our pace. The afternoon was harder with the engine issue, but I really hope that tomorrow’s leg will work out better for us.”
Day Two – Saturday
Into Saturday then and with eight stages run, a much longer day to deal with. The start list reflected the top ten – Serderidis, Ostberg, Suninen, Mikkelsen, Breen, Lappi, Sordo, Latvala, Evans, Neuville, Ogier, Tänak. Certainly, Craig was looking to a better day, with his best road position since Sweden.
The first one, SS8 saw Latvala go fastest with Dani and Craig just a tiny gap behind. Jari-Matti’s pace took him past Elfyn. Craig’s pace took him closer to Lappi, with the Citroen driver so much faster than the Finn.
The next one, SS9 saw a fastest time from Dani Sordo and with that, he jumped into fourth passing Elfyn who now fell to sixth. Ott Tanak’s lead was now 13 seconds over Seb. Mads, who was looking to get back into changed part of the setup, but it introduced understeer when on the power, making the car hard to drive. Craig was fourth as well, getting a little closer to Lappi.
It was Lappi though who hit back in SS10, winning the stage from Jari-Matti with Ogier third. This moved him ahead of Elfyn. Mads and Teemu continued their battle for the final points position, with just a little over a second between them, but in Teemu’s favour.
Disaster would befall Elfyn in SS11, after he went off. Craig Breen won the stage, from Lappi with Mads and Ott sharing the third fastest time. Dani could only manage the eighth fastest time whilst Thierry was ninth, meaning they’d both been passed by Jari-Matti who was now in third place overall.
A service break followed, with Thierry looking to make some changes to his car, so that he would feel a lot more confident with it. Ott said that he wasn’t that happy with his car
Into SS12 then, and Dani won the stage, moving ahead of his teammate, Thierry, who was now in fifth place. The gap closed a little between Ott and Seb, but not really anything to get too excited about with the gap still at over 13 seconds between them.
Massive change happened in SS13. Another stage victory for Dani – he was really in the groove – moved him ahead of Jari-Matti, and with Ogier getting a puncture 8.4km into the stage, he only managed 21st fastest, losing 1 minute 43 seconds and dropping to ninth overall. Mads didn’t understand why he was slow, after reporting that his car felt great in the stage. Dani was now in second overall.
2018 FIA World Rally Championship Round 09, Rallye Deutschland 16-19 August 2018 Dani Sordo, Carlos Del Barrio, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC Photographer: Austral Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Just two stages remained and the first, SS14 was won by Seb, fighting back after his problem in stage 13. Lappi and Latvala were second and third after setting the same time. Top three overall was Ott, Dani and Jari-Matti. Ogier’s pace was good enough to put him up one place into seventh, Teemu dropping behind. Andreas will be Seb’s next target, with just 3.5 seconds between them.
Okay, the final stage of the day, SS15. Drama for Craig, who went off the road, damaging the rear left tyre. He lost so much time and dropped to tenth place, behind Mads. Winner of the stage was Jari-Matti, four tenths faster than Esapekka whilst Ogier set the third fastest time and this meant the gap to Andreas had come down to just half a second. But what a day that Ott had?! His lead over second placed Dani stood at 43.7 seconds and now Jari-Matti was just eight tenths of a second behind the Spaniard.
STANDINGS AFTER DAY 2
Tänak / Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2:23:2711
Sordo / Del Barrio (Hyundai i20 WRC) + 43.7
Latvala / Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 44.5
Neuville / Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) +52.5
Lappi / Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 58.8
Mikkelsen / Jaeger (Hyundai i20 WRC) + 1:50.7
Ogier / Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 1:51.2
Suninen / Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 1:57.0
Ostberg / Eriksen (Citroën C3 WRC) +2:20.4
Breen / Martin (Citroën C3 WRC) + 2:34.4
Thought’s then of the drivers – Top three first
Ott Tanak
“Obviously it has been another good day. This morning it wasn’t easy, because I had to get used to driving on different types of road in this car for the first time, and I needed to push hard because it was a really close fight. In the afternoon my feeling was much better and I was enjoying it a lot. The changes we made during lunchtime service were a good step in the right direction and the car is really comfortable to drive. Now we have a big gap behind us and there are some nice stages tomorrow, so the most important thing will be just to enjoy it.”
Dani Sordo
“All in all, it has been a competitive day for us and it’s encouraging to be involved in such an exciting fight for the podium in the team’s home rally. We have taken three stage wins and have pushed really hard throughout the day, I felt really comfortable and competitive in the Panzerplatte stages, getting absolutely everything out of the car. We struggled a bit in some other stages, especially in the morning, but we couldn’t do more. Jari-Matti closed the gap a lot on the final stage, after I lost quite a lot of time, so we will be focused on defending our position from him on Sunday morning.”
Jari-Matti Latvala
“It has been a really enjoyable day. It started well this morning and then I was delighted with how the afternoon went. I couldn’t match Dani Sordo’s pace in the military area, but then on the Saarland stages on the farm roads I tried to push harder. He was better in one area and I was better in the other and now we are really closer to each other. To be fighting like this is a really nice feeling and I am looking forward to continuing the battle tomorrow.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville (4th)
“We have to accept that we haven’t really been on the pace today. We have struggled with the handling of the car, and have had to be careful not to push too much because we know how easy it is to make a critical mistake. There’s a lot to think about so we have to remain calm and just do what we can. I didn’t do some of these stages last year, so we have been using Dani as a reference and have to be satisfied, even if we’re not completely happy.”
Andreas Mikkelsen (6th)
“It has been another challenging day, that’s for sure, but we have fought hard and continued to find out little things which we can use to improve. All the stages have their own characteristics so we have had to continue trying and evaluating different driving styles. We have been working closely with the team and I’ve tried to be more aggressive with the handbrake. We want to be fighting for better results than we are currently. The time sheets don’t make for good reading but we are taking steps and that is the most important thing right now.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Esapekka Lappi (5th)
“Overall, today has been quite average for me. In the Baumholder area I struggled a bit. This morning I had too soft a setup for those stages, and although I think I managed to improve that for this afternoon, I still lost a lot of time there for some reason and that is frustrating. On the other hand, on the other stages among the fields everything felt nice and the times were good, even when there was dirt on the road on the second pass. The gap to fourth place is still quite small so let’s see how it goes tomorrow.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Sébastien Ogier (7th)
“We had some bad luck today. We know that this stage has a lot of stones everywhere and that it’s always a bit of a lottery whether you will pick up a puncture. Unfortunately, this time, we didn’t win that lottery.
“It was a slow puncture after seven kilometres and we had to stop and change it. After that I took some crazy risks as I had nothing to lose. I was pushing super hard to finish the day, but there isn’t so much we can do now – only some points in the Power Stage.
“We made a good effort this weekend and were doing a good job. It’s frustrating not to get the reward for that, but we will come back stronger.”
Seb at speed. Photo credit, M-Sport Fordd
Teemu Suninen (8th)
“It’s been a good day and the driving is starting to be on a good level now. I was able to be much closer to the fastest guys which was really good, and I know where we can be faster. That is a big positive as I already know how to make the fastest times.”
Elfyn Evans (Rally 2)
“It didn’t go fantastically well for us today. We spun at the start of the third stage in the loop [SS10], and then on the fourth one [SS11] we hit some gravel and understeered off into a field. Unfortunately for us, there was a big concrete block on the line we took and that broke the suspension which meant we could go no further.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing WRT
Mads Østberg (9th)
“There were highs and lows today, with some difficulties in finding the right rhythm in the military base. The main thing for me was that I managed to set a few good times, particularly the third-place finish this morning. I can’t wait to get back out there tomorrow to keep learning about this car on this surface, especially as the Power Stage, for example, is being contested on similar roads to the sections where I have been the most comfortable so far.”
Craig Breen (10th)
“It had been a positive day for us, setting quite a few good times, until this final stage. Unfortunately, on a fast, difficult right-hander, there was a bump on the inside of the corner that sent me slightly off the line and I ran wide into a field. Obviously, I’m very disappointed for the team, but I’m going to try and find some confidence again tomorrow and the same sort of pace we had today.”
Craig Breen, Scott Martin. Photo credit Citroen Racing
Sunday
The final day then and three stages remained. Interestingly, the power stage would only be run once. The start list looked like this – Serderidis, Breen, Ostberg, Suninen, Ogier, Mikkelsen, Lappi, Neuville, Latvala, Sordo, Tänak, Evans. We had just a little under 45km’s to run.
There would be drama from the get go in SS16! First up, Jari-Matti had the bonnet up on his car before the start of the stage…. What was happening? Meantime, Dani had lost time, and there were reports of a damaged right-front corner and a smashed windscreen. Trouble for both of those in second and third… Jari-Matti appeared to have a problem with changing gear, as he was using his manual gear change. It all came to naught, just a kilometre from stage end, Jari-Matti pulled over and it looked like transmission failure for the Finn. With Dani, he reported that he’d lost the car in a right-hand corner and hit the vineyards. Mads also went off in the stage, so it was all over for him. All of this had the result of bringing Thierry, who won the stage, and Esapekka into second and third!
Before the re-run of the same stage, both crews were attempting to start the next stage. Sadly, despite their best efforts, they didn’t manage to do it. Still, SS17 saw Seb win from Thierry and Craig who was now up to seventh overall.
Mads Ostberg and Torstein Erikson. Photo credit Citroen Racing
The final stage then – SS18. Top five was Seb, Ott, Esapekka, Craig and Thierry! Ott was so close to taking the stage, just one tenth slower than Seb! The Estonian was bringing himself back into the title fight though. What a drive, and it meant that he now matched Markko Martin for WRC victories, both of them on five apiece. A very impressive drive from Esapekka Lappi, plus a mechanical failure for his teammate Jari-Matti, brought him to a good podium, but he still has more to learn, as Dani, Craig and Elfyn could all have finished ahead of him.
FINAL CLASSIFICATION
Tänak / Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 3:03:36.9
Neuville / Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) + 39.2
Lappi / Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 1:00.9
Ogier / Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 1:34.5
Suninen / Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 2:02.9
Mikkelsen / Jaeger (Hyundai i20 WRC) + 2:13.8
Breen / Martin (Citroën C3 WRC) + 2:39.1
FIA World Rally Championship 2018 / Round 09 / Rallye Deutschland 2018 / August 16-19, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Drivers points after Rallye Deutschland
Thierry Neuville – 172 points
Sébastien Ogier – 149 points
Ott Tänak – 136 points
Esapekka Lappi – 88 points
Andreas Mikkelsen – 65 points
Dani Sordo – 60 points
Jari-Matti Latvala – 55 points
Elfyn Evans – 52 points
Mads Ostberg – 48 points
Craig Breen – 47 points
Manufacturers standings
Hyundai WRT – 254 points
Toyota Gazoo Racing – 241 points
M-Sport Ford WRT – 224 points
Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT – 159 points
Here then are the thoughts of the drivers – Top three first
Ott Tanak
“This was definitely the hardest victory I have ever had. For the majority of the weekend it was a really close fight and I had to push so hard. On Friday in the vineyards I felt very comfortable with the car. On Saturday morning I did not feel so confident, but the team really improved the car in service. Today I just needed to keep it clean. I am really happy for the whole team: we were really strong this weekend. We are moving in the right direction in the championship but I am still taking it event-by-event: Now my focus is on Turkey and trying to be as well prepared as possible.”
FIA World Rally Championship 2018 / Round 09 / Rallye Deutschland 2018 / August 16-19, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Thierry Neuville
“It has been a challenging weekend so to come away with second is a job well done. I have been able to increase my lead in the drivers’ championship slightly, which was the objective. I was hoping to take a few more points in the Power Stage but unfortunately, I made a mistake and had to reverse, so I took it steady after that. We have struggled with confidence and pace, even if we have been consistent over the weekend. Not an easy weekend but we’ve done what we needed. The championship battle is going to be closely fought right to the end of the season!”
Esapekka Lappi
“It has been a difficult weekend but it was also a clean one with no issues and that has brought us this podium. There was a lot of drama for the others yesterday and this morning as well. That is rallying and we have been in that position before. I think we made some good progress during the weekend. I think I still need some more mileage to understand what the limits are when these roads are dirty. There is not much room for mistakes and I really didn’t want to make one this time.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Sébastien Ogier (4th)
“We deserved more this weekend so I can’t say that I am happy with the result, but that’s rallying and we just need to accept it. We saved the day by winning the Power Stage and now we just need to focus on the next one.”
Teemu Suninen (5th)
“It was a really great weekend of us and I was improving the driving a lot and finding a good set-up with the car. From the beginning of the rally until the end we made a lot of progress and I was able to set some really good times. Of course, I couldn’t drive all of the stages like this, but I know what it takes – I just need the experience.”
Elfyn Evans (25th)
“We had a positive first day and, considering our road position, I think we did a pretty good job. But unfortunately, Saturday just didn’t go our way at all. We lost a bit of time on the opening stage [SS8], had a spin in the third one [SS10] and then a trip into the field in the fourth [SS11] which ended in retirement. It certainly wasn’t the result we came here for, so now we just have to look forward to the next one.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Andreas Mikkelsen (6th)
“This weekend has been one of experimentation with the car, trying to adapt the settings and my driving style to match the demands of these tarmac stages. We have found some things that have given us a positive feeling but there have also been things that worked less well. To get a top-six finish is not too bad considering. We didn’t take any risks at all in the Power Stage because these points are too important for the manufacturers’ championship. When you don’t feel completely comfortable, it’s easy to make a mistake when you push. We have a lot of homework to take away from this weekend, to prepare for the tarmac stages in Spain. For now, I am looking forward to getting back on gravel where I feel more confident with the car.”
Dani Sordo (DNF)
“I am incredibly disappointed for the team and for myself. We had put ourselves into a strong position after Saturday’s stages and the car this morning – in the first kilometres – felt amazing with lots of grip. I had a lot of confidence. I was a bit late braking into a corner with some gravel in the road that sent us wide into the vineyards. The windscreen was completely smashed and there was some damage to the radiator. We tried to repair it but the temperatures were too high to continue. In any case, our rally was already over with the time lost in the stage. We take comfort from knowing we were able to fight for the podium. The speed was there, but the result this time was not. I can now only look forward to my home event in Catalunya in October.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing WRT
Craig Breen (7th)
“Obviously, it’s a shame about the rain on Friday and my mistake yesterday afternoon, because I really wanted to fight with the very best drivers throughout the race. But we managed to make it through yesterday and I also had a good feeling again in the car today. I’m going to give it my very best shot to secure a good result in Turkey. Everyone will be starting from scratch there, so we should be in with a serious chance.”
Mads Østberg (DNF)
“On a fast left-hander, I oversteered and ran wide into the bushes. The impact caused damage to the car’s cooling system and we were unable to continue. It’s a shame, but there were still some positives this weekend. We gradually upped our pace and managed to set some decent times despite a lack of knowledge of the car on this surface.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Jari-Matti Latvala (DNF)
“On the road section to the first stage I stopped and when I selected first gear it didn’t take the gear. The hydraulic pump stopped, and although I could switch to the manual gear lever, there was a lot of stress for the gearbox and eventually we lost drive completely. We have had a lot of bad luck this year, but I had a great feeling this weekend. The car’s performance was very good, I was really enjoying the fight and that’s the most important thing.”
Well, just an incredible event. Two wins in a row for Ott Tanak has done amazing things for the championship. At the end of Sardinia, the points standings between the top three looked like this
The gap between Ott and Thierry stood at 72 points. After Finland it had reduced to 46 points, and now just 36 separate them. Now, it’s a tall order with four events remaining for Ott to catch and pass Thierry and win the title, but he’s certainly capable of winning the remaining events. Turkey next time out will be an all new event, so anything could happen there. It will be a fascinating championship run in.
FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 -WRC Deutschland (DEU) – WRC 16/08/2017 to 20/08/2017 – PHOTO : @World
The battle for this year’s championship arrives on the sealed roads in Germany. Thierry Neuville holds a twenty-one-point lead over Sébastien Ogier, and he will be aiming to build on that, as his road position will give him an advantage.
2017 FIA World Rally Championship, Round 10, Rallye Deutschland 17 – 20 August 2017, Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC, Photographer: RaceEMotion, Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Four years ago, he won on these roads, and will be looking to do the same this year. Thierry is joined by Andreas and Dani, back to the i20 for the first time since Portugal. Andreas scored a second place in this event last year and will be looking to get a strong result again, whilst Dani has taken two second places in 2014 and 2016.
Ott Tanak is trying to get back into the championship fight, and his win last time out in Finland has done him some favours. He won last year for M-Sport, and will want to do the same again. Jari-Matti took a podium here in 2015 when driving for Volkswagen.
M-Sport come here with three cars, Seb and Elfyn, with Teemu taking part in his first full tarmac event in a full-blooded WRC car. He’ll be looking to gain knowledge and experience on this very tricky event. Seb has won this event three times, whilst Elfyn came close to a podium in 2014, taking fourth in the end.
The rhythm of the event changes day by day, with roads around the famous vineyards, the Baumholder military roads and classic country lanes, making the recce and car set up crucial. Even Sunday is by no means easy, with almost 75kms of stages to run.
Here’s the full schedule for the rally.
ADAC RALLY DEUTSCHLAND SCHEDULE (GMT+2)
THURSDAY 16 AUGUST
8.00am: Shakedown St. Wendel (5,52 km)
2.45pm: Start (Bostalsee)
7.08pm: SS 1 – Super Special Stage St. Wendel (2,04 km)
7.48pm: Parc fermé
FRIDAY 17 AUGUST
9.00am: Service A (Bostalsee – 15 min)
10.11am: SS 2 – Stein und Wein 1 (19,44 km)
11.05am: SS 3 – Mittelmosel 1 (22,00 km)
12.53pm: SS 4 – Wadern-Weiskirchen 1 (9,27 km)
2.13pm: Service B (Bostalsee – 30 min)
3.39pm: SS 5 – Stein und Wein 2 (19,44 km)
4.33pm: SS 6 – Mittelmosel 2 (22,00 km)
6.21pm: SS 7 – Wadern-Weiskirchen 2 (9,27 km)
7.21pm: Flexi service C (Bostalsee – 48 min)
SATURDAY 18 AUGUST
7.35am: Service D (Bostalsee – 15 min)
8.48am: SS 8 – Arena Panzerplatte 1 (9,43 km)
9.15am: SS 9 – Panzerplatte 1 (38,57 km)
11.03am: SS 10 – Freisen 1 (14,78 km)
12.06pm: SS 11 – Römerstrasse 1 (12,28 km)
1.40pm: Service E (Bostalsee – 30 min)
3.08pm: SS 12 – Arena Panzerplatte 2 (9,43 km)
3.35pm: SS 13 – Panzerplatte 2 (38,57 km)
5.23pm: SS 14 – Freisen 2 (14,78 km)
6.26pm: SS 15 – Römerstrasse 2 (12,28 km)
7.40pm: Flexi service F (Bostalsee – 48 min)
SUNDAY 19 AUGUST
6.20am: Service G (Bostalsee – 15 min)
7.49am: SS 16 – Grafschaft 1 (29,07 km)
9.42am: ES 17 – Grafschaft 2 (29,07 km)
12.18pm: SS 18 – Bosenberg Power Stage (14,04 km)
1.00pm: Podium
Let’s hear from the drivers then.
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“After four consecutive gravel events, it is going to be nice to get back onto tarmac. Rallye Deutschland is a great event. It is a home rally for the team, and it is also situated close to the Belgian border, so we see lots of travelling fans coming to support us. We have had some fantastic results here in the past – including our debut win in 2014 – as well as some more difficult ones. Still leading the championship after a frustrating weekend Finland, I am ready to get back to the front in Germany.”
Andreas Mikkelsen
“Rallye Deutschland is one of my favourite tarmac events. It is a rally with plenty of variety and challenges, but one that I find highly enjoyable. I finished second in last year’s event, so it brings back good memories. I hope for a good result this time around with Hyundai Motorsport. We’ve not had the sort of results recently that we know we are capable of, so I am determined to rectify that in Germany.”
Dani Sordo
“I am pleased to be back in the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC for Rallye Deutschland, which is a very nice event and a home rally for the team. It is not a straightforward event with lots of different stage profiles. We often see some rain over the weekend, which can leave the roads muddy and slippery, but who knows what we will face this year. We have been competitive in Germany in past seasons, with some happy memories of the podium. That’s got to be our target against tough competition from our rivals.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Jari-Matti Latvala
“After Rally Finland I am feeling relaxed and I have a good feeling about Rallye Deutschland. I hope we can continue where we left off and maintain a good rhythm until the end of the year. I think our car should be good in Germany: last year we were already quite competitive there. I really enjoy the small country roads through the fields, which are narrow but fast, and the military area which also has some nice sections. We just have to be prepared for everything when it comes to the weather, because it can be very changeable.”
FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 -WRC Deutschland (DEU) – WRC 16/08/2017 to 20/08/2017 – PHOTO : @World
Ott Tänak
“We will go to Germany with a high target after our win in Finland. I want to take it event-by-event, try to get the maximum out of each rally and see whether we can get back into the championship fight. I enjoy Germany every year. I like the challenge of having many different kinds of roads. We will need to keep an eye on the weather because when I won the rally last year, the tyre choice made a big difference. The Yaris WRC has been performing pretty well on asphalt so I hope we will have everything we need to fight for the top. We are feeling confident.”
Esapekka Lappi
“Rallye Deutschland is always such a challenging rally. Usually there is some rain and you often get different conditions during each day. This can make things tricky because there is a lot of corner-cutting and a lot of dirt on the road. It has been difficult for me in the past, but I actually really like the challenge. I’m looking forward to being back on asphalt, too. In Corsica we achieved a nice setup with the car and the speed was good. Germany is quite a different rally but hopefully we can repeat that.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing WRT
Craig Breen
“I’m longing to get back on the tarmac. It’s been a year since I last competed in a 100% tarmac rally. The Saturday stage will definitely be decisive again, with the two runs through the Baumholder military base, but before that, I really hope more than anything that it doesn’t rain on Friday, so that we can start the race in ideal conditions, despite being a long way down the running order. Since our Germany tests at the start of the summer, I have had an extra day of testing in Alsace to get back into the habits you need to drive on tarmac, and I’ll be giving it my all to rediscover the joys of the podium.”
Craig Breen, Scott Martin – Photo credit Citroen Racing
Mads Østberg
“Except last year, I have competed in this rally every year since 2010, so I know the course pretty well and I have always enjoyed the variety of the stages, even though it makes things difficult! I will have to get to grips with driving on this surface again, but I know I can count on the team’s immense experience on tarmac and at this rally in particular. I have had two days of testing with the C3 WRC to work through all the road profiles I will be facing, so a top-five finish would be a good result for me.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Sébastien Ogier
“We didn’t have the pace that we wanted in Finland, but next week’s Rallye Deutschland is a completely different event and we’ll be aiming to challenge for the leading positions once again.
“It’s always nice returning to asphalt, and we had the performance last time out in Corsica. But this is another difficult rally and everyone knows how big the challenge is to get everything right with all the varying stages.
“As always, the goal is to deliver our best and challenge for the victory. That’s what we’ll be aiming for – together with the target of reducing the gap to the championship leader.”
“Rallye Deutschland is a pretty challenging event, but I think that’s one of the reasons why I enjoy it so much. The stage characteristics and conditions are constantly changing, and you’ve really got to be on the ball.
“It’s all about finding the right rhythm and set-up for each of the different challenges; as well as staying fully focused as this is one of those events where second chances are few and far between!
“The weather can also play a crucial part and a wet rally would make things pretty interesting. But let’s see what gets thrown at us next week. The Fiesta felt really good last time out on Tarmac, and we’ll be aiming for a strong result.”
Teemu Suninen
“This will be my first time in a world rally car on asphalt and a big leap into the unknown. So far, I know nothing about driving these cars on this surface and I will have a lot to learn. I’m most curious about the tyre wear and how to use the brakes.
“This rally will be full of questions, and it’s always been one of the most challenging on the calendar. There is always a lot of dirt that gets dragged onto the stages, but I hope to find good confidence in the car and improve my driving in these tricky conditions.”
We really are heading to the end of the season, with just five rounds remaining, including this event. Who will win, and what will it mean for the championship?
Awards, beers, eBay, clones, drones, a big yellow crane plus a crash landing – the full story and secrets behind the jaw-dropping #Skydriver viral video have been revealed in a short follow-up film released today (Tuesday).
What started life as some bar-room bravado banter ended up, more than two years later, with a livered car flying down one of Zip World’s adventure tourism wires at Slate Mountain, Blaenau Ffestiniog in north Wales – an incredible stunt that has already been watched by many hundreds of thousands of online viewers in the first few days since being released on Wednesday 1 August.
Matt Edwards (@MERallysport ) drove the car – Photo credit Wales Rally GB
Although some of the more eagle-eyed browsers did spot that two different look-a-like Dayinsure liveried cars had been used for the rally driving and sky driving elements (the clue was in the wheels), what the cameras didn’t reveal was the car’s somewhat unplanned bumpy landing at the end of its dramatic, high speed flight down Zip World Titan.
Rally aces @ElfynEvans and @MERallysport shortly before the shooting of the #SkyDriver stunt – there's a lot of driving talent in that picture!
The full story is now disclosed in a special behind-the-scenes #InsideSkydriver film. The edit includes yet to be seen footage of the spectacular stunt plus interviews with key members of the ambitious #Skydriver team who were not only responsible for dreaming up such a crazy proposition but also for actually accomplishing the eye-catching feat.
Tuesday: Finland recce is always fun, I love getting back into these stages. I spent so much time in this area when I was competing with Tommi Makinen Racing that it feels like a second home. Today we recce’d six stages, a mixture of the traditional flat-out Finnish roads and newly added tighter and twisty sections.
Wednesday: More recce today, pacenotes in Finland are super-critical, the speed you are carrying, often in the air, means that you have to commit absolutely. The jumps require bravery and skill, because you can’t really turn a car when its wheels aren’t touching the road. Tom and I have been working really hard on our pacenotes over the last few weeks, and we can feel the difference here.
Thursday: A big day today, we had an early tyre meeting with Pirelli to help us decide on our tyre strategy and then straight into shakedown. Shakedown was extremely hot, and the weather continued throughout the weekend. We found a good set up and felt confident in the car. After lunch Tom had some PR engagements for the event, and I continued to work on the notes and strategy. Finally, in the evening we had the start of the rally and SS1 through the centre of Jyvaskyla.
Friday: The first proper day of rallying, we started with a good pace and settled in well. The new stage configuration of using smaller, narrower, rougher roads was tricky to say the least as they were still very fast in the little M-Sport Fiesta R2T. The Pirelli tyres worked really well, and our tyre strategy was giving us the grip we needed. I really enjoy these Finnish roads, it’s great to get a flow with the pacenotes and synch with the driver… it’s amazing how fast you can go.
Saturday: Iconic stages today, with the new narrower twist. We were locked in a great battle with New Zealand Champions Dave Holder/Jason Farmer, absolutely great guys and we were having a lot of fun – tiny gaps on every stage. Unfortunately, Dave and Jason picked up a double puncture on the second loop of stages dropping them out of contention. Meanwhile, we were feeling good in the car and especially in our pace notes – all the hard work since Portugal on our fitness, pace notes, and all-around performance, was really paying off.
Phil Hall jumps to best-ever JWRC finish with Tom Williams in Finland – Image credit M-Sport/JWRC
Sunday: 4 Stages. It’s not that far to hang on to our best result in the JWRC. Except this is Finland, and anything can happen. Finishing with the legendary Ruuhimaki test, and a monumental jump to finish (which we took absolutely flat, see the video on my social media), we kept on it to the very end and were rewarded with a fantastic result. Now we are focusing on the next round of the JWRC in Turkey.
Phil Hall (L) celebrates with Tom Williams (R) – Image credit M-Sport/JWRC
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@PhilHallRally) for more behind the scenes JWRC stuff!
After a fight through Friday with Mads Ostberg for the lead of this rally, Ott Tanak opened up a good lead through Saturday and then controlled his pace and 15 years after the last Estonian to win Rally Finland, took a very well-deserved victory. The championship protagonists found themselves playing bit parts further down the standings.
Here’s the story of how Rally Finland played out.
After Thursday’s short evening stage, Ott held the lead from Thierry and Seb.
The start list looked like this for Friday’s stages, running in championship order – Neuville, Ogier, Tänak, Lappi, Mikkelsen, Evans, Latvala, Breen, Ostberg, Suninen, Paddon, Al Qassimi. Ten stages awaited the crews out there.
The first stage of the day, SS2, was won by Ott, with Mads just behind, 1.3 seconds slower than the Toyota driver, with Teemu Suninen a further few seconds behind in third, and this was now the overall top three with Seb and Thierry now in seventh and ninth respectively. Craig suffered a puncture seven km’s into the twenty km stage, losing 47 seconds and falling to 18th overall. We would see a fightback from him through the rest of the rally.
Stage 3, a shorter 12km stage was won by Jari-Matti and with that, he passed Teemu, moving into a podium position. Craig put the disappointment of the puncture behind him and drove to second fastest, just eight tenths slower, whilst Ott increased the overall lead over Mads a little. Further back, Seb and Thierry were still in seventh and ninth, their road position hurting them.
Stage 4 saw a couple of dramatic moments – Mads took the lead after setting a great time 4.8 seconds faster than Ott and now in the lead by just half a second. However, Hyundai driver, Andreas went off the road, losing more than three minutes. Craig’s pace in the last two stages had brought him up into tenth overall.
The following stage, number 5 saw greater pace from Ott and coupled with some little mistakes from Mads, he retook the lead, by just 1.1 seconds. A mistake from Thierry saw him drop behind Craig and the Belgian was now over a minute behind the leader. Hayden though was now the top Hyundai driver, just nine tenths slower and second fastest, meaning he was now in fourth overall.
Midday service followed this stage, and then it was time to tackle the remaining six stages.
Mads started off in a strong way, winning stage 6 and retaking the lead from Ott and with Teemu going several seconds quicker than Jari-Matti and Hayden, he moved back into third overall! Showing how competitive these cars are three different cars in the top three, just nineteen seconds between them.
Mads and Ott continued their fight for the lead in stage 7, with them both setting identical times through the stage, the lead remaining at one tenth of a second. Jari-Matti retook third overall. Further back, Thierry remained in tenth overall, now one minute 41 from the lead, whilst Seb was in seventh, 54 seconds from first place.
Top three in stage 8 was Craig, Esapekka and Jari-Matti, whilst the overall top two were fifth and ninth fastest. It was Mads who opened up a gap of 1.9 seconds over Ott. The Norwegian was driving to a safe pace, knowing Ott wasn’t as fast.
The lead swapped again in stage 9 after Ott was fastest and with Mads nearly three seconds slower, the Estonian retook the lead by a second. Mads was not letting him get away, driving a sensible but fast stage as his tyres were quite worn. The rest of the positions in the top ten were pretty static though.
Stage 10 was won by Ott and with Mads seventh fastest there was now a 4.3 second gap between them. Further back, Hayden repassed Teemu in their battle over fourth place and Seb passed Elfyn, the Frenchman now in sixth. Craig set the fifth fastest time in the stage, despite starting to suffer with brake problems near the end.
The final stage of the day, 11, saw Seb set the fastest time from Ott and Thierry, who set identical times. Craig and Kalid suffered with fuel pressure problems in their C3’s, with Craig losing 27 seconds, but didn’t drop out of the top ten at least. A real shame for him, after a very good drive through the day after the puncture.
So, what a day. Toyota and Citroen both shared out the stage wins and Ott ended the day in the lead. Mads had driven really well, and had kept a great pace, leading at times as well.
STANDINGS AFTER DAY 1
Tänak / Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 1:02:26.0
Ostberg / Eriksen (Citroën C3 WRC) + 5.8
Latvala / Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 23.1
Paddon / Marshall (Hyundai i20 WRC) + 36.4
Suninen / Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 46.1
Ogier / Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 58.9
Evans / Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 1:01.1
Lappi / Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 1:01.4
Breen / Martin (Citroën C3 WRC) + 1:34.1
Neuville / Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) +1:57.7
24. Al Qassimi / Patterson (Citroën C3 WRC) +8:28.5
Let’s hear from the drivers. Top three first.
Ott Tänak
“I am really happy with my day. Everything has been working just perfectly. I have a lot of confidence in the car and it is really nice to drive on these roads. Except for one moment where I stalled the engine and lost a bit of time, I did everything that I could. The roads have been pretty slippery with a lot of cleaning. Tomorrow, we will have the same conditions as the guys we have been fighting with today, which will be good, but it still won’t be easy.”
FIA World Rally Championship 2018 / Round 08 / Rally Finland 2018 / July 26-29, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Mads Østberg
“I’m delighted for everyone in the team that I have managed to produce such a solid performance. We have all worked so hard together in order to make it happen. I really enjoyed driving my C3 WRC throughout the whole day. We are now going to try and keep it up tomorrow!”
Jari-Matti Latvala
“I think today has been pretty good. On the first stage it was difficult to get into the rhythm, but then I found it on the second stage. I also made the car a bit stiffer to have some more stability, and since that I’ve been happy. I was a bit too careful on the first stage this afternoon but I was able to fight back and claim third position. I am enjoying the driving and hopefully I can improve a bit more tomorrow.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Teemu Suninen (5th)
“It’s been a tough day. We were fighting for a podium position but then we had a few issues and dropped down to fifth. The driving has been on an okay level, but there is still some more to find and I hope that I can find that tomorrow.”
Sébastien Ogier (6th)
“If I’m honest, I expected things to happen the way they did today. With the roads being so dry, it was a tough day for us and we lost some time for sure. That said, I have to say hats off to Ott [Tänak] because he has been flying. Starting just behind us, he was setting times which were really impressive to watch.
“I think I did more or less what I could today. Of course, I could have gone a little faster – a few tenths here and there – but then I would have needed to take some big risks. Our road position will be a bit better tomorrow, and hopefully we can find some small things to be a bit faster. It’s not been an easy day, but we’ll keep trying tomorrow.”
Elfyn Evans (7th)
“We can’t be completely satisfied as this isn’t really the position we were looking for. Although to be fair, it was pretty clear that the road evolution played a big part over the morning loop. With the exception of Ott [Tänak] who was just on a different planet, we were faster than everyone in front of us but the guys behind were faster than us.
“We then struggled on a few stages this afternoon so it was okay but not perfect. There’s still a long way to go, and Saturday was a really good day for us last year – so we have to try and let’s just see what happens.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Hayden Paddon (4th)
“I think we can be pretty happy with our opening day, even if we could have probably taken a few more risks. We didn’t want to overdo it, because we were focused on getting the set-up right for the whole weekend. In the morning loop, we had to adapt to the conditions and our pace notes were a bit slow in places. From there, we started to enjoy the car and the stages more. We’ve been consistent, had good pace and that’s allowed us to stay in touch with the leading three. We’ve now got to build on this over the next two days.”
Thierry Neuville (10th)
“Starting first on the road, particularly in this event, makes life really tough from the outset. There was not much more we could do, as we struggled for grip and consistency. Things weren’t helped by the mistake in SS5 when we were too optimistic with a pace note. I was thinking about correcting it, but then missed the next one and ended up going straight into a ditch. We had to take it a bit easier after that. The mechanics did a great job at midday service to fix the car. We are losing some positions compared to Ogier, so we can’t really be happy but we knew it would be hard. We can only do our best in these circumstances and minimise the damage.”
2018 FIA World Rally Championship Round 08, Rally Finland 26-29 July 2018 Day 1 Action Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC Photographer: Helena El Mokni Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Andreas Mikkelsen
“It has been a very challenging start to Rally Finland for us. We made a mistake in SS4 during the morning loop, but we’ve struggled for pace throughout the day. You never want to make a mistake but I misheard a pace note. I thought Anders had said five minus, when it should have been four, which is quite a difference. We had a slow roll but were pushed back onto the stage by the Finnish spectators, who were very helpful. Thanks to my mechanics for getting us ready for the afternoon. We still have some work to do to get the right feeling but we will aim for a fresh start on Saturday.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing WRT
Craig Breen (9th)
“In terms of the times, we had a good rhythm and overall, it was a good day. Obviously, it’s frustrating to have picked up a puncture this morning and then to have had the fuel problem this evening, but that’s the way it goes, I guess. It’s gone now, so we’re already focusing on tomorrow’s leg. We’ll try to enjoy ourselves on these magnificent roads and do even better.”
Craig Breen, Scott Martin – Photo credit, Citroen Racing
Khalid Al Qassimi (24th)
“I really liked the fast, typically Finnish stages. Less so the stages that were very narrow and rough, but I adopted a cautious approach in these sections in order to keep out of trouble. I’m going to try and up my pace during the rest of the rally.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Esapekka Lappi (8th)
“This morning was a bit of a struggle: I stalled in a junction in the first stage, which was very disappointing, and after that I was having difficulty finding a rhythm. In service the engineers found a small issue on the car and were able to fix it. After that, it started to go well and the speed was more like what I was expecting. Of course, I wanted to be fighting for the victory, but there are still two days to go and some good chances to gain positions.”
Saturday would see eight stages for the crews to tackle and the start order looked like this – Al Qassimi, Mikkelsen, Neuville, Breen, Lappi, Evans, Ogier, Suninen, Paddon, Latvala, Østberg, Tänak.
Starting with SS12, the top three was Ott, Mads and Jari-Matti and now Ott’s lead had increased over Mads and Latvala was now on a mission to catch Mads. Further down the leaderboard, Esapekka and Elfyn overtook Ogier, who was now down to eighth.
Into SS13 and Ott increased his lead over Mads, who in turn was doing enough to keep Jari-Matti at arm’s length. Further back, just 14 seconds covered the gap between 6th and 8th. Craig was driving well and enjoying the car on the stages and wishing for a better road position.
In SS14, Ott continued to make the most of his road position and increased his lead a further few seconds, his overall lead now over twenty seconds after Mads made a couple of mistakes. Seb also passed Elfyn for seventh place.
The shorter stage SS15 saw Ott still faster than Mads, whose tyres were not giving him the feel he wanted. Last years winner, Lappi set a great time, going fourth fastest and passing Teemu for fifth place.
After service, the same stage was run as SS16. Jari-Matti and Ott set the same time, whilst Mads was only fifth fastest, losing a little over three seconds to the charging Finn. He’d made some changes to the car during the service break, with the hope that these would give him the opportunity to push harder on the longer stages.
Lappi kept the stage wins in the Toyota team camp with a great time through SS17. Jari-Matti closed the gap to Mads by five seconds, just twelve seconds between them now. The reason for this was that he had two spare tyres in the car and was finding the car harder to drive on the limit with the extra weight.
Esapekka won the following stage too, SS18 and with that moved ahead of Hayden Paddon, deposing the Kiwi to fifth, whilst the gap between Mads and Jari-Matti came down another four seconds to eight between them now. The ruts in the stage were hindering Craig, plus a little change that he made to his car between the stages actually gave the car understeer, and not giving him confidence to push into the corners.
Lappi really was on a mission, winning SS19 and building a gap to Hayden too, with a nine second gap between them. The fight was still on between Mads in second and Jari-Matti who wanted that position, with the Toyota driver taking another three seconds out of the Norwegian and now just five seconds behind. They’d have to wait now till Sunday to continue their battle.
It had been a remarkably good day, with just one accident and no reliability issues either. We still had all of the top cars and drivers.
STANDINGS AFTER DAY 2
Tänak / Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2:13:18.2
Ostberg / Eriksen (Citroën C3 WRC) + 39.0
Latvala / Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 44.4
Lappi / Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 1:20.6
Paddon / Marshall (Hyundai i20 WRC) + 1:29.6
Suninen / Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 1:45.1
Ogier / Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 2:07.6
Evans / Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 2:17.9
Breen / Martin (Citroën C3 WRC) + 2:56.4
Neuville / Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) +3:34.5
Let’s hear again then from the drivers after day two. Top three first
Ott Tänak
“Overall, it has been another a good day. In the morning we were in a good rhythm and our road position was so much better than yesterday, so we managed to increase the gap even though I was not pushing as hard. This afternoon I was a lot more cautious because the roads were pretty rough and we already had a good gap. It was not so enjoyable to drive like this, but we still managed to increase our lead, so I cannot complain. Tomorrow we have some pretty smooth and fast stages and I’m looking forward to it.”
Mads Østberg
“Once again, we gave it everything today on these magnificent and very demanding roads. With the warm conditions, in the afternoon we had to contend with high tyre wear. We also had extra weight from the two spares we took for the second loop, but I think we managed really very well to hang onto second place! I’m pretty confident about tomorrow. We’ve already shown that we can hold off Latvala.”
Jari-Matti Latvala
“It has been really enjoyable today. There was still a little bit of speed missing during the morning loop but we made some changes to the car in mid-day service and I started to get a better feeling and I could start to push more. This meant that I was wearing my tyres a lot, but it was amazing how fast we were still able to go. Of course, we need to try and attack tomorrow and try to get second place. But of course, if you do risks they need to be controlled risks and that’s important.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Esapekka Lappi (4th)
“It has been a really strong day, particularly this afternoon. The morning was pretty enjoyable and we managed to gain three places already. Then during the afternoon, I pushed really hard, and didn’t save the tyres at all. This was a very risky game because we didn’t have much rubber left for the last stage, and yet we were still fastest! Now the target for tomorrow is to stay ahead of the guys behind us.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Hayden Paddon (5th)
“It has been a marginally better day compared to Friday being second on the road. I feel we’ve had a decent day, considering, taking no risks. We know we have nothing to play for. It’s a difficult situation but we absolutely accept that. Now, we need to keep the car on the road and get to the end of the rally. Having led the championship for a few events, we knew there would come a time when our job would be trickier – and this rally is that moment! Finland is a particular event; we just have to enjoy it and accept our limitations.”
2018 FIA World Rally Championship Round 08, Rally Finland 26-29 July 2018 Hayden Paddon, Seb Marshall, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC Photographer: Austral Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Thierry Neuville (10th)
“It has been a marginally better day compared to Friday being second on the road. I feel we’ve had a decent day, considering, taking no risks. We know we have nothing to play for. It’s a difficult situation but we absolutely accept that. Now, we need to keep the car on the road and get to the end of the rally. Having led the championship for a few events, we knew there would come a time when our job would be trickier – and this rally is that moment! Finland is a particular event; we just have to enjoy it and accept our limitations.”
Andreas Mikkelsen (11th)
“It is always hard to be first on the road. Thierry had to manage yesterday and today it was my turn. We have had to use today’s stages effectively to get some mileage under our belts in an effort to improve the car. We are trying in all areas to find solutions but there’s not much we can do this weekend.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Teemu Suninen (6th) said:
“We made some good progress throughout the day and were able to make the car a bit faster during the midday service. In the second loop I had a much better feeling for the car and was able to set some much better times. We’re still missing a bit of pace compared to the guys at the front, but I was able to beat both of my team mates which means I can be happy with my day and my driving.”
Sébastien Ogier (7th) said:
“Performance wise, it’s not been the weekend we wanted – but we are ahead of Thierry [Neuville] which is always the main target. We’re still in a position to close the gap in the championship, and that is a positive.
“We all expected the Toyota’s to be the benchmark this weekend, but we were hoping to be closer too. We’re happy about the new package of parts, but with only one day of testing it was going to be a bit of a risk. We’ve used today as another test session, but we still have some work to do before we’re where we ultimately want to be.”
Elfyn Evans (8th) said:
“It’s not been a bad day and all three of us have been fighting quite closely together – although for sure we’d all like to have been fighting a bit higher up the leader board! We lost a bit of time this afternoon as I didn’t want to take the risks. We’ve got to play the team game and whatever happens we won’t be finishing ahead of Sébastien [Ogier] so it wasn’t worth taking the risks.”
Elfyn Evans and Dan Barritt, Photo credit M-Sport
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing WRT
Craig Breen (9th)
“Although it’s always frustrating for us as drivers to not be able to do any more, we had a decent day given our road position, setting similar times to those around us in the running order.”
Khalid Al Qassimi (Rally2)
“It’s a shame to have made a mistake in a technical section on the loose gravel, but these things can happen at events that are as difficult as this one. I have high hopes that I can make up some ground again tomorrow.”
Sunday would see four stages, totalling 45km, and they were all a little over 11km each in length. There was also the spectacular Ruuhimäki, with its huge jumps, including at the finish!
The running order was – Mikkelsen, Neuville, Breen, Evans, Ogier, Suninen, Paddon, Lappi, Latvala, Ostberg, Tänak, Al Qassimi.
The first stage of the day SS20, saw the demise of Esapekka Lappi, who crashed out. This promoted everyone up a position and now Andreas was in the top ten. Meantime Mads won the stage with Jari-Matti just nine-tenths of a second behind and second fastest.
This battle continued in SS21 and it was Jari-Matti who won the stage from Mads and the gap was now around five seconds again. Ott remained in control and in the lead, which was now thirty-three seconds.
Jari-Matti was really on a mission now, winning SS21 from Mads again, the overall gap between them now, just two and a half seconds. This was the only battle now, with the gaps between the others too big to overcome.
The final stage then, SS22 and Ott won it, taking maximum points from the weekend! Mads prevailed over a charging Latvala, scoring a great second place for him and Torstein would be standing on his first WRC podium too! We saw team orders come into play too, with Teemu slipping behind M-Sport team leader Ogier, allowing the reigning champion to take fifth place.
Well, Ott and Toyota had done it. They’d followed up Lappi’s victory from last year, and Jari-Matti had got a great podium with third. All three on the podium, had driven really well all weekend. None had been gifted their finishing position. The championship rivals were well down the field, Seb getting some assistance from Teemu and Elfyn to get fifth, whilst Thierry crossed the line in ninth place and keeping a good gap, if slightly reduced to Ogier.
Here’s the thoughts then of the drivers, starting with the top three.
Ott Tanak
“It has been a perfect weekend. Everything worked as we wanted. On Friday we had a really big job with our road position, and after that we could just increase our advantage. We had the perfect preparation and full support from the team. If you work together as one then these kinds of results are achievable. To win in Finland is definitely special. It’s kind of a home rally for me and it’s the home rally for the team. To win in front of all this support is incredible.”
FIA World Rally Championship 2018 / Round 08 / Rally Finland 2018 / July 26-29, 2018 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Mads Østberg
“I’m really, really happy to fighting at the front again on these incredible stages! It’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my racing career. I’m also delighted for everyone at Citroën. The guys did a fantastic job to get us in this position and I’m proud to be a part of this team. I knew from our pre-event test that this C3 WRC was the best car that I’d ever had on this rally and I’m pleased that we managed to show it this weekend.”
Mads Østberg was overjoyed with second place! Photo credit, Citroen Racing
Jari-Matti Latvala
“I gave everything today to try and get second place. It was a great fight. It really helps with the confidence when you fight as hard as this and you can keep everything together and not make mistakes. To be back on the podium after quite a long time feels really good, and especially to do it here in Finland. Together with the victory for Ott, this was a really important result for the team.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Hayden Paddon (4th)
“On the whole, I’m really happy with the weekend. We have been able to keep pace with some of the event favourites, maintaining a consistent performance. Naturally, we would have preferred to score a podium, of course, but we took a measured approach to secure important points for the manufacturers’ championship. The final morning was all about taking it easy to bring the car home with a comfortable gap behind us. I’ve really enjoyed the stages this weekend, the car has been a joy to drive and it has given me the confidence I need. We are back on the right track.”
Thierry Neuville (9th)
“Road position has really dictated a lot this weekend. Even without our mistake on Friday, when we misread a pace note, I don’t think we would have been any higher up the classification. We have had to accept our limits and focus on completing each stage with no further trouble. The main target was not losing too many points to Ogier, which we did to the best of our ability. We could only control what’s in our hands. We gave it everything we could in the Power Stage and it was good to take a couple of extra points. Overall, we have done our best, the team has done a good job and we can be proud of ourselves. We now look ahead to the team’s home event in Germany.”
Andreas Mikkelsen (10th)
“A difficult weekend for us. Any chance we might have had to feature further up the order was spoiled with our time loss on Friday morning’s loop. Losing three minutes due to a pace note error was just what we didn’t need, and it meant we were penalised as first on the road for Saturday and again this morning. We have had to avoid any unnecessary risks and use this event as a way of better understanding the car in these conditions but I’m sure we’ll be back on pace in Germany.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Sébastien Ogier (5th)
“For sure it was a difficult weekend for us and we expected to be a lot more competitive. The Fiesta performed really well here last year and every driver was able to set fastest times. That wasn’t the case this year and it was a bit of a bad surprise.
“We tried all we could, but there wasn’t a lot more we could do. That’s how it is and we just have to try and analyse why we were not able to keep up the pace this weekend. The positive is that we scored more points than Thierry [Neuville] – and that is anyways always our main target.”
Seb Ogier, Julian Ingrassia reduced the points lead after finishing four places ahead of Thierry and Nicolas. Photo credit M-Sport Ford WRT
Teemu Suninen (6th)
“It’s been a tough weekend for us. We wanted to challenge for the podium, but we were missing some pace and couldn’t fight with the fastest drivers. I was able to beat my team mates and I am happy with that, but we let Seb past just before the last stage as he’s the one fighting for the championship.”
Elfyn Evans (7th)
“It’s not been a terrible weekend driving wise and I don’t think anyone can say that they don’t enjoy driving these stages, but for sure seventh place wasn’t the result we wanted.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi Racing WRT
Craig Breen (8th)
“It was a difficult weekend for us, with the puncture on Friday that proved very costly, leaving us to clean the road for two days. We nevertheless managed to show our pace whenever the conditions enabled us to do so. It was nice, especially, to finish with a good time on the Power Stage, which means we can now look ahead to Germany with optimism.”
Khalid Al Qassimi (37th)
“Although it was a difficult rally for us, with our mistake yesterday morning, I’m pleased we were able to re-join the action today and enjoy these incredible stages. Above all, I’m delighted for the team, whose hard work has been rewarded by a great result.”
FINAL STANDINGS
Tänak / Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2 :35:18.1
Ostberg / Eriksen (Citroën C3 WRC) + 32.7
Latvala / Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) + 35.5
Paddon / Marshall (Hyundai i20 WRC) + 1:35.6
Ogier / Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 2:15.0
Suninen / Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 2:19.2
Evans / Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) + 2:29.5
Breen / Martin (Citroën C3 WRC) + 3:08.4
Neuville / Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) +3:51.8
Mikkelsen / Jaeger (Hyundai i20 WRC) +8:37.4
DRIVERS’ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Thierry Neuville – 153 points
Sébastien Ogier – 132 points
Ott Tänak – 107 points
Esapekka Lappi – 70 points
Dani Sordo – 60 points
Andreas Mikkelsen – 57 points
Jari-Matti Latvala – 55 points
Elfyn Evans – 52 points
Mads Ostberg – 48 points
Kris Meeke – 43 points
Craig Breen – 39 points
MANUFACTURERS’ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Hyundai WRT – 228 points
M-Sport Ford WRT – 202 points
Toyota Gazoo Racing – 201 points
Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT – 153 points
Well, the next round is Rallye Germany, 16th to the 19th of August, the scene of Thierry’s first win in 2014 for Hyundai. It really will be battle on for the championship between the Belgian and M-Sport’s champion Seb. Who else can challenge there? We know Elfyn goes well on tarmac, and Seb took a tarmac win this year too. Clearly, Citroen are making progress with their car again and you can’t discount Toyota, as they have last years winner, Ott as well!
Well, I’ve been here five years. I started out in the customer engineering department, spent a couple of years there, I was working with Nassar Al Al-Attiyah, and we did WRC2 and we won that championship, did a couple of years in the Middle East. I then transferred over to the works team in 2015 and been there ever since. I worked with Elfyn these past years including last year in the D-Mack car and obviously this year as well, so that’s where we’re at really. With the works team, we actually quite a small team, we have a lot of responsibilities, not just the car, kind of spread out to other departments.
Chris Roberts is the furthest from the camera – M-Sport engineer to Elfyn Evans and Dan Barritt / FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 -WRC Monte Carlo (FRA) – WRC 24/01/2018 to 28/01/2018 – PHOTO : @World
Okay, well the reason for this call is to get a point from the safety aspects of the way the cars are constructed, how you tackle the events, from that safety aspect, keeping everything safe so they can go all out knowing it’s all safe.
Warren Nel
The first question is, in terms of the FIA, what kind of checks do they do on the cars, are there any inspections for the cars, before you enter each year?
Chris Roberts
Yes, the main inspections are during scrutineering at each event, so with the car being homologated the FIA expect you turn up with a design that is homologated, within the safety regulations. As a manufacturer, we actually self-scrutineer before the event.
The event scrutineers and the FIA technical delegate will arrive in the service park and will go to each manufacturer team and they will inspect simple things like fire extinguishers, they’ll look at the cut off switches and they’ll check the safety foam around seat and the doors, side impact structures, just very basic checks, but they expect us to self-scrutineer and present the car in a safe manner. Now one of my responsibilities is to liaise between the FIA and ourselves with regard to what we are going to seal at each event, be it engines, transmissions, whatever it is we are sealing and we present a scrutineering form for each car and that declares that part is safe to start the event.
If you then get caught at post event scrutineering, if that part of the car is found not to conform to the form, there can be penalties. There is a certain amount of trust from the FIA to the manufacturers as we present the car in a safe manner. Now, that is different for a customer team, so anybody who competes as a customer WRC or in the WRC2 or any of the support championships, they don’t self-scrutineer, they are inspected a bit more thoroughly, as I guess they have fewer resources, they maybe are not familiar with the regulations, so they have to present their car to the FIA and pass a series of tests before they start. In that respect, it’s easier for a manufacturer, but a lot goes into it, with homologating the car and so on.
W.N
In terms of the construction of the car, were there many changes to the cars, compared to the previous generation, other than the obvious things?
C.R
Yes, there was a big drive in fact. The main concern from the FIA was looking back to the mid 2000’s, the cars hadn’t really progressed from then to 2015, 2016, so in that ten-year period the safety side hadn’t really developed, so there was a bit of a push from the FIA and also the Global Institute for motorsport safety, which is an independent body that sits inside the FIA. So, going back to when they presented the new regulations in 2015, the FIA came up with a safety road map for the WRC.
The first thing presented to the teams, a proposal for safety enhancements as part of the new for 2017 regulations. Now each car is fitted with an accident data recorder and using statistical analysis they were able to see the highest ‘G’ impacts on the cars could sustain without having any injuries and if there was a threshold above which there were injuries to the crews and then they would work to increase that threshold by improving various aspects of the safety that’s when they started to present a proposal for new equipment, to change the design of the cars that means that incorporated new seatbelts and new side impact, new regulations on seats as well.
That was all the effort to increase the safety. Now the safety road map is something that all the teams are working towards, for 2017 we had to as part of the new regulations, the cars were wider and that allowed us to add 20% extra impact foam and this was in the door the carbon structure along the sill as well. As well as that we were able to introduce new regulations for the fuel tanks and we had to fit a medical light to the windscreen so that in an impact of over 25g the light switches on and any marshal that arrives at the car, if this bright blue light is flashing, then the crew will need medical attention.
W.N
Thinking then during an event, if there is any damage to the car during an event what happens there, obviously you’d try to fix it, but would the FIA come a re-inspect the car before it goes back out?
C.R
If it’s an impact that damages the safety cage, the FIA will want to inspect that. If it’s an impact that we deem we car repair, we’ll have to get the car re-scrutineered again during the rally2 service, plus if it’s an impact that we deem we can’t repair then at that point the FIA remove the seals that are on the body shell and roll cage and then when that shell is repaired and brought back into circulation, it will have to be re-inspected and sealed again.
We always have the FIA technical delegates around and they’ll always be checking if there is any damage to the roll cage. Effectively the roll cage can be damaged and repaired during an event. We can change parts of the roll cage if we need to, but if we do that it has to be with a piece that’s already been pre-inspected at the start of the homologation process to the car, we will present pieces of roll cage that aren’t assembled to the FIA and they will fit seals to them and those will be the only parts we can fit into the car.
W.N
How many pieces would you therefore be transporting to each event?
C.R
Well, I think we carry three full kits to each event, actually and they take up a lot of space. Certainly, since this new generation of car that came in at the start of last year (2017) we’ve never had impacts there, we’ve not needed to replace roll cage parts, but we’ve only had one large accident, which was with Elfyn in Mexico, and in that case the shell had to be completely rebuilt and that car hasn’t come back into circulation yet, so when that does come back in we’ll have to get it re-inspected and sealed again.
W.N
Now thinking of the safety crews that go into the stages, when are they mainly used?
C.R
They are mainly for tarmac events, and each crew has a safety crew and they don’t have to be a qualified person, but they tend to be. Obviously in Elfyn’s respect, it’s his dad, ex-WRC driver Gywndaf and Phil Mills and these guys have a timetable they have to follow when they go through the stages and that can be as close as forty minutes before the stage actually goes live and those guys would call back to the crews and engineering as well and then if they correct the notes they will pass those through the team back to the rally crew.
W.N
Of course, we saw Phil Mills sit in alongside Elfyn after Dan’s concussion which was caused by that high-speed roll during Mexico, so I asked Chris about this.
C.R
It’s something that I feel quite strongly about, I have strong views personally. The issue with the crews, when they get concussion is it maybe that they feel okay within themselves, or they may not feel they have concussion, but say in Dan’s case, he felt ill, he wasn’t sure if he could continue, so in that case the first point of contact between the team and the crew is myself or the car engineer, so it’s possible if you don’t have immediate medical assistance to basically diagnose possible concussion, you can end up with the crew speaking directly to the engineer, I don’t know if we can continue, and for me I think someone who has not qualified and should not have an opinion on medical issues and it shouldn’t really fall to the team or the engineer to make a decision if they should continue or not.
With Dan, it was a case that he felt a bit ill, and obviously didn’t know he was concussed, and we took a view that he had to seek medical assistance, but he did one more stage after the accident, a little super special before coming into service – so he actually went through another stage, a small stage, and the kind that you wouldn’t expect them to have another accident, but because there hadn’t been any kind of medical assistance where he was checked out, it’s possible they could have had another accident there, so for me I think that was a bit of a failing there in the safety system. I think that’s something that needs to be looked at. (Chris made it clear this was his own personal opinion).
M-Sport mechanics hard at work. Photo credit Anna Rudd, M-Sport Ford
Chris also talked about Julian Ingrassia, who suffered concussion last year at Rally Finland.
C.R
They were both side impacts, which were between the head and the seat, which is an area the FIA are looking at, going forward and next year they are bringing in a new helmet standard for Formula One which is supposed to improve safety. We’ve not seen a rally version yet, but the intention of the FIA is back to the safety road map is that will be introduced next year. Hopefully that will reduce these concussions.
W.N
One more question for you then – When the recce is completed, do you sit down with Elfyn and Dan and discuss the stages?
C.R
Yes, we have a team debrief, and debrief just after the event with all the crews together, go through aspects of the cars performance, team performance as well. We’ll also give feedback to the team manager about how the event has been run, tend to do that as soon as possible after the event, so we’ll do that at four or five o’clock, Sunday afternoon.
Then after that we’ll conduct our test for the next event which tends to be a about a week later. Now with Elfyn in the UK, he sometimes comes up to the factory and we’ll sit down in the office and we’ll look at things in more detail, so in that respect it’s quite good that he’s only a few hours down the road, and we can get together and look at some things. Obviously, the relationship between the engineer and the crew is a close one. We are always in constant contact.
W.N
Finally, I asked Chris if there was anything he wanted to talk about additionally.
C.R
Well, we’ve got a few more safety things coming in the pipeline. Things being brought forward by the FIA. One area we’re working on with the FIA is the seat rails, integrating the seats into the bodyshell. We’re looking how these can bend and deform to take some of the impact away from the crew, and this is something which will be introduced for 2020 – that’s the seats themselves, the way they’re anchored into the shell.
For next year we’ll start using the Formula One biometric gloves, so basically the crew will wear these, and they’ll send real time data, actually measure blood oxygen levels, that will be sent to the FIA and the medical crew and if there’s been an accident, particularly an accident where the car has gone off the road and they can’t quite reach the crew, the medical crews will be able to assess the crew without being with the crew and this will be a good advancement.
One final thing which is being brought in is a high-speed camera, which is fitted into the cockpit and this means we can see the impacts and how the body is moving inside the car and that’s something that’s started being used in Formula One and we started testing that, with the intention to bring that in next year.
These are all good steps indeed to look after the crews and Chris said,
Rallying is a living environment, rather than a circuit, so has different safety requirements.
Finally, I’d like to say a big thank you to Anna at M-Sport for being so helpful in arranging this and to Chris a massive thank you for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions.
Look out during this week for more articles from my colleagues about safety in motorsport.
The summer break is over and there are six rounds left this year. Thierry Neuville leads the championship by twenty-seven points over the reigning champion, Sebastien Ogier. The Frenchman has also not finished this event for the last two years, but can be quick, having taken victory in 2013. His Belgian rival will want a decent haul of points from this event but opening the road will make it hard for him to fight for victory, particularly with the three Toyota’s having been honed to perfection on the very unique gravel roads that make this event so hard for non-Scandinavians to win.
FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 -WRC Finland (FIN) – WRC 26/07/2017 to 31/07/2017 – PHOTO : @World
Now, there’s a good chance that Toyota could sew up the whole podium, with former winners Jari-Matti and Esapekka Lappi in the team, plus a very quick Ott Tanak, but who could challenge this? Well, Elfyn Evans scored a brilliant second place last year, after being patient early on and getting the car in a good place, showed great pace on the Saturday and Sunday to score his best result ever on these roads.
Hoping to do well will be the Citroen squad. Two years ago, Kris Meeke took an incredible victory, the first for any British driver, beating Jari-Matti. Now Craig Breen and Mads Ostberg are the drivers the team are looking to, and both have scored podiums on this event. The key to their chances will be with whether they can take advantage of the road position on Friday, which if they can, will benefit them both on Saturday and Sunday.
Here’s the full schedule for the event. Sixty-five percent of the stages are new, and two that were run last year are being run in the opposite direction. Getting those pace notes correct during the reece which takes place today (Tuesday) and Wednesday will be so important.
RALLY FINLAND SCHEDULE (GMT+3)
THURSDAY 26 JULY
8.00am: Shakedown Vesala (4,26 km)
6.37pm: Start (Jyväskylä Paviljonki)
7.00pm: SS 1 – Harju 1 (2,31 km)
7.25pm: Parc fermé
FRIDAY 27 JULY
7.15am: Service A (Jyväskylä Paviljonki – 15 min)
8.18am: SS 2 – Moksi 1 (20,04 km)
9.21am: SS 3 – Urria 1 (12,28 km)
10.13am: SS 4 – Ässämäki 1 (12,33 km)
11.36am: SS 5 – Äänekoski 1 (7,71 km)
12.51pm: Service B (Jyväskylä Paviljonki – 30 min)
2.24pm: SS 6 – Oittila (19,34 km)
3.27pm: SS 7 – Moksi 2 (20,04 km)
4.30pm: SS 8 – Urria 2 (12,28 km)
5.22pm: SS 9 – Ässämäki 2 (12,33 km)
6.45pm: SS 10 – Äänekoski 2 (7,71 km)
8.00pm: SS 11 – Harju 2 (2,31 km)
8.30pm: Flexi service C (Jyväskylä Paviljonki – 45 min)
SATURDAY 28 JULY
6.00am: Service D (Jyväskylä Paviljonki – 15 min)
8.13am: SS 12 – Päijälä 1 (23,92 km)
9.29am: SS 13 – Pihlajakoski 1 (14,90 km)
10.38am: SS 14 – Kakaristo 1 (23,66 km)
12.13pm: SS 15 – Tuohikotanen 1 (8,95 km)
1.31pm: Service E (Jyväskylä Paviljonki – 30 min)
2.55pm: SS 16 – Tuohikotanen 2 (8,95 km)
4.08pm: SS 17 – Kakaristo 2 (23,66 km)
5.36pm: SS 18 – Päijälä 2 (23,92 km)
6.54pm: SS 19 – Pihlajakoski 2 (14,90 km)
8.55pm: Flexi service F (Jyväskylä Paviljonki – 45 min)
SUNDAY 29 JULY
7.30am: Service G (Jyväskylä Paviljonki – 15 min)
8.38am: SS 20 – Laukaa 1 (11,74 km)
9.38am: SS 21 – Ruuhimäki 1 (11,12 km)
11.01am: SS 22 – Laukaa 2 (11,74 km)
1.18pm: SS 23 – Ruuhimäki 2 Power Stage (11,12 km)
2.21pm: Service H (Jyväskylä Paviljonki – 10 min)
4.00pm: Podium
So, lets hear from the drivers.
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“Sardinia was an incredible weekend, we couldn’t have hoped for a better result heading into the summer break! Now I’m ready to carry the momentum forward into the second half of the season. Finland is one of those rallies that everyone looks forward to. It’s going to be tricky this year coming into it after the extended break and jumping straight in the car. For the second event in a row, we’ll be first on the road and won’t have the advantage of the sweeping effect to begin with. It will be tough as the speed is very high – but I can’t wait for the challenge.”
2017 FIA World Rally Championship, Round 09, Rally Finland 27 – 30 July 2017, Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC, Photographer: RaceEMotion, Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Andreas Mikkelsen
“Rally Finland is a really nice rally – it’s probably the event the drivers fear most, but also the one they really want to win! Because the grip is so low, you have to be very confident in the car to go fast on the stages. We were disappointed we couldn’t show our true potential in Sardinia, so hopefully we can find a good pace quickly and push hard to bring home a strong result.”
Hayden Paddon
“For me, Finland is the most incredible rally of the year. Not only are the roads, the jumps, and the pure speed impressive but also the atmosphere is electric. It really makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. I’m really looking forward to getting back into the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC. We hope we can put the pieces together this year to bring home a strong result.”
M-Sport Ford
Sébastien Ogier
“It was nice to have a little break and spend some time relaxing with family and friends, but now the action is ready to resume and we’re fully focused on Rally Finland.
“For so many people this is the highlight of the year and it’s easy to see why. There is an atmosphere here that you don’t get anywhere else and the roads were tailor-made for rallying.
“This is the fastest event on the calendar and at those speeds its mere tenths of a second that you’re fighting for. The competition will be extremely strong, but the engineers and designers from M-Sport and Ford Performance have been working tirelessly to ensure we’re in the best possible position.
“We’ll have some aerodynamic updates on the rear of the car that we hope will give us that little bit extra in terms of performance, but we’ll still have to get absolutely everything right over the course of the weekend if we want to be in the fight for the top results.
These are the updates that will be run on Seb’s car.
“We know that the car was strong here last year and we had a good feeling on the test, but this is a rally that doesn’t forgive even the smallest of mistakes. We’ll certainly give it our best and the goal is always to come home with a strong haul of points.”
Elfyn Evans
“It feels like a long time since we were last in competition, but we’ve not been sitting idle! The team have been working extremely hard, we’ve had a good test, and I’ve also been doing a lot of PR work with Ford and Red Bull.
“I was involved in an advert for the new Fiesta ST – a great little road car – and also got behind the wheel of the Fiesta WRC to film some promotion with Red Bull ahead of Goodwood Festival of Speed. The festival itself was great, but now we’re ready to get back to business, and start the second half of the season with one of the highlights of the year – Rally Finland.
“I’d challenge anyone who said they didn’t enjoy driving Finland’s gravel roads in a world rally car! The high speed combined with the technical nature of the stages is incredible, and when you get into a good rhythm it’s a phenomenal feeling.
“We did well here last year and found a good feeling on the test; but the margins for error are so fine and the gaps so small that even the slightest of mistakes can be costly. The competition is going to be strong so we’ll need to be note perfect and deliver a very clean and precise drive. If we can do that, and get everything right, then I’d hope that we’ll be in with a good chance.”
Last year Elfyn drove his D-Mack shod Fiesta to second place. Photo credit, M-Sport
Teemu Suninen
“We had a really good test and are feeling ready and well prepared for the rally. We drove more than 200 kilometres on our test day – starting with the base set-up my team mates found earlier in the week. All three of us drive with a pretty equal set-up, so there were only some small confirmations to find and the car feels really fast.
“Having come so close last year, the top-three is my ultimate goal. It could be hard to achieve, but we will try our best. At the end it’s such a small margin that decides whether you finish third or sixth!
“Starting the first forest stage last year I was pretty nervous, but as soon as I saw the time and saw that my speed was enough I felt better straight away. This year the rally will be driven on similar roads and we have a very good feeling with the car in the high-speed sections. We’ll start the rally as we mean to continue – driving flat-out.”
Toyota Gazoo WRT
Jari-Matti Latvala
“I am really looking forward to Rally Finland. It is a good opportunity to start the second half of the season in a positive way. I have always felt really good support on my home event, and this is even more the case now that we are driving a car that has been built here. I could really feel last year that everybody was behind the team and willing us on. One of the big challenges this year will be the changes to the route. I have driven some of the new roads before, but it was a long time ago and there are large sections that even I don’t know. Therefore, I think it will actually create a more level playing field.”
Ott Tanak
“Rally Finland is always one of my favourite events. It is quite a specific rally: really high-speed but also quite technical with the jumps. You really need to have some respect for the roads there. This year there will be a lot of new roads that we have not seen before, which will add to the challenge. I think we have had some really good preparation. As well as our pre-event testing, I took part in Rally Estonia last weekend and won it, which was quite nice in front of so many fans. I am sure that a few of them will go to Rally Finland as well, and I hope we can give them a good result there too.”
Esapekka Lappi
“Rally Finland is always a special event and even more so after our victory last year. I am really looking forward to it. There is more pressure this year. From my side, I am expecting a good result and I think everyone else is too, so we really need to perform. I think it will be tougher to win it this time, though. The competition will be tougher, both from inside our team and from the other teams as well. The new stages will also create a big challenge. We know that our car will be competitive so the focus will be on making good pace-notes and finding a nice flow with the driving.”
FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 -WRC Finland (FIN) – WRC 26/07/2017 to 31/07/2017 – PHOTO : @World
Citroen Abu Dhabi WRT
Craig Breen
“Rally Estonia was excellent preparation for me. It gave us the opportunity to look at a few things and we also noted that with the new front geometry, the C3 WRC is even better balanced. I feel very confident coming into this round, especially as it’s one of the world championship events where I have the most experience. Experience is absolutely critical here, even though some of the stages have changed for this year’s rally.”
Craig Breen, Scott Martin will be hoping for a good result on these challenging roads. Photo credit Citroen Racing
Mads Østberg
“This really is one of my favourite events of the season. Although you need to make good pace notes in recce, afterwards it’s all-out attack! You don’t have to worry about tyre wear or the road surface breaking up. I have some very good memories from here, especially the podium secured when driving for Citroën in 2015, and I hope to take advantage of my two days of pre-event testing to get off to a good start and try to reproduce the same kind of performance.”
Khalid Al Qassimi
“This round is special for me because it’s where I made my debut in a works team in 2007. The feeling in the car during the stages, with the high speeds and never-ending crests, is also unique. It’s also what makes it such a difficult rally: you must be really comfortable and have good pace notes. As my last outing was in Argentina, I’ll need to get my bearings back first of all. I’ll then try to up the pace gradually whilst making sure I don’t make any mistakes.”
Well, can Hyundai score their first ever podium on these roads this year, or will we see a podium lockout for the Toyota team? What about Seb? Will he use the new aero on the back of his car to win? Can Citroen have a better event and challenge at the front?
