Inside Rally

Highlight of the rally:

The Powerstage.

We all love a good flat out fight to the finish. That was all that was left for title rivals Ogier & Neuville. Nothing to loose. They had already lost everything the day before. All that was left were the 5 bonus points awarded for the fastest time on the final Powerstage and boy did they go for it!

Neuville first. Well controlled, just about keeping the Hyundai on the limit. Incredibly fast, inch perfect. Much like the style of the World Champion. If Neuville was doing Ogier’s driving style, then I think Ogier was trying Neuville’s style. The frenchman launched into the stage and went mad. Pushing over the limit and giving it everything. Sometimes too much, as he bounced the car off the scenery. Uncharacteristically running wide in one or two places. I was clinging on to the sofa just watching it. Witnessing two of the greatest drivers going flat out. It was Neuville who set the fastest time, with Ogier’s small mistakes costing him 1.6 seconds when he arrived at the end. The all or nothing Powerstage attack was my favourite of many highlights of Rally Turkey.

Surprised result:

Henning Solberg

WRC’s favourite character was back. We all love Henning and his joy for life and all things rallying. You can’t help but smile when he gives us his animated Norwegian vocals on what success or troubles have befallen them. This time in a private R5 Skoda Fabia. He put in an amazing performance using all of his many years of experience to finish 6th overall. An unexpected achievement by one of the WRC’s favourite drivers. Well done Henning.

Team player award:

Jari Matti Latvala

He has not had the best of luck this year. His car often falling apart around him. However, rather surprisingly, on the car breaking Turkish stages it held together. By the end of Saturday he was just 13 seconds off the Rally lead. Its been a while since the Finn tasted victory. He had it in sight, but due to the demanding roads and the tough title fight for both drivers & manufactures. He was told to just bring it home. Latvala clearly disappointed, but took it on the chin and backed up his team to bring home a 1 – 2 finish. Don’t worry Jari, there will be a next time.

Driver of the rally:

Chris Ingram

It’s always a bit controversial when the ‘Driver of the rally’ Award goes to someone who isn’t the overall winner. But this award goes to the driver who impressed the most.

As Steve Jones of RallyingUK on Twitter pointed out. Not many drivers on their WRC debut get to be hunted down by Sebastien Ogier and stay ahead after the finish on the final day. A fun way of looking at it. But in all seriousness. This was his WRC2 debut and he held the lead for most of Saturday against some tough competition in the support class. A puncture dropped him down. But still managed 3rd (9th in overall standings). His first WRC2 podium at his first try.

Ingram is one of a few very exciting young ‘stars of the future’. Slowly climbing the giant stepping stones up to the top of the WRC. Much like Kalle Rovanpera and Oliver Solberg. He will be a name to look out for. His next WRC outing will be Wales Rally GB in a few weeks time.

Wooden spoon:

Sebastien Ogier

Well the French driving machine is human after all. With all that hard work and effort by both him and the team to keep the car going and given a golden opportunity for the title fight when Neuville dropped out. A simple mistake threw it all out of the dusty window. Now lying 3rd in the drivers championship. When was the last time we saw a full time rally driver called Sebastien sit that low?

And the winner is….

🏆Ott Tanak🏆

It seems nothing can stop this man. He is riding the crest of a wave that is washing out his rivals, rally by rally. Now a true title contender. Don’t forget, this is still his first year with Toyota team.

Special mention:

Rally Turkey

Julian Porter said on the WRC All Live, that there are a lot of fans who come to a lot of WRC events, who had chosen not to come to Turkey for various different reasons. But they will be there next year after seeing this. And I will probably be one of them.

Some had doubts. Others just saw it as just another rally. But in fact, the incredible team and organisers did a brilliant job to run this exciting, unpredictable and safe event. One of the best this season so far. Bringing back a true classic. Just like the good old days when we all first fell in love with the sport. Man and machine versus the elements. It’s what Rallying is all about. Plus the backdrop was stunning, just mind the rocks.

I think its fair to say. Most people had doubts about Rally Turkey. Partly because it was a brand new event in a brand new location. Partly because of the past political unrest & news stories over the past few years. Understandably, people were cautious of the event.

But all of that was quickly forgotten about when the action got underway. Rally Turkey turned out to be the classic gravel event, similar to the Acropolis or Cyprus rallies that the WRC has been missing for far too long. The organisers did a truly outstanding job to put back the Challenge into the WRC. Looking at the reaction on social media, it was a much loved event, with only a few, questioning if the event was too tough. The fact is, the World Rally Championships has always been a test of ‘man & machine versus the elements’. That’s the WRC slogan that has perhaps been a little bit forgotten over recent years.

Acropolis Rally 2012 – Image: D.Darrall

One thing that hasn’t been questionable or forgotten, was the stunning performance of Ott Tanak. As if winning on gravel in Finland, then the tarmac of Germany wasn’t enough to convince us of his ‘all rounder’ ability. He wins on an event that is all about risk assessment, judge of pace and mechanical sympathy. The Estonian judged it to perfection to take his 3rd win in a row and jump to 2nd in the title fight.

Tanak was one of only 5 WRC cars to actually make it to the finish without retirement. 6th place was taken by the brilliant Henning Solberg in a smaller and less powerful R5 car. So how did this happen?

The drama got underway on Friday morning, before the drivers even made it to breakfast. The fire alarm of the Hyundai hotel woke up the team for an early morning evacuation. The first full day was expected to be the roughest day. The stages weren’t really roads, more like a rock pile dumping ground. Ogier struggled to see anything in lingering dust, while team mate Evans had intercom problems. Citroen’s Craig Breen took the lead from Mikkelsen who led after Thursday nights super special. Into the following stages, Evans day got worst with a broken Diff, leaving a trail of oil on the stop line. He had to use his mechanical skills to avoid retirement. Mikkelsen retook the lead going into service.

In the afternoon, Breen’s brilliant morning turned south with a puncture, as did Mads Ostberg, dropping both Citroen’s down the leader board after great pace at the start. Evans day went from bad to worst, hitting a rock and breaking his suspension. He was then followed by Ostberg, who came to the same fate just 1km further down the stage. It was the end of the road for them as rally Turkey began to claim it’s victims. Remarkably, by the end of the day, despite the running order, it was Neuville who led the rally with Ogier close behind him by an incredible three tenths of a second – But that was all about to change.

Saturday was expected to be smoother. Not that you would have noticed. Neuville charged hard on the first stage of the morning. 8 seconds up on Ogier on the split times. Maybe it was too hard, his front left suspension mount couldn’t withstand the Turkey rubble any longer, and his spring had sprung, along with his title hopes. He tried his very best to repair the limping Hyundai but it was no good. The Championship leader was out of the rally. His title rival reacted immediately and went 22 seconds faster than anyone. Ogier was on a high while Neuville could only sit back in service and watch his championship hopes fade away. But the turkey rubble hadn’t finished with our WRC drivers just yet!

Neuville, watching the fabulous WRC All Live coverage, couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Sebastien Ogier’s car also falling apart on the following stage. The front right wishbone had given way and now it was the Frenchman’s turn to become a mechanic. The world watched, as the WRC all live feed fed us footage of a dirty, sweaty Ogier doing his very best to fix the problem. The team on the phone, fellow team mates Evans, along with other fellow drivers by his side trying to give him advice. But the stubborn replacement suspension arm just wouldn’t go into place. Until, eventually his mechanical skills – along with a ratchet strap and a good beating, got the car, just about in working order to tackle the next stage, taking time penalties for being late with that frantic repair.

The world was on the edge of their seat, as a now fired up, frustrated World champ Wrestled the botched Fiesta through the final stage of the morning who, unbelievably set yet another fastest time. The dirt and sweat on Ogier’s face at stage end said it all. “I thought I would never make it. We tried to put the track control arm back but the suspension wishbone was too tight in the sub-frame and I couldn’t fit it in. I fought like hell and was very close to giving up because I had no energy,” said Ogier.

That was hard work. Even Ex-WRC driver Kris Meeke sent Seb O a tweet, expressing his support for the road side repair, reminding him of the time when Colin McRae once had similar issues and sharing some video footage of his old mentor from Rally Argentina in 1998.

Saturday was more about engineering than driving pace. Luckily for Ogier it was now time for service. But that didn’t mean M-Sport could relax. With only 30mins to get the car back to perfect running order, M-Sport had to take some mechanics off Evans car to help put the number 1 Fiesta back together again. This left, Evans’s car short of hands and with big repairs. Resulting in both Elfyn Evans and Co-driver Dan Barritt having to get on their hands and knees to service their own car. You won’t see Lewis Hamilton getting his polished nails dirty like that in Formula one.

Take a quick breath. Now it’s time to go back out into the battle field for the afternoon. The Frenchman with his car all fixed, blasted into the stage. But after all that hard work and effort by Ogier and M-Sport. It all slid to a grinding halt in a slow left hand corner. Ogier slid wide towards the edge of the road into some very loose dust. Almost like the ‘Fesh Fesh’ that you would find on the Dakar Rally. The Fiesta came to a stand still against a tree. No damage. He selected 1st gear. Foot down, but the car just buried it’s feet. The car was stuck. With no fans around to help, that became the simple but agonising end to Sebastien Ogier & Julian Ingrassia’s Rally. Along with any hopes of closing the gap to title leader Neuville in the Drivers Championship.

Elsewhere rally leader Mikkelsen dropped down the board with transmission problems, leaving him with just rear wheel drive and spins a plenty. Craig Breen had smoke filling up his car. He had to stop his Citroen twice on the stage, a quick search but no fire could be found. They struggled on to the finish with stinging eyes and tough breathing. Then when stopped on the road section to investigate further, the car caught fire. Breen an Co-driver Scott Martin ended their day with a pile of ash which was once a Citroen C3 WRC car.

All that drama left the two Toyota boys leading the way. Tanak just 13 seconds ahead of team mate Jari-Matti Latvala. Understandably, they were given team orders to hold positions and to drive safely through Sundays stages to the finish. Ott Tanak survived the worst of conditions to finish on top. He now puts himself well a truly in the Title fight. His win puts him 2nd in the drivers standings. 10 points ahead of Ogier & just 13 behind Thierry Neuville who still holds the lead. Tanak’s victory on the podium was greeted by the president of Turkey, along with an army of security personnel and the FIA president Jean Todt.

Latvala was the perfect team player to finish 2nd making it a Toyota 1 – 2. Hayden Paddon stuck to his very mature strategy of driving to a safe pace. Which paid off and claimed his first podium of the year. M-Sport’s star Teemu Suninen finish a brilliant 4th place. The youngster being the highest placed Fiesta driver with Mikkelsen eventually managing 5th after his problems. In 6th place was R5 Skoda driver Henning Solberg. A brilliant result for the returning Norwegian.

In WRC2, Skoda driver Jan Kopecky fought his way back after a tough rally to retake the lead on Sunday and claim his 5th win, to put himself within touching distance of the WRC2 title. Simone Tempestini brought his Citroen C3 R5 to 2nd place. Finishing in 3rd, after leading the rally before a puncture dropped him down to the bottom step of the podium. Brit Chris Ingram impressed massively on his WRC2 debut on what is now arguably the toughest rally on the calendar. All eyes will be on him when he returns on Wales Rally GB.

Last but not least. We finished Rally Turkey with a young, newly crowned world champion. Claiming the Junior WRC title after winning the final round. Emil Bergkvist, the Swedish youngster crossed the line in his Ford Fiesta R2 car. “I have no words, I’m just so excited. Everything has been amazing and thank you to everyone who made this possible for me. To think the R5 is now mine is a little bit unreal and it might take some time tonight to think what just happened,” he said on WRC.com

Image: Provided by M-Sport

The WRC title battle is getting tighter with just 3 rounds remaining. Next up is the valleys and mud of Wales Rally GB.

Rally Turkey result – Turkey after SS17: 1. Tänak 3h59m24.5s 2. Latvala +22.3s 3. Paddon +1m46.3s 4. Suninen +4m10.9s 5. Mikkelsen +7m11.7sec 6. Solberg +13m40.6s

WRC Drivers’ Standings – 1. Neuville 177pts, 2. Tänak 164pts, 3. Ogier 154pts, 4. Lappi 88pts, 5. Latvala 75pts 6. Mikkelsen 75pts.

WRC Manufacturers’ Standings – 1. Toyota Gazoo Racing 284pts, 2. Hyundai Motorsport 279pts, 3. M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 244pts, 4. Citroën Total Abu Dhabi 169pts

Rally Japan will make its return next season and will run for “probably four years.” Say’s the WRC promoter.

The rally in ‘The land of the rising sun’ will take place on the main island of Honshu. There are currently three possible dates for next season – September 12-15, or the first or second week in November pending the final decision by the World Motor Sport Council meeting in October.

Unlike the previous WRC rounds in Japan, which ran on the island of Hokkaido. It will use mountainous stages near Mount Fuji, with the idea of bringing the WRC closer to Tokyo (130km’s away.)

WRC Promoter Managing Director, Oliver Ciesla said: “Great news we can confirm the WRC Promoter came to an agreement with Rally Japan to host an event in Japan from the start of 2019.”

“The proposal will now go to the FIA World Motor Sport Council where we assume we will get a positive approval to bring the rally back to Japan and then the event will take place from 2019 for probably four years. We are very much looking forward to being back in Japan.”

Japan will be the 2nd new rally expected to run next year along with Chile. With Rally Turkey returning this year, the WRC is beginning to become more ‘Global’ after criticism in past at the championship for being ‘too European based’. There is also talks of the Safari Rally returning in 2020.

The second half of the World Rally Championships kicked off on one of the biggest and fastest rounds of the season. For full report Click Here. Lets take a look back at the high flyers and the forest flingers from this years edition of Rally Finland.

Driver of the Rally: Mads Ostberg

This was a tough one to call. So many drivers put in some truly incredible performances. So much so, that we almost forgot about the title fighters at the bottom end of the results sheet.

But the Driver of Rally Finland has to go to Mads Ostberg. With very little seat time. He was thrown in at the deep end when Citroen took him on to replace Kris Meeke for the second half of the season. Having only expected to do a very small number of Rallies. Led the rally a number of times on Friday. The battle between himself and Ott Tanak was intense. Taking each others pace to an untouchable distance from the rest of the pack. This man is back and with a car that he now seems to be happy with. He will be one to watch out for in the rest of the season. Ostberg’s Second place was possibly one of the most important and much needed results for Citroen.

Survivor of the Rally: Kalle Rovanpera

Many events are often a battle for survival for most of the field. Being fast when everything works is one thing. But if you want to be a real driver, then it’s about how you hold your composure when things go wrong.

This award definitely goes to the fast rising star, Kalle Rovanpera. Held an untouchable lead until the penultimate stage on Saturday, when his car hit a ‘seemingly nothing’ rock. The front left top mount on his Skoda Fabia gave way and his spring had sprung. With time leaking away, Rovanpera dragged his Fabia to the end. He may have been quick to tweet that his rally was over. But along with his more experienced co-driver. They made a creative fix – Used a steering arm in replacement of the suspension. It was just enough to bring the car home. His 4th result was not deserving of his amazing pace, but showed his desire to never give up.

Forest Flinger: Esapekka Lappi

Finland is the sort of place that rewards commitment and speed. But make the smallest of mistakes and you learn a big, hard hitting lesson. There were several large smashes as always on Rally finland. But the most painful one was perhaps the one of last years winner & local star Esapekka Lappi. His rally was put on the back foot after his Yaris stalled on the first proper stage in the trees. From there on he was flat out. Putting in some amazing performances and working his way up the results table, he managed 4th. First stage of Sunday and he was fastest on the splits, maybe too fast. Not far from the finish the car slide wide, hit a tree stump at high speed. Which sent his Yaris spinning and bouncing like a pinball until it came to a stop at the side of the stage. Lappi, finished the stage – On foot and without his Yaris. Not the way last years winner was hoping to end the Rally.

Wooden Spoon: Andreas Mikkelsen

We alway knew Hyundai would struggle a little on these higher speed events. They seem more suited for the twisty stuff. But Mikkelsen had his chance to shine. But he was never really on pace, struggled with set up of the car. Then threw it into a deep finnish ditch on Friday. Rolled the car but luckily there were plenty of fans to get him back onto his wheels, dropping around three minutes. This put him first on the road for the next two days. Ending the rally in last place of the top WRC drivers. His final win for VW in Australia seems like a life time ago. Probably because it was. He has the pace, just needs the results.

And the winner is….

Ott Tanak, what an incredible drive he did for Toyota. Battled with Ostberg from 3rd on the road. Come Saturday, with a cleanly swept gravel track & he was untouchable. Don’t count him out of the title fight just yet!