WRC – Citroen returns to its home event

After travelling to the other side of the world, the 2011 World Rally Championship will finish in Europe. The ‘Rallye de France-Alsace’, the first of the three remaining events, will be on Citroën’s home turf. Last year, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena won their seventh world title in Strasbourg, and the Citroën Total World Rally Team scored its sixth Manufacturers’ World Championship crown. Twelve months later the French make is aiming for more wins with its two crews.

‘Rallye de France’ was held in Corsica since the creation of the world championship in 1973. Last year it moved to Alsace. The event took place in the heart of Europe and it was a huge popular success attracting over 250 000 spectators. The great majority of the public only had eyes for one driver, Sébastien Loeb, the local lad who was on his way to winning his seventh world title. Despite the pressure and the various pitfalls of the route, the bloke from Oberhoffen scored a hands-down victory giving him and his team, Citroën, more
world titles.
A year later, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena start the eleventh round with a 15-point lead over their nearest rival. “We have to watch out as proved by the results in the last two rallies,” says Loeb. “A puncture in Germany and we lost victory, a moment’s inattention in Australia led to an off and prevents me from tackling the end of the season in a calm state of mind. We won Rally France last year, so we’re the favourites and we’ll do everything possible to honour this position. But victories don’t fall off trees! Before even thinking of the podium we have to master the difficulties of this very tricky route. Last year, the speeds we reached on the roads really struck me. With potentially capricious weather and innumerable changes of surface, you have to know how to read the road to adapt your braking distances and your trajectories. The organizers have announced that they’re going to put posts on the apexes to prevent the roads from getting dirty too quickly. Maybe that’ll make things easier on the second pass.”
Last year, Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia made a great start to the rally and then lost time due to a suspension breakage after an impact on an apex. They saw the flag in sixth place overall after showing real potential. Since then the pair won their first tarmac rally in Germany a few weeks back. Ogier also made a mistake in Australia and lost second place in the world championship to Mikko Hirvonen. The Frenchman is now 29 points behind his team-mate (more than a rally victory) and knows that his chances of winning the
title are slim. “I’m at the team’s service to help it win more titles. To fine-tune my preparation for this type of terrain, which I’m slightly familiar with, I took part in the Vosges rally two weeks ago. That helped me to gain experience on terrain that’s similar to that of Rally France in racing conditions,” said Sébastien. “We’ll see how the race pans out, but I’m going to try and stay close to my team-mate who’s the benchmark on this type of surface.”

As in Australia, the Citroën Total World Rally Team can win the manufacturers’ title before the end of the season. To achieve this the team must extend its lead to 86 points compared to 62 at present.

WRC – MINI WRC returns to racing after regrouping

The MINI WRC Team will again be competing on asphalt when it arrives in Strasbourg for its fourth event of 2011, Rally France-Alsace. The team is keen to capitalise on its third place in Germany for Dani Sordo (ES) and the tarmac performance shown by the MINI John Cooper Works WRC.

While the rest of the World Rally Championship competitors have been in Australia, the number 37 and 52 MINIs have been back in Banbury at the Prodrive headquarters. Since Rally Germany, both drivers have been getting valuable time behind the wheel with Kris Meeke (GB) attending the Rallyday at Castle Combe, and Dani Sordo shaking the car down at Prodrive’s test track in Warwickshire as the team continues the MINI WRC’s development. The team is also holding a one day pre-event test in France this weekend.

 

David Richards, Team Principal:

“Dani and Kris have proven that the MINI is very competitive on tarmac. Just like in Germany we will be going to France to show the performance of the car and aiming for both drivers to finish in strong positions. Whether we can repeat the podium in Trier remains to be seen, but certainly Dani likes the event. However, Kris is new to the stages, but I am confident he will soon be on the pace as he was in Germany.”

 

Dani Sordo:

“The surface in France changes frequently, which makes the rally technically demanding. The route is very hilly, particularly in the forest sections. Here, the weather decides how you can drive. Last year it rained heavily, which made the surface very slippery. The Rallye de France is similar in many ways to Germany. Personally, I really like driving there, as you have to be both very focused and flexible with regard to the weather conditions. The recce plays a major role. The pace notes must be accurate, and the co-drivers instructions must be perfect.”

 

Kris Meeke:

“I didn’t start this rally in 2010, which practically makes this a completely new rally for me. However, I have completed a lot of testing in this region in the past, so I know roughly what to expect. The rally is a bit similar to its German counterpart, particularly the sections through the vineyards and on the gravel roads. It is technically very demanding and you cannot afford to lose concentration for a second, your pace notes must be very accurate.”

 

History and Background:

This rally is very much home for Sébastien Loeb (FR) with the Power Stage even going through the town he comes from. Its base in the Alsace region of France around the town of Strasbourg is relatively new, as this is only its second year there. Not surprisingly last year it was won by Loeb. However, before this the French round of the WRC has always been associated with the Mediterranean island of Corsica, where it was held from 1973 to 2008.

 

The event starts in Strasbourg Zénith at 07.00 on Friday, 30^th September. This first day of action is over eight stages and 148.38 kilometres of competition. The competitors return to Strasbourg for service during the day, and then finish there in the evening with the first car due into the final parc fermé at 18.20. Day two sees an early start at 06.45 and a remote service at Colmar. On the schedule are a further nine stages with an almost identical competitive distance as day one at 148.39 kilometres. The first car is due into the final control for parc fermé at 18.36. On day three the start is even earlier at 06.20. The final of the day’s six stages is the Power Stage and this is 4.20 kilometres around Haguenau. The final day’s competition is over 51.36 kilometres, while the total for the whole event is 348.13 kilometres in the 1,296.08 kilometres that make up the total mileage.

 

Motorsport- Audi R18TDI heads across to the states

In June Audi celebrated its tenth victory with the R18 TDI diesel race sports car and ultra-lightweight technology in a dramatic race at the famous Le Mans 24 Hours. Likewise, on October 1st, Audi Sport Team Joest is aiming for the brand’s tenth triumph at the U.S. counterpart, the “Petit Le Mans” at Road Atlanta in the state of Georgia.

Nine times Audi has won the event which alongside the Daytona 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hours is the most important endurance race in North America. From 2000 to 2005 the Audi R8 was unbeatable at the race that is run over 1000 miles or for a maximum of ten hours. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 the Audi R10 TDI triumphed three times in a row. After unfortunate defeats in the past two years with the R15 TDI, Audi is set on returning to victory lane with the new R18 TDI at Road Atlanta.

Audi Sport Team Joest is fielding two vehicles at the first overseas event of the R18 TDI. Each will car will have three drivers due to the length of the race. Timo Bernhard and Marcel Fässler, who have been forming a driver team in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) since the round at Imola and have been on the podium twice, will be supported by Romain Dumas. Joining Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish will be Dindo Capello – the most successful driver of the American classic with a track record of five overall victories (2000, 2002, 2006, 2007 and 2008).

Last year the Italian became the victim of a strange incident. While he was leading the race an insert in his helmet that is prescribed by the regulations came loose and caused the fireproof balaclava to slip over his eyes. The unscheduled pit stop cost Audi a possible victory.

Minute details could also be crucial this year. At Le Mans Audi triumphed in June after 24 hours with an advantage of merely 13.854 seconds. At the 6-hour race at Silverstone the fastest lap times of the top four vehicles were within 202 thousandths of a second. And with 56 teams having submitted entries, the track at Road Atlanta will be pretty packed, with numerous overtaking maneuvers posing a permanent risk of body contact.

After third place at Imola and second place at Silverstone there is just one goal for Audi at the U.S. classic on October 1st: victory. Therefore, Audi Sport Team Joest will already be testing on the weekend before the race at Road Atlanta in order to set up the R18 TDI as perfectly as possible for the special characteristics of the track and not leave anything to chance.

Nothing was left to chance either by the engineers from Audi Sport who developed the new diesel race sports car. The Audi R18 TDI is packed with innovative technology – from the compact 3.7-liter V6 TDI engine with a mono-VTG charger, the full LED headlights through to ultra-lightweight design that is becoming increasingly important in production cars too.

Tens of thousands of spectators lining the track at Road Atlanta will be watching the two R18 TDI cars with their whispering V6 TDI engines. Since its inaugural round in 1998, “Petit Le Mans” has evolved into one of North America’s biggest racing events that is meanwhile attracting more than 100,000 fans.

Qualifying will take place on Friday afternoon (September 30) from 15:30 to 15:45, local time; the race will start on Saturday (October 1) at 11:30. Eurosport will broadcast the starting phase from 17:30 to 18:30 and the final phase from 00:00 to 03:30 live.