Ex-F1 Driver Robert Kubica will be competing in his first ever WRC on Rally portugal this coming weekend.
Film House Company along with the Voice of Rallying Colin Clark, have been out with Kubica on his Pre-Event Rally Portugal Test.
Their Video is below.
VW’s Driver quotes ahead of Rally Portugal, issued by Volkswagen Motorsport:
Photo:D.Darrall
Sébastien Ogier who currently leads WRC drivers standings after his 2 wins & 2nd place on the 3 previous rounds on WRC: “I’m feeling much better now, after illness left me feeling below par last week. Withdrawing from the Fafe Rally Sprint was a very tough decision, especially given all the enthusiastic fans. However, it was the right decision in order to allow me to recover fully.”
“We saw at the Rally Mexico that the Polo R WRC is also competitive on gravel, and that is important. The coming rally in Portugal is another good indication of where we stand, and will be particularly interesting because those will be the kind of conditions we will come up against most often in the World Rally Championship: hard gravel and stages not much above sea level. However, the Rally Portugal has two sides to it. When it is dry there, the ground is very hard and offers a lot of grip. However, when it is wet, the ground becomes very soft and muddy and only offers a very limited amount of grip. We discovered that last year – and it is not particularly fun driving there in those conditions. I much prefer it to be dry. A feature of the special stages in Portugal are the many crests and jumps, which are often followed by quick, blind corners.”
“I am confident that we will follow on from our excellent recent performances in Portugal, as I really like the rally. It is one of my favourite rallies. In 2010 it was the scene of my first victory in the World Rally Championship, and I won again there in 2011. That makes it the only WRC rally that I have won twice in my career – so far.”
Photo:D.Darrall
Jari-Matti Latvala: “I have often been quick in Portugal, but my best result so far is the third place I achieved in 2011. I hope I manage to come through clean this year and challenge for a place on the podium. The Polo R WRC certainly has the potential. Sébastien’s victories in Sweden and Mexico have shown that.”
“The first three rounds of the world championship were a bit difficult for me. Unfortunately, not everything went entirely to plan. I just needed time to get used to the car. However, I had the necessary trust in the car on the Power Stage in Mexico – and that good feeling got even stronger during the tests in Portugal. The Rally Portugal is known for its ‘blind crests’, which are really rather special. You really have to be alert as you approach these crests, as you cannot see whether they are followed by a left-hander or a right-hander. For this reason, it is also important to be very accurate during the Recce in the run-up to the rally, to ensure that the pace notes cannot be misunderstood in any way.”
Photo:D.Darrall
Andreas Mikkelsen making his début in the Polo R WRC in a WRC event: “I can hardly wait for the start of the Rally Portugal. It will be my first rally with the Polo R WRC, although I did have a number of outings with Volkswagen last year and have already been completely integrated in the team. As such, the only thing that is really new to me is the element of competing in a current World Rally Car.”
“After two successful years in the IRC, I feel ready to take the step up into the World Rally Championship. In my opinion, the Rally Portugal is one of the most difficult on the race calendar. There are a lot of ‘blind’ passages and relatively little grip. The last time I drove there was back in 2007, so it will practically be a new event for me. I was lucky enough to be able to take part in the Recce last year. As such, I have some idea of what to expect. Despite this, it will certainly be one of the most difficult rallies of the year for me.”
“It will be important not to make any mistakes and to avoid any incidents. We want to finish the race and learn as much as possible. After that, we can concentrate on getting quicker at the subsequent rallies.”
Mikko Hirvonen insists that his chances of winning the 2013 drivers’ title are very much alive.
Photo:D.Darrall
After three rounds of this year’s World Rally Championship, the Finn, who drives for the Citroen Total Abu Dhabi squad, is third in the drivers’ standings, 44 points adrift of leader Sebastien Ogier.
But as he prepares for next week’s fourth round in Portugal, Hirvonen denied that he had given up on his title dream.
“No, of course not! It’s true that Sébastien Ogier has made a perfect start to the season, but there are still ten rallies left,” he said.
“Although we haven’t looked entirely convincing recently, we are going to do everything to improve our fortunes.”
Hirvonen struggled to get comfortable in his DS3 World Rally Car on the last round in Mexico, but is feeling more confident after the team’s pre-rally test in the Algarve. “I can’t go into details about what we worked on, but the fact is that we have improved the set-up. The car slides less and I felt more confident driving it,” he explained.
“As ever, we must be cautious, because the conditions of the rally won’t necessarily be the same as those we had in testing…”
Hirvonen’s pre-event preparations will continue on Saturday 6 April, when he takes part in the Fafe Rally Sprint.
Rally de Portugal gets underway on Thursday 11 April, with qualifying for the all-important day one road position scheduled to start at 1040hrs.
“To win this season, we’ll need to have a perfect rally, starting with the qualifying stage,” added Hirvonen. “I only have one target this weekend: I want to be fighting for the lead from the very start.”
Source: WRC.com
The new season has got off to an amazing start. 3 Brilliantly put together Rallies. Along with ever better enthusiasm, drama, tears, parties and victories. Great TV coverage around the World and the competition has been fantastic. The Promoters have picked up the pieces and…. well left it up to the teams to do what they do best. Put on a show worthy of the World Stage and just give it a nudge up every now and then, And now things are off to a proper flying start.
Photo:D.Darrall
So far its Loeb 1.. and Ogier 2. But wait a minute. The new comers Volkswagen seemed to be taking over. 3 rallies in, they have taken their 1st Stage win on their first WRC Stage. They took their first WRC Podium on their First Rally. And took Their First WRC win on their 2nd rally, beating King Loeb in the process, then last weekend they won their 2nd WRC Rally. They lead the Drivers Standings and 2nd in the Manufactures. And this is a NEW team. Never competed before in the WRC and this is where they are. The WRC World are surprised and stunned by their incredible pace to what should be a foreign territory for the VW team. But I can’t understand why everyone seems so…. Surprised?
Some Journos, teams and Rally folk were under the opinion that VW wouldn’t be fully ready to ‘take on the world’ in their first full season because they are a new team and they need experience first. Saying things like, they will be doing well if they get a podium towards the end of the year. And predicting that the likes of Hirvonen will be crowned king. And right they are to think that about any ‘normal’ WRC team coming to the WRC for the first time. Mini came in, did some great stage times, and then podiums, same with Ford, then they won. It’s about coming in and ‘adapting’ to the world stage before conquering it.
So why is VW so different. Well… It’s obvious. They spent 2 years designing and developing, 20,000km of testing, they have the best driver and some of the best engineers in the championship and they have a budget that is bigger than some Formula 1 Grand Prix Teams. 3 rallies in and they have won 2 and came 2nd on the first rally due to a slight Loeb Winning default. As Prodrive/Aston Martin’s David Richards has always said. “The more money you have, the faster you go.” With their budget and know-how, the Volkswagen team will and already are unstoppable. And they will get harder and harder to beat as the season goes on. They will learn more, get more experience and development better set-ups here and there. If they were going to be beaten then the other teams better start waking up and getting their foot down, before VW become unstoppable.
Photo:D.Darrall
And Then there is the matter of the driver. Seb 2.0. The ‘new’ Loeb as the papers are calling him. No matter how much the Frenchman denies it, he loves the comparison. He may say the Loeb V Ogier is in the past, but he know he can beat him. and now that Loeb is nearly out of the way, Theres nothing to stop the new Super Seb from dominating the world for the next 9 years…. Or is there.
One thing we must remember about this game is, this is NOT Formula 1. This is Rallying, all it takes is one rock, one wrong pace note, one wrong breaking point or one gutsy Citroen or Ford driver to bury their right foot a little more and the game changes. In rallying, it’s not over, until it’s over.
Three down, Ten to go!……….
Inside Rally 