rally new zealand day 1
Aug. 29th, 2008 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
was_tansu_now_badhedgehogWhat with the time difference (because we're on daylight savings, it's +13 hours, which is taking the piss if you ask me), it's not easy to follow the action live. At least not when one's in the habit of going to bed at a sensible time. Back in the day I would sometimes listen to England v Aus or NZ cricket matches until the small hours, but not any more.
anyway, so I listened to the first stage on World Rally Radio, and then gave up and went to sleep. Latvala was fastest in the first stage (*beams*). Loeb, running first on the road, nearly rolled near the end of the first stage, and scared himself a bit.
Hirvonen is driving very well and consistently.
Lots of intrigue as Loeb had a starter motor problem on stage 6, the stage from which tomorrows starting positions are decided. The car wouldn't start, and he ended up starting the stage *after* Hirvonen, and getting himself a 30 second penalty. Loeb and the Citroën team deny that this was a deliberate tactical play. Hirvonen is somewhat "hmmmmm..." about it.
So, Hirvonen starts first on the road tomorrow. Latvala starts third. Had he judged his slowdown just half a second better, he would have started fourth behind Dani Sordo, and with the amount of loose gravel that there is on these roads, having justone more car in front could make a big difference. He said himself after shakedown that the rain has washed away a lot of sand from the roads, leaving loose gravel on top and making things more slippy than people were expecting.
The brothers Solberg had not the best day, although for different reasons. Henning had a servo failure in the first stage, so no power steering. He said the car was all over the road and almost impossible to steer, so he lost several minutes in the 3 stages before the first service. Also the brakes were burnt to fuck, he thinks because of the way he was driving with the power steering problems. Petter, on the other hand, was just slow all day, and very much NOT HAPPY. He's the only hope for Subaru though, since Atko had to retire after a roll on stage 4.
There are a lot of good pictures from shakedown out there on t'internet. Some ripe for captioning.
I also note that 1961 F1 champion Phil Hill (only American ever to win the F1 drivers title) died today at the age of 81. My partner's father had a pair of Phil Hill's driving gloves in the attic. I dunno if he still has them or if he sold them on ebay a couple of years ago.
anyway, so I listened to the first stage on World Rally Radio, and then gave up and went to sleep. Latvala was fastest in the first stage (*beams*). Loeb, running first on the road, nearly rolled near the end of the first stage, and scared himself a bit.
Hirvonen is driving very well and consistently.
Lots of intrigue as Loeb had a starter motor problem on stage 6, the stage from which tomorrows starting positions are decided. The car wouldn't start, and he ended up starting the stage *after* Hirvonen, and getting himself a 30 second penalty. Loeb and the Citroën team deny that this was a deliberate tactical play. Hirvonen is somewhat "hmmmmm..." about it.
So, Hirvonen starts first on the road tomorrow. Latvala starts third. Had he judged his slowdown just half a second better, he would have started fourth behind Dani Sordo, and with the amount of loose gravel that there is on these roads, having justone more car in front could make a big difference. He said himself after shakedown that the rain has washed away a lot of sand from the roads, leaving loose gravel on top and making things more slippy than people were expecting.
The brothers Solberg had not the best day, although for different reasons. Henning had a servo failure in the first stage, so no power steering. He said the car was all over the road and almost impossible to steer, so he lost several minutes in the 3 stages before the first service. Also the brakes were burnt to fuck, he thinks because of the way he was driving with the power steering problems. Petter, on the other hand, was just slow all day, and very much NOT HAPPY. He's the only hope for Subaru though, since Atko had to retire after a roll on stage 4.
There are a lot of good pictures from shakedown out there on t'internet. Some ripe for captioning.
I also note that 1961 F1 champion Phil Hill (only American ever to win the F1 drivers title) died today at the age of 81. My partner's father had a pair of Phil Hill's driving gloves in the attic. I dunno if he still has them or if he sold them on ebay a couple of years ago.
