RACC Rally Espana 2010 in pictures
Kimi Raikkonen’s rally was over before it even started after rolling his Citroen C4 on Shakedown.
Kimi Raikkonen
Thursday morning was the Pre-Event Shakedown, which was a short mixed surface stage near Salou. Due to storm damage, the WRC drivers were unable to do the Reece until the morning of the stage, so the first pass through was used to Reece the 3Km stage.
Kimi was the first to make a full speed pass through the stage. The finn was flat out through the tarmac section of the stage, when exiting the roundabout, he carried a little to much speed causing him to take a deeper and earlier line into a left-hand corner where the front of his car clipped the inside bank, causing it to roll, destroying the front of the car, along with extensive body damage as it landed up-side down and came to rest on its roof.
Kimi and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom were both uninjured. Photographers were on the scene to help them clamber out of the car, Raikkonen’s first words were “What happened”!?… Along with the spectators, they managed to get the car back on its wheels to drive it back to the Service Park in Salou. Inspection carried out by the Citroen Jr Mechanics revealed that the Roof section of the roll cage was damaged and Kimi was unable to start the event.
Rally de Espana was the event were Raikkonen was expected to perform well, as the tarmac event is regarded to be the closest the WRC gets to Circuit racing. Before the rally, Raikkonen had said: “For sure if we can be near the top 6 then that would be great, but the main thing is just to get to the end. If you go like crazy on the first day and go off, you don’t learn anything, and that’s why I’m here, to learn.”
Pictures of how it happened below, taken by D.Darrall
This years Rally finland, formerly know as rally of 1000 lakes, Was based in the usual city of Jyväskylä. It was the 60th anniversary of the event and for this year had a change of format from the regular three day events to just a two day event, but keeping with the same amount of mileage, meaning a lot more driving for the WRC crews in just the two days.
The Rally started off on Thrusday night with a short 4.19Km stage based around a ski slope in Laajavuori, Solberg took an early lead with Hirvonen 1sec behind, with Loeb & Latvala Joint 3rd. Rally started proper On Friday morning. Hirvonen took the lead from Solberg, but on S.S4 had a massive crash from landing wrong after a small fast crest .Luckey both of them were unhurt but had to retire. By end of Day 1 Latvala was leading. Day 2 Started early, on S.S12 Raikkonen had an off and dropped out of the points. The excitement from the Finnish fans that their local hero Latvala was leading was amazing, great atmosphere and singing out on the stages. Citroen team had a battle for 2nd and 3rd between Ogier and Loeb, with Ogier once again getting the better of his 6x world champion team mate. But nothing compared to the amount of Fans at the podium finish when Latvala came out and took the top step. Setting a record of the youngest drive to win in Finland. being at the podium felt like being at a concert.
Results
Photos from Finland Taken by D.Darrall
Due to the new regulations in WRC next year, its back to the drawing board for both Manufactures to Develop a new car to contest the 2011 World Rally Championships. The new cars will be based on a smaller 1600cc turbo charged engine.
Ford will be using their new Ford Fiesta and Citroen will be using the new DS3. Both World rally cars are under going testing and development. But versions of each have appeared in the form of Super 2000 and R3’s.
Today Citroen revealed a few tantalising glimpses of its new DS3 based WR car in a pre launch teaser video. Some details are clear, like the twin rear spoiler, silhouette and dashboard layout. But for the full picture we’ll have to wait until the official launch date of September 30th – press day at the Paris Motorshow and the eve of Rally de France, which is where Citroen’s driver is expected to take his 7th World title.
There has also been news that BMW/Mini will enter the WRC. the new manufacture will be ran by Prodrive, and are expected to be first seen on the world stage in either Portugal or Sardinia next year. The two drivers that are most strongly linked with the drive are British IRC champion Kris Meeke and 2x World champion Marcus Gronholm. Gronholm recently did some testing of the Mini in Portugal last week.
Inside Rally 