Raikkonen Crashes Out Of Rally Bulgaria
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Citroen Junior Team driver Kimi Raikkonen is out of Rally Bulgaria after a dramatic accident on SS4. The Finnish driver was lying…
Sebastien Ogier may not be as cemented to the Citroen as everyone first thought – after entering talks with the Ford World…
As the WRC heads into the second half of the season, there is a long, asphalt paved road ahead. 4 tarmac rallies means the race to Rally GB is Loeb territory – the Frenchman winning every pure tarmac event since 2005. And to compound arch rivals Ford’s misery – Citroen has already won here despite the rally being new to the WRC – Bruno Thiry won the event in a Xsara as part of the European Rally Championship.
After five years of faithful service, Volkswagen is finally putting the Race Touareg 2 to rest, and releasing a new 3rd generation model to compete in next year’s Dakar Rally.
Chris Patterson will be Petter Solberg’s new co-driver from next month’s Rally Bulgaria onwards, after the Norwegian’s former co-driver Phil Mills left the team a few weeks ago.
World Rally Championship dominator Sebastien Loeb will make another of his forays into sports car racing this weekend, driving a Ferrari F430…
The 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed will included a mouth-watering array of Toyota machinery from over twenty years of WRC cars to…
Mikko Hirvonen took a dominant victory at Rally Serbia, winning by a margin of over 7 minutes – though his task wasn’t as easy as you might expect.
In the WRC, all-conquering teams and drivers usually come in pairs – Miki Biasion and Lancia, Carlos Sainz and Toyota, Tommi Makinen and Mitsubishi, Marcus Gronholm and Peugeot to name a few of them. However all of these past greats have paled into insignificance compared to one duo that has been unstoppable since what feels like the dawn of time these days – Sebastien Loeb and Citroen.
The Citroen Junior team wrapped up their asphalt ‘test’ at the Rally della Lanterna in style, with a close 1-2 finish for their drivers Sebastien Ogier and Kimi Raikkonen.
After 152 events together, Phil Mills has parted ways with Petter Solberg, after leaving the Norwegian’s family run team.
With four of the remaining six rallies on the WRC calendar being pure tarmac events, everyone is piling on the asphalt testing to try and catch the seemingly unstoppable Sebastien Loeb. While Ford head out to Serbia, the Citroen Junior team and their driving pair of Sebastien Ogier and Kimi Raikkonen are heading south to the Rally della Lanterna in Italy this weekend.
Sebastien Ogier claimed his first ever WRC victory, after succesfully keeping multiple world champion team-mate Sebastien Loeb at bay for the last two days of competition.
Sebastien Ogier retained his lead of Rally Portugal, but his lead was slashed in half during the morning loop by Sebastien Loeb, and with more roadsweeping ahead for the younger Sebastien, a 21 second lead may not be enough to hold the multiple champion at bay.
Sebastien Ogier lead a Citroen podium lockout after the first day of competition in Portugal, after winning 6 of the day’s 7 stages.
Ford has entered lead driver Mikko Hirvonen for next month’s Rally of Serbia, in preperation for the brand new Bulgarian rally in July, and has also hired Swede PG-Anderssen to drive for Stobart Ford in the brand new event.
Mikko Hirvonen started Rally Portugal with a stage win in the Algarve Stadium, edging out fellow Ford driver Federico Villagra by just a tenth of a second, while championship leader Sebastien Loeb drove a cautious opening stage to 8th place, and Jari-Matti Latvala not even finishing inside the Top 10.
