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was_tansu_now_badhedgehog) wrote2009-02-13 04:44 pm
was_tansu_now_badhedgehog) wrote2009-02-13 04:44 pm
Entry tags:
Rally Norway - sideways through the snow
End of day one.
Loeb leads by just a few seconds from Hirvonen, and the two have been swapping the lead all day. Loeb seems a little bit more happy and confident on snow than he has been before.
Happily, Jari-Matti Latvala has stayed on the road and is third, 26 seconds off the lead, and 42 seconds off fourth place. There was a brief scare on the second stage of the day when the live split times appeared to show that he was stopped in the stage - the second stage of the first day already has bad associations for supporters of the sometimes-reckless Finn (see: Finland last summer, Ireland the weekend before last). But all was well. He was a little off the pace this morning, but faster in the afternoon - quote "[the speed is] coming now, the soup and the coffee in service helped." Bless.
Petter Solberg is fifth in the 2001 Xsara, which is damn good going for an out of date car, but almost feels like a let-down after his stunning stage win on the superspecial yesterday evening. It's great to see Petter back, and his and his wife's achievement in setting up a private rally team from nothing in only a few weeks is genuinely inspiring. No, really, it is. It even says "Never Give Up!" on their team hats.
Henning Solberg had a bad morning, following a small contretemps with mechanics and team management after yesterday's shakedown.
Former Suzuki driver PG Andersson set two fastest stage times today in his privately run Skoda Fabia, which proves firstly that PG really is a very fast driver, and also that the Fabia is a slightly better car than people may have reckoned.
Matthew Wilson is a lot faster than usual. Maybe it turns out that he's a snow expert?
I didn't do a writeup of Ireland at all, I confess partly because I had the pip quite heavily following JML's bloody stupid error on ss2. I mean, think about it this way: if you were competing against the best driver, and you were 40 seconds ahead after one stage because he'd made the wrong tyre choice, and you were all stuck with your choice of tyres for two more stages, would you think a. Seb's on the wrong tyres! No matter what he does, he can't get past me, and I can only extend my lead, probably by enough that he doesn't catch me in the afternoon! Happy days! or b.I have a lead. What I want is a really really really big lead, so I will drive absolutely to the limit, nay, past it (in these incredibly wet conditions) and be almost a couple of minutes ahead by the end of the day..
If you chose a, congratulations, you didn't break your car!
If you chose b, see me after class.
Loeb leads by just a few seconds from Hirvonen, and the two have been swapping the lead all day. Loeb seems a little bit more happy and confident on snow than he has been before.
Happily, Jari-Matti Latvala has stayed on the road and is third, 26 seconds off the lead, and 42 seconds off fourth place. There was a brief scare on the second stage of the day when the live split times appeared to show that he was stopped in the stage - the second stage of the first day already has bad associations for supporters of the sometimes-reckless Finn (see: Finland last summer, Ireland the weekend before last). But all was well. He was a little off the pace this morning, but faster in the afternoon - quote "[the speed is] coming now, the soup and the coffee in service helped." Bless.
Petter Solberg is fifth in the 2001 Xsara, which is damn good going for an out of date car, but almost feels like a let-down after his stunning stage win on the superspecial yesterday evening. It's great to see Petter back, and his and his wife's achievement in setting up a private rally team from nothing in only a few weeks is genuinely inspiring. No, really, it is. It even says "Never Give Up!" on their team hats.
Henning Solberg had a bad morning, following a small contretemps with mechanics and team management after yesterday's shakedown.
Former Suzuki driver PG Andersson set two fastest stage times today in his privately run Skoda Fabia, which proves firstly that PG really is a very fast driver, and also that the Fabia is a slightly better car than people may have reckoned.
Matthew Wilson is a lot faster than usual. Maybe it turns out that he's a snow expert?
I didn't do a writeup of Ireland at all, I confess partly because I had the pip quite heavily following JML's bloody stupid error on ss2. I mean, think about it this way: if you were competing against the best driver, and you were 40 seconds ahead after one stage because he'd made the wrong tyre choice, and you were all stuck with your choice of tyres for two more stages, would you think a. Seb's on the wrong tyres! No matter what he does, he can't get past me, and I can only extend my lead, probably by enough that he doesn't catch me in the afternoon! Happy days! or b.I have a lead. What I want is a really really really big lead, so I will drive absolutely to the limit, nay, past it (in these incredibly wet conditions) and be almost a couple of minutes ahead by the end of the day..
If you chose a, congratulations, you didn't break your car!
If you chose b, see me after class.