Re: Round 1: WRC Rally Sweden

[KoKiNa]

Deleted

[Invité]

14/2/10
Hirvonen wins in Sweden!

Ford Focus RS WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen got his quest for the 2010 World Rally Championship drivers' title off to the best possible start today by winning the opening round of the series, Rally Sweden.

Hirvonen, team-leader of the BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team, took the lead on Friday and successfully fought off a two-day attack from defending champion Sebastien Loeb, who finished second, 42.3sec behind in a Citroen C4 WRC.

Today's win was the 12th at World Championship level for the Finn, who lost the 2009 title fight by a single point to Loeb. Under the new WRC points system, Hirvonen opened his 2010 account with a maximum score of 25.

After a careful approach through the final snow-covered stage, Hirvonen and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen leapt onto the roof of their car at he finish control to celebrate their win. "It's absolutely fantastic!" said Hirvonen. "And I'm really happy it's over after those last few stages; you can't imagine how nervous I was in there. It’s a perfect start to my year, I've never won the first round before, but after last season I've got one more year of experience. Now I plan to carry on like this. It’s a new game in Mexico and I can't wait to get started again."

Having lost out to Hirvonen in a tyre gamble on Saturday afternoon, Loeb began Sunday's competition trailing by 16.1sec. But after failing to make a big impression on today's opening two stages, the Frenchman took the uncharacteristic decision to give up on the victory challenge after SS18, settling for second, and 18 championship points instead.

"It’s been a tough weekend, and Mikko has done a perfect rally," said Loeb. "We made a little mistake yesterday, but even without it I don't know if I would have been able to beat him in the stages. He was strong and he deserves his victory. I did my best. There's nothing more to say."

Third in Sweden, 33.1sec behind Loeb, was Hirvonen's team-mate, Jari-Matti Latvala, who started his season with a 15 points haul - helping to put Ford in the lead of the manufacturers' contest. "It's not been an easy weekend," said the Finn. "We were struggling on Friday, but the speed started to come right on Saturday afternoon. I'm really pleased to finish in this position on the first round of the season."

Fourth went to Loeb's team-mate Dani Sordo. The Spaniard finished 1min 26.2sec behind Latvala, largely because of a silly mistake on Saturday when a blanking plate wasn't removed from the front of his car, causing its engine to overheat. But after an otherwise strong performance, Sordo put a brave face on the result.

"Fourth place is not bad, but of course third would have been better," he said. "The first day was okay, then we made a mistake, but that's rally sometimes. It’s okay though, we need to look to the future now. And fourth place will give me a good start position in Mexico, where the others will be cleaning the road."

Sebastien Ogier of the Citroen Junior team had a largely trouble-free event to finish fifth on his Rally Sweden debut, 4min 15.3sec adrift of Hirvonen's winning time. "It's a good result for all the team and I want to thank them for giving me a second season - it's a great opportunity. The rally was good for me on day one then got a bit more difficult when we had to conserve our place. So it was less fun that I expected! But the most important thing was to finish and get experience."

Sixth was Stobart Ford team driver Henning Solberg, tackling his first event with new co-driver Ilka Minor, and adjusting to a new English language pace-note system. "I wanted to catch Ogier, and I couldn't do any more, so we have to be happy," he said. "In the car it’s working well with Ilka. You'll see later; this is a winning team!"

Henning's British team-mate Matthew Wilson was seventh in his Ford Focus RS WRC, to collect six championship points. "I'm slightly disappointed by Friday's pace, but once we got the car sorted we improved on Saturday and today. I'm glad to get to the finish."

Norwegian Mads Ostberg was eighth after an up and down event in his 2007 spec Subaru Impreza WRC. The Norwegian had some encouraging stages but lost time in snowbanks and with a braking problem today. "A frustrating time," he acknowledged. "I hoped my bad luck would stop this year but it seems not. I've done some mistakes, and we've had some problems with the car. I guess it evens things out. I hope we'll get out again this season; we're working on some S2000 things."

Petter Solberg's first event in his 2009 specification Citroen C4 WRC turned out to be a disappointing one, with the former champion ending the rally ninth after failing to gel with his car. "This rally didn't go our way - whether that's down to me, or something else I don't know," he said. "Something hasn't been right, that's for sure. Things worked well before the rally, and the set-up should be the same as Sebastien Loeb's. What can I say?"

Swedish driver P-G Andersson brought his Super 2000 specification Skoda Fabia to tenth place, to take the class win and collect the final point in the WRC drivers' championship.

Further down the standings, largely as a result of an electrical problem on day two, former double World Champion Marcus Gronholm finished 21st in his Stobart team Ford Focus. The Finn achieved one of his pre-event objectives - winning his beloved Sagen stage on Saturday - but felt he could have done with more time in the car before the rally. "It was good to take the stage win, but the conditions here have been very tough on the tyres, and it's very difficult to drive these cars with no studs. Will I do more events? I don't know. We'll see. But if I do I'll need a lot of practice and more miles in the car."

Despite an off into a snowbank on Friday, F1 star Kimi Raikkonen completed his first ever World Rally Championship event, reaching the finish in 30th place, 37minutes behind the leaders, in his Citroen C4 WRC. "Of course I'm not happy about getting stuck on the first day but I maybe I've improved a lot since," he said. "This is definitely not an easy rally, but we've got a lot more experience of the car and the notes now. Mexico is next. I've never driven the car on gravel before but the grip should be consistent. I'm looking forward to it."

A very good and exciting Swedish rally is over now, a big congrats to Mikko Hirvonen to a really awesome victory, Sebastien Loeb to P2 and also congrats to Kimi, who proved once again, that he is a fighter, also when he has to to deal with some troubles like on friday...finishing that rally on P30 was surely not, what he'd expected, but he did the best he could....can't wait for Mexico, for the next adventure...

Keep flying, Kimi!!!

[KoKiNa]

Deleted

[Zonked]

Woohoo Kimi finished his 1st WRC rally!
(He finished 6th fastest on SS15.)

yeah that was kind special,just a couple of second shy of loeb and hirvonen,and by far ahead of ostnberg and wilson

[KoKiNa]

Deleted

[Gary]

Did he really expected more or it was you the fanatic fans?...

Kimi doesn't reveal what he expects truly, but I bet he expects lot.
As his fan, I am happy that he makes progress, and it seems very
fun how you try to blaim me and other fans of unrealistic expectations,
since I haven't seen those in any posts.

Having fun with your lil trolling?

[Gary]

BTW, why do you think every rally driver interviewed thinks Kimi does exceptionally good for (rally) rookie? It's only some of the forum amateurs (and Kimi nay sayers) who keep saying he isn't worth anything in rally.

Guess which ones have more credibility?

[Invité]

I would suggest you to keep yourself away of the threads, which are dedicated to Kimi, if you just want to bash him....you should better support your driver (F1 or whatever) Everyone is allowed to support the one, who is the fav one, so is it really worth to laugh about the other members, cuz they support someone, you dislike? I think there is no reason for doing that! I won't do that, cuz if I would, some drivers would be offended in a very bad way, I won't say any names...however....
....................................................

@ all Kimi-Fans: Here are some funny pics...please enjoy...








EDIT: They are bit huge, so here are the links to watch them in full size:

http://keep4u.ru/imgs/b/2010/02/14/b1/b1ede61a79292a0c61a3a519747a2230.jpg
http://keep4u.ru/imgs/b/2010/02/14/3d/3d27a42b87d95e12bf66b17a082649ae.jpg
http://keep4u.ru/imgs/b/2010/02/14/26/2667506c6902d0ae8e149b9839f7de12.jpg
http://keep4u.ru/imgs/b/2010/02/14/68/68ed647373967514402eb424f9f690a0.jpg
http://keep4u.ru/imgs/b/2010/02/14/86/8621a669227e8b68b899eaf9dfd7e514.jpg
http://keep4u.ru/imgs/b/2010/02/14/dd/dd5c1c4d915243785298be686590405a.jpg
http://keep4u.ru/imgs/b/2010/02/14/00/003fd13bad761aeb85bbcabe8cc648d2.jpg

[KoKiNa]

Deleted

[Invité]

Oh yes, I'm such an evil person like the Kimi-fanboys....oh boy, hmmm...it would be the same, if MS would drive in the WRC (only the imaginati, on about that is ridiculous btw ), it would be same and the rally thread would become a MS thread....if something like that is a reason to be annoyed about, than it's just funny...so and now better you calm down, spamming the forum is not good (My experience)

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Overall standings after WRC Swedish Rally (Round 1):

01 Mikko HIRVONEN Ford Focus WRC 3h09m30.4s
02 Sébastien LOEB Citroën C4 WRC +42.3s
03 Jari-Matti LATVALA Ford Focus WRC +1m15.4s
04 Dani SORDO Citroën C4 WRC +2m41.6s
05 Sébastien OGIER Citroën C4 WRC +4m15.3s
06 Henning SOLBERG Ford Focus WRC +5m23.4s
07 Matthew WILSON Ford Focus WRC +7m53.9s
08 Mads ÖSTBERG Subaru Impreza WRC+9m22.2s
09 Petter SOLBERG Citroën C4 WRC +10m17.5s
10 P-G ANDERSSON Skoda Fabia S2000 +12m08.9s
11 Andreas MIKKELSEN Ford Fiesta S2000 +12m34.2s
12 Janne TUOHINO Ford Fiesta S2000 +13m06.2s
13 Khalid AL QASSIMI Ford Focus WRC +14m26.6s
14 Martin PROKOP Ford Fiesta S2000 +15m05.3s
15 Patrik SANDELL Skoda Fabia S2000 +16m49.0s

21 Marcus GRÖNHOLM +23:30.8
30 Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN +37:47.2

[Zonked]

somebody stuck something up Kokina's ass!

[Schumanoid]

somebody stuck something up Kokina's ass!

[Gary]

somebody stuck something up Kokina's ass!

[Lynn-rex]

I thought only fanboys/girls followed Kimi everywhere.

Well LadyR can't wait for your Round 2 - Rally Mexico thread!
Great job girl!

[Lynn-rex]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrBJb_-GtWg

Interview with Dave, big smile from Kimi after Rally Sweden.

[Invité]

Ummm...yeah, guys, I see, it was amusing....

Mexico isn't far away, what's great!!!

Interview with Dave, big smile from Kimi after Rally Sweden.

Thx a lot, Lynn, love that video, really great!

[moonraker]

Watched the highlight package last night and there were a couple of surprises.

Kimi was getting well cheesed off with the media scrum several times in service and yet spoke better than I ever heard him in all his time in F1.

Given his car and without major incidents he should be picking up points for 6th-10th during the season, however the rest of the rallies will be much less forgiving than the snow banks were.

Looks like the battle for the title will be interesting between Seb and Mikko with Latvala and Sordo acting as rear gunners for their team leaders. Kimi might be asked to give up position if it helps the senior Citroen team.

Kimi has certainly raised the profile of WRC, which is good news

[KoKiNa]

Deleted

[Invité]

Oh yes, I'm such an evil person like the Kimi-fanboys....oh boy, hmmm...it would be the same, if MS would drive in the WRC (only the imaginati, on about that is ridiculous btw ), it would be same and the rally thread would become a MS thread....if something like that is a reason to be annoyed about, than it's just funny...so and now better you calm down, spamming the forum is not good (My experience)

You really don't need to be so agresive. I entered here because it is called "round 1: WRC Rallye Sweden" and I was looking for the rally info and opinions. It annoyed me to see most of the posts with photos and talking of Kimi, when this guy finished in 30th .
Clearly it looks like fanatism, but then I realized the thread was opened by you with the only intention to do it a new one Kimi fan thread. OK, I have nothing against it. Just you should have called it in a different way (like Kimi in "Sweden Rally" or so). Now I know where not to enter and I will go to another forums to read about WRC rallyes, if moderators allows you to do this...

Oh boy, two things: At first, I was not aggressive, it was just another example for it, if a famous driver comes to WRC It's normal, that the one is in the spotlight at the start of new season...so Kimi came to WRC and the whole scene talks about that, cuz he did his first rally as an official WRC driver like MS made the comeback to F1, here it's exactly the same: Almost all people are talking about him atm....
Secondly, this was the first rally thread I opened, it was the first round, Kimi was new there, so it's a fact, that there is a lot of stuff, what is about him....the best example: the commentators of the rally radio said during the weekend, that about 80% of the e-mails they got were about Kimi. So and you why? Cuz it was his first weekend....the enthousiam will slow down during the remaining season, cuz he will become more and more a drivers as all the other ones( Loeb, Hirvonen, etc...)
And please don't think, that all future rally thread will be only about Kimi....

So the whole thing is not so a big thing in my opinion, that have been my first thread for a race weekend, consequently I haven't a lot of experience in that case and I will surely try to improve them in the next races....

PS: And that doesn't mean, that we don't want to have you here.....

[KoKiNa]

Deleted

[Gary]

Eurosport? That is your proof? Great!

[KoKiNa]

Deleted

[Gary]

Oh yes, all is changed now!

[Lynn-rex]

LadyR, we will be there for your Round 2 - Rally Mexico thread!

[Schumacat]

You really don't need to be so agresive. I entered here because it is called "round 1: WRC Rallye Sweden" and I was looking for the rally info and opinions. It annoyed me to see most of the posts with photos and talking of Kimi, when this guy finished in 30th .
Clearly it looks like fanatism, but then I realized the thread was opened by you with the only intention to do it a new one Kimi fan thread. OK, I have nothing against it. Just you should have called it in a different way (like Kimi in "Sweden Rally" or so). Now I know where not to enter and I will go to another forums to read about WRC rallyes, if moderators allows you to do this...

I think most of the people were reacting to this comment of yours :

Kimi have the car (Ogier finished in 6th) but not the skill...

Oh wait!, yep exactly like in F1...

It was clearly an attempt at trolling coz there is no doubting about Kimi's skill, atleast in F1. So stop acting like an innocent victim now .