Inside Rally

After the opening 3 night stages on Rally GB. Ogier leads the way.

After SS2 it was a Volkswagen 1 – 2 with Ogiers team mate Jari Matti Latvala in 2nd place. But on the evenings final stage in Clocaenog, Qatar M-Sports Thierry Neuville put in a big charge and set fastest time on the stage, this promoted him the 2nd place before they all headed back to service.

Thierry Neuville (2nd) said:
“It has been a difficult evening but we are quite happy with our pace. Of course it is slippery and you need to be careful in every corner, but so far so good. We had a bit of a moment on the second stage when we cut a corner and hit the underneath of the car. We had a small issue with the gearlever after that, but the car seems to be very strong! I thought that it was over for us, but the car was still going and we went on to set the quickest time in the next stage (SS3).

“Tomorrow is another day and its stages are well known to the other drivers so I hope it is not a disadvantage to us. We’ve only rallied them once but we are well prepared and we will try and stay in the fight.”

Hirvonen holds 4th for Citroen, but with Dani Sordos penalty for using his 9th Chassis, when the regulations say each driver can only use 8. Means the Spaniard was 5 minutes behind before the Rally even started. Ex F1 Driver Robert Kubica is 7th.

Leader Ogier
2, Neuville 3.1
3. Latvala 5.2
4. Hirvonen 16.2
5. Ostberg 24.7
6. Mikkelsen 27.8
7. Kubica 35.4
8. Novikov 37,5

Citroen driver Mikko Hirvonen is set to sign a deal to return to the M-Sport team for next years World Rally Championships, According to Autosport’s website.

Its says on the autosport website that Neither the Finn nor the British team would confirm such a move, but it is now believed to be just a matter of time before the deal is inked.

Citroen’s Mikko Hirvonen to set to complete a deal to return to the M-Sport Ford team for the 2014 World Rally Championship.

Neither the Finn nor the British team would confirm such a move, but it is now believed to be just a matter of time before the deal is inked.

M-Sport is searching for a replacement lead driver after Thierry Neuville decided to join Hyundai’s new WRC programme.

An AUTOSPORT source said: “As we expected, things are falling into place now Thierry Neuville’s deal has been confirmed.

“Mikko back to M-Sport makes a lot of sense – we’ve seen what a powerful combination this can be in the past and can be again in the future.”

Hirvonen declined to confirm his likely move, but made clear that he hoped his future could be sorted quickly.

“I don’t know anything for next year yet, but it would be good to know soon, just so that we know what the plans are for testing and things like that after Rally GB,” he said. Wales this week.

M-Sport is searching for a replacement lead driver after Thierry Neuville decided to join Hyundai’s new WRC programme.

An AUTOSPORT source said: “As we expected, things are falling into place now Thierry Neuville’s deal has been confirmed.

“Mikko back to M-Sport makes a lot of sense – we’ve seen what a powerful combination this can be in the past and can be again in the future.”

Hirvonen declined to confirm his likely move, but made clear that he hoped his future could be sorted quickly.

“I don’t know anything for next year yet, but it would be good to know soon, just so that we know what the plans are for testing and things like that after Rally GB,” he said.

Hirvonen has spent six of his 10 professional seasons with Malcolm Wilson’s squad, and his time behind the wheel of a Ford has been his most fruitful by some margin.

He has won 14 times in a Ford with his near two years in a Citroen on delivering a single victory ahead of what will be his final outing in a DS3 WRC in Wales this week.

Source: Autosport.com

Qualifying Results for Wales Rally GB, Ogier fastest but only just beating Neuville by 7 thousandths of a second.

Qualifying results:

Ogier 1:52.7
Neuville 1:52.7
Novikov 1:54.6
JML 1:549
Kubica 1:55.1
Mads 1:55.5
Hirvo 1:55.6
Sordo 1:56.1
Mkklsn 1:56.4

The Molly Taylor’s 2013 season probably will end with the Wales Rally GB,  a rally where the Australian driver  raced very well in 2012.

After winning the “FIA ERC Ladies’ Trophy” Molly is ready for the  final round of the Citroen Top Driver and of the WRC3. “Wales Rally GB definitely was one of our best events last year – said Molly Taylor –  I love the rally, I think this year it will be quite competitive, because of the points in the Citroen top driver the guys in that series will be going as hard as they can. There are also many local drivers from the British championship taking part in the event, it’s probably going to be the most competitive event we’ve ever done in terms of fast people on board Citroen DS3 cars, it’ll be really exciting for us. We’ll go out there being in a different position from the one we’ve had all of this year, when we had to work towards the ERC ladies’ trophy; here it’s just one event, so it’s nice to have that kind of freedom for once, one chance to go out and be competitive and see where we rank”.

The Wales Rally GB 2013 will have the start ceremony on Thursday 14 November in the town of Conwy on the North Wales coast. The itinerary includes 24 Special stages, more than half of which are either totally new or haven’t been featured in the World Championship since the Nineties and the rally will end on Sunday 17 of November with the Podium in the town of Llandudno.