WRC
WRC's ban on run-flat tyre foam forces a search for new solutions
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June 3, 2007 The success of tyre mousse, a special compound that expands to replace the air in a punctured tyre, has meant that over the last 20 years flat tyres have ceased to be a factor in World Rally Championship races. The high-tech foam inserts have been so effective that many drivers don't even notice they're running on punctured tyres, and it's not uncommon for race wins and best times to be set after the system is deployed. With new cost-saving FIM regulations being introduced to ban tyre mousse from the 2008 WRC season onwards, teams are searching for ways to minimize the risk and repercussions of the dreaded tyre puncture, which not only knocks cars out of race contention, but can cost upwards of $10,000 in recovery and associated damage costs. One such mitigation strategy is to closely monitor tyre pressure and temperature through a race by using sophisticated sensor systems to detect small leaks and enable the drivers to compensate for them. Read More
Subaru's new Impreza WRC contender
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March 4, 2007 The Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT) has released details of the latest evolution of its rally challenger, the Impreza WRC2007, which will make its competitive debut in the fourth WRC round of 2007 next weekend at Rally Mexico in the hands of Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson. Although outwardly similar to its predecessor, a number of key engineering improvements have justified the production of a new car for the remainder of this season. As the basis of a rally winning machine, few cars can match the competitive pedigree of the. First launched in 1992, the Impreza road car has developed in tandem with its rallying counterpart and over the last 13 seasons, has scored 46 WRC victories and lessons learned on the rally stages have been fed back into the production model. The targets were to produce a car with a more responsive front end with better traction and more balanced tyre wear, particularly on longer stages. To achieve that, SWRT applied a different philosophy into areas such as weight distribution, suspension geometry and differential set-ups. Read More
Ford sweeps Norway WRC and enlivens the title chase
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February 19, 2007 With Sebastien Loeb’s almost total dominance in recent years, the World Rally Championship (WRC) has taken on a pall of inevitability, but as we all know, nothing lasts forever on the sporting field. Ford has been forging a dynasty of reliability and competitiveness at WRC level for decades, but had not won a manufacturers championship for 26 years until sheer weight of points finishes overcame Loeb and Citroen last year. This year the BP-Ford World Rally Team has started the season so well that it could be poised to challenge for the dirvers title in 2007 too. The team took a decisive lead in the WRC after dominating Rally Norway with the Focus RS World Rally Car to finish first and second yesterday. Mikko Hirvonen (driver first) and Jarmo Lehtinen (navigator second) led from start to finish to claim their second WRC victory, finishing 9.5sec ahead of team-mates and fellow Finns Marcus Gronholm and Timo Rautiainen. It was BP-Ford's second win in consecutive weeks after Gronholm triumphed in Sweden seven days ago and powered the reigning manufacturers' world champions into a 16 point lead after three of the 16 rounds. Gronholm moved to the head of the drivers' series, four points clear of Hirvonen. As always, the Scandinavian rounds with their spectacular yumps (high speeds on ice and snow with sudden dropaways lead to 100 mph flying cars) make for another awesome image library.
Sebastien Loeb becomes the world’s most successful rally driver
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September 6, 2006 When Sebastien Loeb narrowly held out Marcus Gronholm to win the Rally of Japan last Sunday, he became the most successful rally driver in history. His 27th career victory edged the double World Rally Champion past former Citroen driver Carlos Sainz and into the record books once again. Unbelievably Loeb only made his WRC debut in 2002 and has taken just four seasons to overtake the success of rally legend Sainz. Along the way, it’s been a tour de force, as he now holds the record for the most consecutive victories, and last year performed what many people consider to be his most astounding feat – winning every stage in a World Championship Rally. This year the Frenchman has demonstrated his versatility winning the Race of Champions (December) and finishing in second place in the Le Mans 24 Hour Race.
Citroen and Loeb in WRC Rally of Corsica
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April 10, 2006 Citroen’s World Champion, Sebastien Loeb has extended his lead in the 2006 World Rally Championship after another commanding win, notching up his 23rd WRC win at the weekend in the French round, the Rally of Corsica, with Loeb joined on the podium by fellow Citroen driver Dani Sordo. What makes the result even more remarkable is the fact that Citroen is dominating the 2006 World Rally Championship with a two year old car, built for the previous rule regime and modified for the ’06 season, while its rivals are running their latest designs. Second in the event and now a clear second in the title chase, BP-Ford World Rally Team drivers Marcus Gronholm and Timo Rautiainen claimed their fourth podium finish in five rallies by finishing second on the Rallye de France Tour de Corse. Read More
Citroen and Loeb take the WRC lead after Mexican victory
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March 6, 2006 It seemed inevitable that Sebastien Loeb would find his way back to the head of 2006 world rankings following a 2005 season that was the most dominant on record. Following a win in the third round of the WRC in Mexico, Loeb has now regained the series lead and it would be a brave move to bet against him for the title. In the end, the Citroen driver had a thrilling fight to the finish with Subaru’s Petter Solberg to finally take the Rally of Mexico at the weekend (3-5 March 2006). Loeb got off to a steady start on Friday sweeping the roads clean for the benefit of Petter Solberg amongst others, but still hung on grimly to limit the deficit to just a half a minute. The next step was to make up the time lost, reducing the gap to a combative Solberg. It was only on Saturday night, after SS13, that Seb found any sort of breathing space after very tightly fought battle with Subaru driver that turned the event into a two horse race. The final phase of the victory plan, which took place on Sunday, consisted of a precise control of the lead, a painstaking task in which Loeb excels. All victories taste sweet, but for Seb – sheltering under a sombrero at the finish – this one was special. BTW - they obviously love their rallying in Mexico - check out the image library for some scary shots, not to mention the main shot of Seb getting big air just a few feet from the spectators. Read More
Suzuki to contest the World Rally Championship (WRC) from 2007
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March 1, 2006 Suzuki has announced it will enter the World Rally Championship (WRC) from August, 2007 using its all new Sports X-over vehicle SX4 as the basis. The SX4 was also launched at the Geneva Show. Suzuki’s decision to participate in the WRC follows from its very successful involvement with its teams in the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC). Read More
Another Citroen/Loeb World Record - winning every stage in a WRC event
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October 24, 2005 That's right - it's not a mistake. Sebastien Loeb won every stage of the Rally of France of the weekend. The 2005 World Rally Championship has already seen Loeb and his Citroen set world records for most wins in one season and most consecutive wins, but Loeb’s latest effort has added a new and quite extraordinary record at the weekend's (21-23 October 2005) Rally of France: the first time one driver has set the fastest time on every single stage in a World Championship Rally! Loeb made no secret of the fact that with his second world title in the bag, he wanted to win his home (French) event for the first time and he did it in a crushing manner. So crushing that it's hard to imagine it ever being repeated. Read More
WRC Japan: Loeb and Citroen take World Rally Championship
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October 2, 2005 Frenchman Sebastien Loeb and his Citroen Xsara took the FIA World Rally Championship today, finishing second to a resurgent Marcus Gronholm’s Peugeot 307 and extending his points lead to 36 points with three events still to run in the championship series. After leading the rally for all but two stages, Subaru’s Petter Solberg was robbed of victory in the penultimate stage when he hit a rock and broke the Subaru’s steering. Victory therefore landed in the lap of Marcus Gronholm, his second win of the season. Loeb only needed to finish third, regardless of rivals’ positions around him, and drove the rally required to secure his second title. Subaru’s Chris Atkinson drove to third, his best-ever result, while Francois Duval claimed fourth ahead of Mitsubishi driver Harri Rovanpera. Ford maintained its record of scoring on each round; Toni Gardemeister and Roman Kresta finishing sixth and seventh respectively to claim Ford’s 57th consecutive points-scoring finish. Daniel Carlsson, stepping in for Markko Martin, rounded off the top eight. Read More
WRC: Tragic end to Wales Rally GB
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September 18, 2005 Wales Rally GB came to a tragic end this morning following a fatal accident in which Marco Martin's co-driver Michael Park was killed. The stage was immediately stopped and the remaining two scheduled stages abandoned. World Championship leader Sebastien Loeb was leading the rally at the time and the win would have given him the 2005 title. Rather than win the title in such tragic circumstances, Loeb purposefully took a time penalty. Park was one of the most likeable people in a friendly paddock and will be sadly missed. He leaves a wife, Marie, and two children, William and Victoria. It is a sad day for WRC and Motorsport.
German WRC: Loeb leads Citroen 1-2
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August 29, 2005 Citroen notched up its first one-two of the season yesterday with Sebastien Loeb claiming his eighth victory of the season and extending his lead at the head of the Drivers’ Championship to 32 points with five events remaining. It is also the Frenchman’s fourth consecutive win in Germany. Team-mate Francois Duval repaid the team’s faith by claiming second, 37.4 seconds adrift of the reigning World Champion. Marcus Gronholm, winner of his home event in Finland, finished on the podium in third to retain second in the series. Read More
WRC Rally Finland: Gronholm and Peugeot break Loeb/Citroen winning run
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August 7, 2005 Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm has taken a magnificent fifth victory in his native Rally Finland, his seventeenth WRC win in his career, and boosted himself to second in the drivers' championship. Team-mate Markko Martin completed a great team result to end the rally in third place, less than 30 seconds behind runaway championship leader Sebastien Loeb who finished second. Peugeot’s strong team showing has enabled the marque to retake the lead of the Manufacturers Championship by a single championship point over Citroen. Read More
WRC: Citroen and Loeb continue record smashing spree
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July 17, 2005 Sebastien Loeb and Citroen broke a number of rallying's world records with a dominant performance in the Argentinean round of the World Rally Championship at the weekend (15-17 July 2005) giving them the record for the most consecutive wins in a season (six) and, adding their win in the Monte Carlo season-opener, the most wins in one season … with seven more rounds to come. Loeb, who just a short few years ago was dismissed as a tarmac-only expert, has set the records on six out of seven gravel events so we can expect more wins and more records as the season unfolds. Read More
WRC round 8 - the Acropolis Rally
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June 26, 2005 Sebastien Loeb dominated the final day of the Acropolis Rally here today, winning the Greek round of the World Rally Championship for his fifth win in a row, with Citroen Xsaras finishing first and third and putting the French marque into the lead in the manufacturers championship table too. Such was the French driver's control of what is traditionally the toughest event of the season, that on the longest day of the event, Sebastien Loeb put in the fastest time on every single stage and finished the event more than one and a half minutes ahead of his nearest rival. Joining Loeb on the podium at the finish with a fine third place was team mate Carlos Sainz, climbing up on to the podium for a remarkable 97th time from 196 WRC starts. Symbolically, as this will be his last WRC event, this is also the place that Sainz recorded the first of his world record 26 wins. Read More
WRC Turkey: Loeb and Citroen again
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June 5, 2005 Citroen continued its crushing domination of the 2005 World Rally Championship at the weekend with Sebastien Loeb's fourth win in a row after his complete domination of the Turkish round of the championship in his Citroen Xsara at the weekend (3-5 June 2005). Citroen has now won three Rallies of Turkey, Loeb has extended his world championship lead and with Carlos Sainz being brought out of retirement to bolster the speed of the second car finishing in fourth place, Citroen's bid to retain its manufacturer's title is back on track as it moved to within four points of leader Peugeot (72 points). Read More
World Rally Championship: HOLY SAINZ - he's back!
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May 17, 2005 Following a rift inside the Citroen Rally Team's second car in which co-driver Stephane Prevot refused to drive with the errant Francois Duval again after Duval failed to finish an event at the Cypress Rally last weekend, Citroen has managed to talk Carlos Sainz out of retirement. Sainz is the most successful rally driver of all time, and has put his retirement on hold to get back behind the wheel of the Citroen Xsara WRC in the next round of the World Rally Championship, the Rally of Turkey to be held June 3-5, 2005. Duval will be "rested" for the event as Citroen hopes to bring the superstar team together to wrest the constructors championship which has been slipping away despite the dominance of the team's number one driver Sebastien Loeb who has four wins out of six starts for the year. "The results of Citroen in the Manufacturers' Championship aren't matching our goals," says Guy Frequelin, Citroen Sport Team Director. Read More
WRC Rd 6 - Cypress Rally: Loeb wins and sets up title
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May 15, 2005 Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb collected his third consecutive win in Cyprus, and his fourth of the 2005 season to take a significant points lead in the World Rally Championship. This weekend's success – the crew's fourteenth at WRC level – takes the defending champion 11 points clear at the top of the provisional Drivers' World Championship standings thanks to the failure of Subaru’s Petter Solberg, Loeb’s main rival for the title.
WRC Rd 5 - Loeb takes the lead
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May 1, 2005 Sebastien Loeb dominated the Italian round of the World Rally Championship at the weekend (29 April - 1 May), guiding his Citroen Xsara to victory over Petter Solberg by nearly a minute and in the process taking over the lead in the World Rally Championship from the Subaru driver. Loeb's domination of the rally of Sardinia - he lead from stage three to the end of the event and scored twice as many stage wins as his nearest rival - was achieved through the reliability of his Citroen Xsara, an excellent choice of tyres and a skilful and well paced drive from the Frenchman. Team mate Francois Duval managed to score manufacturers points despite a first-day roll off the track into the bush that left his Xsara on its side and minus a rear wheel. Following repairs and a re-start, he went on to finish in 11th place. Read More
WRC Rd 4: Loeb wins, Solberg leads title, Peugeot extends lead
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April 10, 2005 With a near perfect performance in New Zealand, Citroen and Sebastien Loeb dominated the fourth round of the World Rally championship at the weekend (8-10 April 2005) leading the event from stage three to the finish in his Citroen Xsara WRC and again taking outright favouritism for the drivers championship.
Loeb’s team-mate Francois Duval took fourth place, giving Citroen a bumper points haul and taking the team into second place in the manufacturers title, but with Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm taking second and Markko Martin in fifth, Peugeot scooted further ahead in the quest for the constructors crown.
WRC - Subaru/Solberg win Rally Mexico
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March 13, 2005 Petter Solberg and the Subaru World Rally Team team claimed an emphatic victory in Corona Rally Mexico today. The Norwegian/Welsh pairing led from start to finish, winning by 34.5 seconds and now top the FIA World Rally Championship points table after a second successive win. Their success also marked Subaru's 46th WRC victory, the 45th with an Impreza and was the perfect result for the debut of the new Subaru Impreza WRC2005 – Solberg’s win in Sweden in the previous round had been with the 2004 car. Marcus Gronholm and Markko Martin finished second and third respectively, claiming all-important points for Peugeot, which now leads the Manufacturers’ Championship by eight points over Ford. Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb put in a staggering final day performance taking an average of half a second per kilometre out of his two main rivals to leap frog into fourth place after a disastrous first day had dropped him back to 18th place in the second round of the World Rally Championship. Read More
World Rally Championships head South of the border, down Mexico way ...
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March 8, 2005 Next weekend (March 11-13) the World Rally Championship does one of the major climatic and geographical swaps that makes it the toughest challenges for drivers and cars alike, with the snow of Sweden swapped for the dust and rocks of Mexico and a leap in altitude from near sea level to 2700 metres to contest the Corona Rally Mexico. "Both Mexico and the warmth of the welcome we received are remarkable," says World Champion Sebastien Loeb. "The stages are quite fast and not too rough. I like it. The thing I found the most surprising to begin with was the inevitable drop off in power you get at this altitude. You can't help but feel it and it tends to be the only thing you think of the most."
Subaru's 2005 World Rally Car to Debut in Mexico
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March 2, 2005 The latest evolution of Subaru's Impreza World Rally Car will debut on March 11 at Rally Mexico, the third round of the 2005 World Rally Championship. Jointly developed by the Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT), Fuji Heavy Industries (the maker of Subaru vehicles), and Subaru Tecnica International (STI), the brand's performance arm, the Impreza WRC2005 will be debuted in the hands of Petter Solberg. Read More
Ford and Gardemeister Lead World Rally Championship
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February 14, 2005 The World Rally Championship took an interesting turn at the Rally of Sweden this weekend with WRC favourite Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) and Swedish event favourite Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot) were both forced into retirement while battling for podium positions. Subaru's Petter Solberg sealed his first victory in the event by 2min 11.1sec but the big news was that Ford's Toni Gardemeister took the World Rally Championship lead with a third place finish and Ford now leads both the drivers' and manufacturers' standings in the World Rally Championship. Read More
Peugeot to unveil 307 WRC
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Sunday August 31, 2003: Earmarked to replace the triple World Rally Championship winning 206 WRC, Peugeot will launch the 307 WRC at the 2003 Frankfurt Motor Show. Based on the top-of-the-range version of the 307CC fitted with an engine developing 130 kW, the 307 WRC includes an innovative 5 speed Hewland gearbox located at the rear of the engine... Read More
