planetf1.com

I never went out of my way to watch modern rallying and its not even on freeview so no choice in the matter now but I used trek into the Welsh forests in terrible weather to see Vatenen or Mikkola in his Quattro and various other places to see the mighty MK2 Escorts.

Maybe the turbo wasn't the same on this car.

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This is ridiculous disqualification.

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Renault!

2012 Planet F1 Prediction Competition Champion

Citroen is not appealing the DQ of Hirvonen. That almost ensures Loebster's 9th title (since consistency was Slow-Hirvonen's only hope and Latvis crashes out from top spot every rally).

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So... Latvala's injured. God damn.

It's all to do for Solberg now.

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"I am a believer, but I start each Grand Prix with 195 liters of fuel behind me," he explains. "I don't rely entirely on God, I rely on Prost."

Sordo to replace Latvala in Argentina.

prodrive are missing argentina and greece

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The whole Prodrive/BMW business is such a mess. And it's Kris Meeke I feel sorry for. To have that golden opportunity taken away.

But surely Ford have to throw all of their support behind Solberg now.

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"I am a believer, but I start each Grand Prix with 195 liters of fuel behind me," he explains. "I don't rely entirely on God, I rely on Prost."

rally argentina 2moro, loeb quickest on qualy stage

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Does anyone else think Hirvonen is doing better than expected at Citroen? Despite coming to a team built around Loeb and having a clear no.2 status, he's pretty much matching him already.
After stage 9:

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Rosberg - Bottas

Citroen gifts win to Loeb with team order. 1-2 positions freezed.

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Latvala fail again in greece.......

puncture and broken caliper on stage 14

loeb has 14 sec lead on solberg after 16 stages

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Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! OH MY GOD!!!!

Sebastien Loeb will be competing at the X Games here in LA!!!!!

http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/100370

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I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing for Ford. Latvala is SO fast but he crashes SO much, but it could be bad for Ford if he stops the crashing while at Volkswagen, because then he will become an almighty pain in their ass.

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Snake, how do you think they will do with Ogier and Latvala? Equal treatment or will Latvala be the supporting driver?

Who will be alongside Petter next year?

I was so hoping for Petter to go to VW, he certainly deserves a chance

I think they will get equal treatment to start, but I think Ogier is the better driver right now, so I think he will be #1 eventually.

As for Ford, IMO it should be Mads Ostberg. He has been great the past two seasons and he has enough experience now to really contribute to a factory team, but I also think Juho Hanninen deserves a chance. He clearly has talent and he has WRC experience.

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Ah, that's right, Hänninen did hope he would get the seat last season. Östberg was impressive too, wonder if Ford takes him

Snake, is Carlos Sainz team manager in VM or do I remember wrong?

As for Ogier, he was really fast, it was a shame that Loeb couldn't take competition... I actually stopped following rally after that, since Ogier was promised he could race Loeb and then all of a sudden he was demoted. I have a slight problem with Citroen

As far as I know, Sainz is a consultant and part-time test driver for the team.

I sort of agree with you with regards to Citroen. I think Loeb was still the faster of the two last year (not by much), and he is more experienced with regards to challenging for titles, so IMO he deserved to be the main challenger at the end.

To be fair, Citroen let the two drivers race early on, like at Rally Portugal, when Loeb was behind Hirvonen in the points (his 2nd and his Power stage win only tied him with Mikko) but Ogier was allowed to win even though Loeb was about 30 seconds behind and Latvala was something like 4 minutes behind in 3rd entering the final day. They could've told Ogier to get some penalties to let Loeb go ahead but, to their credit, they didn't. Then again, they might not have thought that Ogier would challenge Loeb like he did the rest of the year and might've been content to let Ogier have his moment.

Either way, I hope Loeb sticks around next year so that Ogier can fight him again.

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Thanks Snake, then who is the team manager? Sorry for the questions

I won't go into the Loeb-Citroen -discussion, otherwise I will start to drag up all incidents from years before which screamed 'UNFAIR'

I have no idea. I know that Kris Nissen is VW's motorsport director, but that's it, really.

And don't worry about asking many questions. It's nothing to apologize for. Ask away!

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You are sweet Snake, thank you

Kris Nissen? I read some disturbing things about him last year on a Swedish motorsport-website... sexual harrassment etc.

If he is there then hopefully there are no women in the team

After all these years, I finally got to see him drive with my own eyes, right in front of me. I was there when Sebastian Loeb destroyed everyone at X Games. Yes, Block was staying close before his right-rear tire punctured at the start of lap 3, but he was never gonna catch him. To see with my own eyes what I've admired for so long was so fucking awesome, I didn't want the race to end. He makes it look so easy. He's so damn good. Nobody had a chance.


Hope he comes back next year.

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Yeah great job by Loeb. Such a shame Grönholm had to miss the event, I was looking forward to the two of them duelling once again

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Rosberg - Bottas

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100873


Good news.

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Rosberg - Bottas

Me, too. I wouldn't be surprised if, even though he was challenged by Pastrana, he went to X Games to race Gronholm.

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Loeb ahead after day one in Finland.

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 15m07.1s
2. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 7.3s
3. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 7.3s
4. Mads Ostberg Adapta Ford + 7.5s
5. Thierry Neuville Citroen Junior + 9.0s
6. Petter Solberg Ford + 9.2s
7. Chris Atkinson Qatar Citroen + 15.6s
8. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 18.2s
9. Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford + 21.1s
10. Jari Ketomaa Autotek Ford + 33.1s

He played down his chances of winning again this year, but yet again he starts off strongly.

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Red Bull I feckin hate ya, but I love you today

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101750

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"I am a believer, but I start each Grand Prix with 195 liters of fuel behind me," he explains. "I don't rely entirely on God, I rely on Prost."

Sounds great. I know some will see a conflict of interest there since Red Bull sponsor Citroen but I think it will be fine.

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It's the 90th Pikes peak international hill climb this wknd, Romain Dumas in a Porsche GT3R fastest on the first day's practice.

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Yay it's going to happen! Can't wait to see the open wheel class vids afterwards.

I think Dumas is in the Open class. I shouldn't be surprised he a Porsche GT3 is fastest since the whole trail is now paved. BTW, interesting that Tajima is racing in the electric class this year instead of the Unlimited class. I wonder how that Suzuki will sound and how fast it will go now that it's all-electric.

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[Deutschland SS9] Petter Solberg slid wide on a corner and hit a rock causing damage making it not possible for him to continue

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oops...

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Loeb's 3rd career 5-rally win streak of his career, IIRC. To my surprise, Mikko was actually starting to get comfy on tarmac (halfway through the rally, but better late than never!).

Can't wait for Neuville to get into Loeb's car once Loeb retires. He will be very good.

And for the love of god, VW, put the Polo into service already! I can't wait to see what Ogier will do with it!

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spectator killed in irc.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102172

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Hyundai into the WRC in 2013!



Part time in 2013, then a full run from 2014 on.

So then, Citroen, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Mini (hopefully) and Ford (also hopefully). Red Bull is officially the new promoter. Can't wait for next season!

Amazing how the series' outlook has done a complete 360 since last December.



Also, I'm going to miss Loeb. What a legend, but at least he will take part in a few rallies next season.

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Yvan Muller and Romain Dumas are contesting the Rally of France this weekend in a pair of Mini John Cooper Works.





+


= my dream of having a set of these wheels

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1st day

http://184.106.145.74/michelin/cstg_wrc.html#

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Solberg hits a telegraph pole on SS9



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHTgPCUU ... r_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InaK-NtB ... r_embedded

unbelievable onboard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuOOdKQY ... r_embedded

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I wonder if they will actually pay their bills this time

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."