2023 WRC and Off Road Discussion *includes 'Dakar' *

[Cheeveer]

Bottom post of the previous page:

[Everso Biggyballies]

Ogier into early lead, Neuville caught out by ice

Well we thought Ogier was likely to show his Monte class and he certainly did by monstering the opening stages at the Col de Turini..... 6 seconds clear of Evans. Seemed to be bone dry but alas Neuville found a big patch of black ice and skated off. He ended 4th after the first night. He wasnt the only one to find the ice but he finded a way to get further wide than others and stalled in the process. Without the time lost there he would have been on the pace.....

Ott Tanak ended the opening night in third, 15.4s adrift despite reliability with his Ford Puma.......he suffered an electrical issue on the road section to the stage. then then lost the use of fifth gear in the stage, but managed to reach the finish only losing 8.6s.I

hope it isnt going to be a season of M-Sport unreliability. He deserves better.

Kalle Rovanpera, who opened the road, came through the stages in fifth, 17.1s shy in his Toyota. Dani Sordo Pierre-Louis Loubet (M-Sport), Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) and Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) filled sixth through to ninth. Katsuda lost plenty of time with a handbrake issue

Day 1 Highlights | WRC Rallye Monte-Carlo 2023

Into the darkness we go! The opening night of the 2023 season already caused trouble for some crews as they ran over the famous Col de Turini test…

WRC Rally Monte Carlo - Standings after SS2

Cla Driver Car Time Gap
1 Sebastien Ogier Toyota 26m33.7s
2 Elfyn Evans Toyota 26m39.7s 6.0s
3 Ott Tanak Ford 26m49.1s 15.4s
4 Thierry Neuville Hyundai 26m49.2s 15.5s
5 Kalle Rovanpera Toyota 26m50.8s 17.1s
6 Dani Sordo Hyundai 27m05.8s 32.1s
7 Pierre-Louis Loubet Ford 27m14.0s 40.3s
8 Esapekka Lappi Hyundai 27m15.1s 41.4s
9 Takamoto Katsuta Toyota 27m30.7s 57.0s
10 Nikolay Gryazin Skoda 27m40.3s 1m

[MonteCristo]

Into the darkness we go!

Warning:

Things go...

... bump ...

... in the night.

[Everso Biggyballies]

The moon was shining....?

[Everso Biggyballies]

Day 1 Highlights | WRC Rallye Monte-Carlo 2023

Into the darkness we go! The opening night of the 2023 season already caused trouble for some crews as they ran over the famous Col de Turini test…

This clip shows more drivers having issues with the ice and also shows some better footage of other action. Fan footage.

[Cheeveer]

Hm, only Evans is with Ogier on pace, but has lost 45 seconds with a puncture. Meanwhile Gryazin the non-Russian is leading WRC2 but Oliver Solberg is hand-over-fist fastest in the class, but lost 2 minutes with a puncture on SS2. Bummer that!

[Everso Biggyballies]

Hm, only Evans is with Ogier on pace, but has lost 45 seconds with a puncture. Meanwhile Gryazin the non-Russian is leading WRC2 but Oliver Solberg is hand-over-fist fastest in the class, but lost 2 minutes with a puncture on SS2. Bummer that!

Apparently Ogier also had issues...... he was without hybrid boost for two of the three stages this morning. Despite that he still hasnt lost a stage yet.

WRC Rally Monte Carlo - Standings after SS5

Cla Driver Time Gap
1 Sébastien Ogier 56m43.8s
2 Thierry Neuville 57m16.5s 32.7s
3 Kalle Rovanperä 57m18.3s 34.5s
4 Ott Tänak 57m24.0s 40.2s
5 Elfyn Evans 57m38.5s 54.7s
6 Dani Sordo 57m47.9s 1m04.1s
7 Esapekka Lappi 58m07.1s 1m23.3s
8 Takamoto Katsuta 58m07.6s 1m23.8s
9 P-L.Loubet 59m15.3s 2m31.5s
10 Nikolay Gryazin 59'24.4 2m40.6s


Monte-Carlo 2023 - Highlights Friday Morning

[Cheeveer]

Just Ogier doing Ogier things... comfortable lead ahead of Saturday.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Loubet crashes out after being caught out by ice

Pierre-Louis Loubet became the first Rally1 retirement of the season following a crash on Stage 9 in Monte Carlo.
He slid wide after hitting the ice while crossing a bridge that marked the end of the stage. The right-rear corner of the car clouted the barriers causing significant damage. Damage is not major, but due to the lack of service between stages (only a remote tyre fitting zone) He was unable to replace a broken hub bracket in the circumstances but will be back tomorrow.

Ogier still leads overall after SS9 ..... although Rovanpera won the stage with Evans 2nd and Ogier 3rd. It seems Ogier is already driving at reduced pace to minimise risk. He leads by 33 secs from Rovanpera, with Neuville 4.6s further back in third overall.



Yesterday (Day 2) highlights

[Everso Biggyballies]

After stage 14/18 Ogier still leads but Rovanpera has halved the margin today down to 16 seconds.
Lets not even think that Ogier might lose this rally. He has not been pushing his limits since gaining his lead to ensure he doesnt get into short cutting corners and risking punctures that potentially would lose him the rally. 4 stages to go and he can go faster if need be. Meanwhile the followers have to take the risks to gain the time.



POS CAR NO DRIVER CO-DRIVER TEAM / CAR ELIGIBILITY GROUP CLASS DIFF 1ST
1 #17 FRA S. OGIER FRA V. LANDAIS GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID M RC1
2 #69 FIN K. ROVANPERÄ FIN J. HALTTUNEN GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID M RC1 +16.0
3 #11 BEL T. NEUVILLE BEL M. WYDAEGHE i20 N Rally1 HYBRID M RC1 +32.0
4 #33 GBR E. EVANS GBR S. MARTIN GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID M RC1 +56.5
5 #8 EST O. TÄNAK EST M. JÄRVEOJA Puma Rally1 HYBRID M RC1 +1:37.3
6 #18 JPN T. KATSUTA IRL A. JOHNSTON GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID RC1 +2:15.7
7 #6 ESP D. SORDO ESP C. CARRERA i20 N Rally1 HYBRID M RC1 +3:08.8
8 #4 FIN E. LAPPI FIN J. FERM i20 N Rally1 HYBRID M RC1 +3:11.4
9 #24 ANA N. GRYAZIN ANA K. ALEKSANDROV Fabia RS WRC2 (T/DC/CC) RC2 +8:06.1
10 #21 FRA Y. ROSSEL FRA A. DUNAND C3 WRC2 (D/C) RC2 +8:21.3
11 #34 ESP P. LÓPEZ ESP B. ROZADA i20 N WRC2 (DC/CC) RC2 +8:43.9
12 #22 FRA S. LEFEBVRE FRA A. MALFOY C3 WRC2 (D/C) RC2 +8:46.8
13 #27 CZE E. CAIS CZE P. TESÍNSKÝ Fabia RS WRC2 (DC/CC) RC2 +9:05.6
14 #20 FRA A. FOURMAUX FRA A. CORIA Fiesta MkII WRC2 (T/D/C) RC2 +9:17.0
15 #28 GBR C. INGRAM GBR C. DREW Fabia Evo WRC2 (DC/CC) RC2 +10:27.3
16 #23 SWE O. SOLBERG GBR E. EDMONDSON Fabia RS RC2 +10:28.2
17 #25 LUX G. MUNSTER BEL L. LOUKA Fiesta MkII WRC2 (T/DC/CC) RC2 +11:36.1
18 #26 BOL M. BULACIA ESP A. CORONADO Fabia RS WRC2 (T/DC/CC) RC2 +12:05.7
19 #37 FRA F. DELECOUR FRA S. DE CASTELLI Fabia RS WRC2 (DM/C) RC2 +12:48.3
20 #35 ESP A. CACHÓN ESP A. LÓPEZ C3 WRC2 (DC/CC) RC2 +13:59.9
21 #9 GRC J. SERDERIDIS BEL F. MICLOTTE Puma Rally1 HYBRID RC1 +22:51.3

[Everso Biggyballies]

Day 3 Highlights





As mentioned above just 4 stages to go and Ogier is in control...... Two passes over ‘Lucéram/Lantosque’ and two runs of ‘La Bollène-Vésubie-Col de Turini’. The very last doubles up as the ‘Power Stage’

Expectation from me is a record taking 9th Monte Carlo win for Ogier.

[SBan83]

Just watched the Saturday highlights on Redbull.tv. Ogier backed off considerably in the final night stage of the day (to avert punctures, he said) and is now just 16 seconds to the good. But I think that's more than enough given his seemingly Jim Clark levels of reserve speed in this event; probably not even driving 10/10 yet still has the measure of the competition.

[Everso Biggyballies]

MCRAE name to return to European Rallying



A third generation of the McRae family is about to set out on a European Rallying Championship.......Max McRae will undertake a Junior European Rally Championship campaign in 2023. The objective is to use that as a springboard to Junior WRC and .....

The nephew of the late 1995 World Rally Champion Colin McRae, son of Alister McRae and grandson of Jimmy McRae will thus become the third-generation member of his family to compete in the top-flight European championship.

A naturalised Australian who lives in Perth, McRae commenced his rallying career in 2020, going onto compete in the RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC).

His experience there set up him up for a European tour last year, during which he tested an M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally3 in Poland and competed in several rallying events.

“Beyond excited to announce that we will be competing in the 2023 Junior ERC – absolutely buzzing to get into it,” McRae said.
“I was over in Europe for a while last year.”

“I competed in events like Donegal, the Nicky Grist and went to Goodwood for the Festival of Speed and the McRae Rally Challenge at Knockhill, it kind of showed me that Europe is the epicentre of our sport.

“Junior ERC is the perfect step for me, competing in Australia has been amazing for the last couple of years, but I know I have to make the move and head across to Europe and that’s what this season’s all about,” McRae explained.

“There are some amazing events on the European calendar – events that offer massive diversity in the nature of roads, from the super-quick stages of Poland and Latvia to the asphalt rounds in Rome and Zlin and, of course, there’s the completely new rally in Sweden.

“The chance to learn new events across Europe is really important for me and my development – but the real carrot is the Junior WRC prize drive for next season – that’s definitely what we’re shooting for this year.”

McRae will move to Europe from Perth, ahead of the opening round of the 2023 European Rally Championship at Rally Poland on May 20-21.
Good luck to him. Be good to see the McRae name back..... just hope he has the talent of his uncle and grandfather, whereas his father Alistair just didnt have that edge. Good but not great.

[Cheeveer]

Rant:

Rally Sweden this weekend. I'm up in arms because the TV broadcasts has been paywalled beyond belief here in Sweden. You have to pay 549kr (ca 50 euros) to get see all the stages, which until TODAY was meant to be broadcast on regular TV. At the last second the broadcaster (C More, NOT WRC themselves) decided to move it off regular TV and only to show it on their online subscription service, on the contrary to what they've advertised up until now (Monte was also on regular TV from every stage).

Guess I'll pay up for WRC+ (115kr monthly), it is just so frustrating when you are promised something form a subscription service but then they are like "oh btw, there's ANOTHER paywall" at the last second. Had planned my whole weekend around this, so I'm feeling quite screwed over.

[Everso Biggyballies]

What a bummer. Profiteering bastards. 50 Euros for a single event is taking the piss.

But yeah its a trend worldwide unfortunately.They took WRC off of Foxtel, our subscription pay / cable TV service a year or two ago. I pay extra to my standard Foxtel subscription for Sports, which includes V8SC, F1, Moto GP, Formula E and a couple of other race series.

It used to have all sorts of others series like WEC, WRC, Indycar, NASCAR, DTM, and a host of other series, but they all dropped off their coverage. Now we have to take up a contract with another independent streaming service to be able to follow..

I think the only F1 round that gets live FTA coverage here now is the Australian GP, which is a legal requirement. I think under what they call 'anti-syphoning' laws key Sporting events of National importance have to be available live on FTA.

Even on Pay TV it sucks big time that series that what were once inclusive of the subscription are just dropped. They never drop the subscription costs to reflect the reduced services though.

But at least when it happened here it was done for the start of a season and not as you suffered, just pulling the plug mid season, or worse with you getting notice a week before your National WRC round. Especially WRC in any Scandanavian country. Its a God given right surely for your country to be able to watch especially the local WRC rounds on TV. Taking your local WRC round from Swedish TV is tantamount to taking our Aussie Rules Footie Grand Final off FTA here. Lives would be lost!

[Cheeveer]

Yeah, my family pays 1400kr a month for our TV subscriptions but clearly not enough.

Alas

lmao, Neuville gets tangled up in an advertising board on the starting podium