Thread: Monte-Carlo Rally 2008 (WRC)

The Monte-Carlo rally is essentially an asphalt event on technically straight-forward roads. What makes it so difficult is the unpredictable mountain weather. Drivers can face dry roads, streaming wet asphalt and treacherous ice, with the threat of snow on higher ground. They can often encounter all on the same stage as the route climbs and descends inhospitable mountain cols, switching from southern facing roads sheltered from extreme weather to exposed northern ones.

Legendary Monte-Carlo rally will start the WRC season on thursday night, this year marks its 76th anniversary. What is new for the season, the "unbreakable" tyres are now gone and we can except less cutting the corners, and also tyre failures. All teams are using Pirelli tyres. This new rule should even the field and be somewhat frustrating at some points. Suzuki will be on WRC level it's first full season, so there is now cars from 6 manufacturers at WRC level.

Last year it was Super-Seb who took the win at Monte, and he is the favourite for this year also.

After the 1st "day", or two super stages Loeb is leading. His teamie Sordo is 2nd 12,7sec behind and Ford's Hirvonen is 3rd but he is already amazing 44 seconds behind Loeb.

Latvala (Ford) suffered a tyre failure at the first stage and he is already almost 5 minutes behind the lead. Both Suzukis had turbo problems so their rally didn't start with the best way.

Yeah Gardemeister is 8th 1.53 minutes behind Loeb and Andersson 3.13 minutes behind at 12th position.

Top times for SS3. I wanted to post these because it seems that the gaps between drivers are massive on each stage. Hopefully it's just because the charasteristics of Monte Carlo, otherwise it will be boring season.

1. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, 18.54,4
2. Daniel Sordo, Citroen, +8,3
3. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford, +10,1
4. Francois Duval, Ford, +27,8
5. Chris Atkinson, Subaru, +39,8
6. Petter Solberg, Subaru, +42,1
7. Gigi Galli, Ford, +53,5

Hirvonen was able to lift his pace. He admitted that he was too cautious yesterday. Suzuki is still having technical problems, Gardemeister was over 2 minutes slower than Loeb...

Driver, Team, Time/Gap

1. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, 1.36.44,9
2. Daniel Sordo, Citroen, +56,6
3. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford, +1.22,8
4. Chris Atkinson, Subaru, +2.28,6
5. Francois Duval, Ford, +2.42,6
6. Petter Solberg, Subaru, +3.09,6
7. Gigi Galli, Ford, +5.21,1
8. Jean Marie Cuoq, Peugeot, +5.27,9

So Loeb has a "safe" 1 minute lead. Sordo suffered transmission problem and drove basically a 2wd car for last three stages of the day. Both Suzuki drivers are in big trouble with technical problems all over the car. Latvala has raised himself to 9th and is fighting for points now.

Oh man it was good to finally see some racing. I just watched an one hour summary of day 2.

Funniest part was to really see, how much effect that broken turbo had on Suzukis, and it was clear. The car looked like it wasn't moving compared to others.

Gardemeister said that he drove flat out for about 95% of the day and now he is suffering from massive cramp in his 'Gluteus Maximus' . His co-driver Tomi Tuominen who was finnish F1 reporter for couple years looked like an idiot when he commented how the day went and waved this bottle which was full of pure urine because they got doping-tested by FIA.

Sordo has stopped on the stage 11 and is now several minutes behind the lead so Hirvonen is now 2nd. Latvala had hydraulic problems and was driving a fwd car through the stages with manual gearing. Suzuki drivers didn't have problems and their speed was promising when you take a note that it's teams 2nd rally overall, Gardemeister lost about 20 seconds / stage to Loeb.