Thread: WRC Round 2 in Norway

Lets get ready for Rally Norway! This rally is faster than Round 1 and remains highly technical. Last year we saw the Solberg brothers fighting hard and putting on a show while Loeb was hitting snow banks

Based: Hamar
Surface: Ice and snow covered gravel
Most recent winner: Mikko Hirvonen



This years event starts on the 15th. Look for Loeb to push his Citoen to its limits, the battle will be close...

COUNTDOWN: 1D 9H 53min

heres the itinerary and the layout for this fast and exciting course
Thursday 12 February

Shakedown P1 and P208:00?12:00Shakedown P310:00?12:00Shakedown Non priority12:30?14:00Opening show and SSS 1 Oslo19:00Friday 13 February

Service Vikingskipet07:10SS 2 Opaker 109:05SS 3 Kirken?r 109:39SS 4 Finnskogen 110:20SS 5 Kongsvinger 111:14Remote Service Kongsvinger12:00SS 6 Opaker 212:51SS 7 Finnskogen 213:51SS 8 Kongsvinger 214:45SS 9 Kirken?r 215:46Service Vikingskipet17:50Saturday 14 February

Service Vikingskipet06:30SS 10 Mountain 107:53SS 11 Lillehammer 108:55SS 12 Ringsaker 109:58SS 13 Hamar 111:06Service Vikingskipet11:39SS 14 Mountain 213:17SS 15 Lillehammer 214:19SS 16 Ringsaker 215:22SS 17 Hamar 216:28Service Vikingskipet16:51Sunday 15 February

Service Vikingskipet06:30SS 18 V?ler 107:34SS 19 Elverum 108:35SS 20 Budor 109:23Service Vikingskipet10:40SS 21 V?ler 211:59SS 22 Elverum 213:00SS 23 Budor 213:48Service Vikingskipet14:55Podium Ceremony Vikingskipet15:15

Henning and Petter Solberg face each other in Norway today... nobody wants to give an inch!

Henning had already been keen to take a peek under the bonnet of Petter?s new vehicle but drew the line when his little brother asked him to give it a test drive

Both are strong on snow, Hennings riding to win. He finished 3rd last run in Norway behind Mikko Hirvonen and Marcus Gr?nholm.

Lets not forget Loeb!! what a field, the best drivers in the world, i wish i could see it live...

does this look like a happy man?

norway_petter-leadingafter1.jpg

After 3 rounds defending World Champ Loeb sets the clocks back to his time

whos surprised? heres what the pros had to say...

1. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citro?n C4)
?Yes it was very hard today and I will have to push very hard again tomorrow. I couldn?t have driven much better today and I have made no mistakes but I will have to go flat out to keep Mikko behind me. It is better that he is a few seconds behind instead of just one second.?
3. Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Focus RS WRC 08)
?It has not been a great day for me today. I have had such a big fight with Seb but he is just that little bit faster all the time. I have to make myself go flat out tomorrow to try to catch him back.?
11. Petter Solberg/Phill Mills (Citro?n Xsara)
?This has not been my best afternoon I can tell you. I had the engine on two or three cylinders and we had to stop in a stage to see what it was but we couldn?t fix it. Then there has been the problem with the throttle sticking as well. It has not been fun. ?
6. Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud (Ford Focus RS WRC 08)
?Everything is working well on the car and I am going to push very hard tomorrow to please the fans. Wherever I go in the world I always drive for the fans you know!?

The finals should be great since Loeb is only 15 secs ahead!

Overall after SS17
1S. LOEB (F)2:22:11.10.0
2M.HIRVONEN (FIN)2:22:26.1+15.0
3J. LATVALA (FIN)2:22:54.3+43.2
4H. SOLBERG (N)2:24:52.4+2:41.3
5D. SORDO (E)2:25:04.4+2:53.3
6P. SOLBERG (N)2:27:02.0+4:50.9
7M. WILSON (GB)2:27:04.3+4:53.2
8U. AAVA (EE)2:27:29.6+5:18.5
9M. ?STBERG (N)2:29:08.9+6:57.8
10S. OGIER (F)2:31:21.3+9:10.2

The feel
norwaylooknfeel.jpg

The cars
norwaycar2.jpg

The weapon
tire.jpg

Loeb wins it all... he looked really excited!

Sebastien Loeb won his 49th victory in the WRC with his victory in Norway.

? This victory was very important for me, said Sebastien after passing the finishing line at Budor. Loeb was just 9.8 seconds ahead of Mikko Hirvonen after three days with 23 stages. That is definitely a close race!

Jari-Matti Latvala took the third place on the podium.
Best norwegians were Henning and Petter Solberg who ended on 4th and 6th place.

See u in Cyprus on March 11th