The best images from the Rally of Sardinia

And we went back again to European territory with a rally that make love again. The first stage had many surprises and the exits of track of numerous pilots were joined by the success of one or another private. This is the case of Mads Ostberg and Evgeny Novikov, who despite not being "private" in the broadest sense of the word, managed to slip between the teams of larger budgets.

The test Italian also was marked by the debut of the Mini Countryman WRC. The early withdrawal of Kris Meeke after a throttle problem, continued good performance from Dani Sordo who saved the honour of the brand getting you a creditable sixth place. Spaniard also left some other Cronus worthy of mention in the sections that lower performance engine was required.

As for the rest, most curious images again come from the family Solberg. First the elder brother, Henning said was done to grilled after having a touch with a bridge pylon and suffered a fire in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC Conatus. The other peak comes from the hand of Petter who has taught his son Oliver racing philosophy. "Pushing the limit."

We also join in the gesture of Dani Sordo and Carlos of the neighborhood during the Saturday were placed a black in memory of Severiano Ballesteros bracelet. Rest in peace.

Rally of Sardinia 2011: Sébastien Loeb does not give option and takes the victory. Dani Sordo sixth

 As expected the third stage has not had much more emotion in regards to the struggle for the victory. Sebastien Loeb has proved to be the fastest pilot and has been perfectly content attacks from his rivals during this day. Second over Mikko Hirvonen who also managed to take three points from victory in the Power Stage, while the third has finally been Petter Solberg.
Sebastien Ogier for their part also went for this morning, however the young French star has broken its rear suspension when he quarreled with the Norwegian pilot for third place. This will to lift the foot and it left him in fourth place that him away a little momentary struggle for the head of the general classification.
Meanwhile Dani Sordo succeeded in sixth position final and sum the first eight points for the Mini John Cooper Works team. Of course it is a very good start for a Mini Countryman WRC that has shown to be still a bit lacking in form as to the engine. Let us hope that in the upcoming tests the performance of the BMW engine improved to see them further up.

1 3: 45: 40 9 S. LOEB 0.0
2. M. HIRVONEN 3: 45: 52 1 + 11.2
3 P. SOLBERG 3: 46: 04 7 + 23.8
4 S. OGIER 3: 47: 12 4 + 1: 31. 5
5. M. OSTBERG 3: 48: 23 5 + 2: 42. 6
6. D. SORDO 3: 49: 08 5 + 3: 27. 6
7 O. TANAK 3: 52: 51 8 + 7: 10. 9
8 J. HANNINEN 3: 53: 18 5 + 7: 37. 6
9. M. WILSON 3: 53: 41 3 + 8: 00. 4
10 B. TO ATTIYAH 3: 58: 14 7 + 12: 33. 8

Rally of Sardinia 2011: Dani Sordo improves and Sébastien Loeb stays leader solo

 The first stage of the Italian test has become a butcher, to account for more than 20 drop-outs by output of track, most, or mechanical problems. In is situation Loeb has grown even stronger and it has managed to overtake at the end of the day to Petter Solberg, who is now second, in more than half a minute.
It is that despite the attack of Mikko Hirvonen nothing more out of the Park of attendance, the Alsatian has been intractable and has continued to dominate the stage with an iron hand. It must also say that the pilot of Citroen has favored him in the third leg of the afternoon the only surviving Ford Finnish find and will stop nearly a minute on the road.
In the meantime Petter Solberg managed to recover some of lost time during the morning, and it was in second position when Sebastien Ogier lift the foot in search of a better starting position for tomorrow. As for deaf, it should be noted that the Mini continues apace and already has placed behind five pilots head usual times.

Tomorrow the Cantabrian has promised more accelerate the pace, but I think that we will have to look at the time of a Kris Meeke who already unable to fight for the points will be to get the full potential of the car. By now the WRC Countryman is a seven decimas by kilometer the time of the best, a good result to be the first test.
Meanwhile bad luck for Evgeny Novikov, who has joined the large number of casualties per output of the particular third runway. The Russian has swung and it is not known if tomorrow will reenganchar through the Super Rally. In the same situation are Lemes and rocket Suarez which have had to abandon as most of the pilots of the WRC Academy.
1 S. LOEB 1: 27: 47 0 0.0
2 P. SOLBERG 1: 28: 20 2 + 33.2
3. M. HIRVONEN 1: 28: 40 1 + 53.1
4 S. OGIER 1: 28: 42 5 + 55.5
5. M. OSTBERG 1: 28: 51 7 + 1: 04. 7
6. D. SORDO 1: 29: 20 2 + 1: 33. 2
7 O. TANAK 1: 30: 23 0 + 2: 36. 0
8. M. WILSON 1: 30: 41 5 + 2: 54. 5
9. M. PROKOP 1: 30: 48 7 + 3: 01. 7
10 J. HANNINEN 1: 31: 06 8 + 3: 19. 8

Rally of Sardinia 2011: Sébastien Loeb increases his advantage

Despite fear throughout the week the issue of having to open track during the Italian race, today again the first out to track has become to benefit. In this case Sebastien Loeb, which has further increased its lead with respect to his pursuers. Meanwhile Dani Sordo continues to maintain a good pace and is currently avoiding all the problems that are harassing teammate.
That if, during the morning we have seen a constant, Jari-Matti Latvala has proved to be the fastest pilot once reenganchado by Super-Rally. The only Finnish is left roll because it makes the head of the race more than 34 minutes away.

I had good feelings, but do take me it easy in some areas. I am disappointed by what happened yesterday, but this is a good start.

Meanwhile the pilots back began to atosigar a bit of a Loeb began to notice the problem of having to open track. So much was so Petter Solberg he got seven seconds into the first special of the day and let the distance between the two below the psychological barrier of the half a minute.

Meanwhile Kris Meeke was still with the same problems with the accelerator that yesterday forced him to leave during the third leg of the first stage. The Northern Ireland lasted little more and in the following section is in the middle of the stretch retiring for the second time of the Rally of Sardinia. Dani Sordo was at that time only faced with the danger, in a comfortable sixth position and at a pace close to head pilots.
However the interest focused again on head and it is that Petter Solberg was all what has been achieved in the first leg after a puncture. Mikko Hirvonen recovered a position and Sebastien Ogier stayed very close to the third which went on to occupy the Norwegian. In this way Loeb was still leading and happened to have two seconds advantage on how started this morning.
1 S. LOEB 2: 13: 14 3 0.0
2. M. HIRVONEN 2: 13: 49 7 + 22.0
3 P. SOLBERG 2: 13: 51 4 + 37.1
4 S. OGIER 2: 13: 52 9 + 38.6
5. M. OSTBERG 2: 14: 31 2 + 1: 16. 9
6. D. SORDO 2: 15: 04 4 + 1: 50. 1
7 O. TANAK 2: 16: 56 6 + 3: 42. 3
8. M. WILSON 2: 17: 45 0 + 4: 30. 7
9 J. HANNINEN 2: 17: 49 9 + 4: 35. 6
10. M. PROKOP 2: 18: 28 5 + 5: 14. 2

Rally of Sardinia 2011: close to head fight. Eighth deaf

 What tomorrow's emotions that we are having in the Italian race. The tour this year has shifted to the interior in the first stage is leaving us surprise after surprise in each of its sections. In this crazy race, beginning Sebastien Loeb has been benefited and is currently leader of the race despite having to leave the first in the order of output.
The rainfall during the past few days has made it possible that this field more compact for the first pilots, and that therefore the differences caused by the stand-out will be reduced. This has made nervous pilots who supposedly had a theoretical advantage and has forced them to attack from the first kilometer of the morning.
It was the case with Latvala before reaching half of the first special dumps his Ford Fiesta RS WRC after failure of his CoPilot and lost more than 25 seconds as soon as start of the first stage. The Finnish managed to resume the March, but in the following special had to withdraw after breaking one of their suspensions.

Petter Solberg who was in charge of marking the scratch in the first leg saw as they also fell to a good number of seconds in the second, after momentarily lose the performance of the turbo. Meanwhile all eyes focused on the performance of the Mini John Cooper Works that debutaban is tomorrow at the world of rally.
Kris Meeke was very fast from the first moment, and this allowed him to surpass clearly in the first two special fellow, and theoretical number one team, Dani Sordo. However the special third the Northern Ireland is out of track, including touch, something that left him out of the race with only three sections behind him, and when it was located in a valuable 4th position.

The Spanish has been much more conservative and is currently in eighth position, behind officers and some that another surprise in the form of private. And it is that to Petter Solberg will have crept ahead the Ford of Evgeny Novikov and Mads Ostberg which are even located ahead of Sebastien Ogier, which is currently fifth classified.
In terms of our compatriots of the WRC Academy, seems this time that they had taken calmly and both Lemes as "Rocket" are quite far from Craig Breen age is displayed as the fastest pilot of the category by far. Lemes after two tranches is ninth, while the Asturian is in the eleventh position.
1 S. LOEB 44:35.2 0.0
2 M. HIRVONEN 44: 37.9 + 2.7
3. E. NOVIKOV 44: 47.1 + 11.9
4 D. OSTBERG 44: 55.0 + 19.8
5 S. OGIER 44: 56.0 + 20.8
6 P. SOLBERG 45: 01.5 + 26.3
7 H. SOLBERG 45: 17.6 + 42.4
8. D. SORDO 45: 20.7 + 45.5
9 O. TANAK 45:37.4 + 1: 02. 2
10. M. PROKOP 45:46.4 + 1: 11. 2

After the Rally of Sardinia

 It was time for the truth. In recent months Spanish fans have been watching the development of the new Countryman WRC with uncertainty, but many hopes. Now the uncertainty is over and this next weekend will see the debut of the Mini in the Rally of Sardinia with Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke behind the wheel of the two official units of Prodrive.
The Italian race has always been characterized by its hardness and its usual dust that will hurt, unless it rains, the pilots leaving in more backward positions. This visibility problem will be offset in part by what is cleaning up the track with the passage of the first pilots and that will certainly be the key to determine the victory.
Especially once the Federation finally has taken any decision connection to change the order of output. This will put to Sebastien Loeb in the pipeline during the first phase, day in which predictably lost long time, being forced to go back over the next two days.

However it will not be the only driver who has problems during the first day. And it is that depending on the pace of the Mini Countryman, both deaf and Meeke may be found with much slower drivers in the stretch. This would entail eating a dense dust left by the pilot in front or even having to try to exceed you without wasting too much time.
Once solved the issue of the puncture, so it seems, the other "external" to take into account element is meteorology. It seems that the time will remain stable throughout the week with Sun and good seasons during the three stages. This no doubt will make that fans return to populate the gutters of the Italian race which, unfortunately for me, replaced the San Remo.

There will be news on the course with regard to the latest editions as two years ago that is not dispute the test. The sections will be displaced towards the interior with special faster to which we are accustomed in previous editions, but the same jumps and narrow tracks that make the Italian race one such rally in which the error is not allowed.
In addition to the World Rally Cars, in Sardinia also will meet young people from the Academy and above all it will be the first European event of the SWRC. As for the Academy, will be to take into account the regularity and above all care with the mechanics of the Ford Fiesta R2, which already proved Portugal to be too loose with the aggressive driving.

The general classification comes, as I have said before, with Loeb as leader and Mikko Hirvonen second. For the first time in the season we will see the Finnish without first leaving during the Friday, and therefore without saying goodbye to the rally in the first round. Second pilots of the teams will also be a goal to follow because during the last tests have passed their theoretical bosses of rows.
Of which no me fio too is Petter Solberg. The Norwegian following several zeros in the first four rallies has pledged to attack in depth in the remainder of season. It remains to be seen if it does not end in a ditch. As for the Championship of brands, Citroen begins to approach the level shown in recent years, Ford is now which must react before reaching the tarmac rallies.

Mini wants to show the speed of the WRC Countryman in Sardinia

It seems that at the headquarters of Prodrive continue with the same ambition that throughout its history the world Rallye. That is why they want within the team of David Richards in the first test of your calendar, the rally of Sardinia, the new Mini Countryman WRC demonstrates its potential in combating the main candidates to victory before that finished the race without mechanical problems.
At least that is what has been declared Richard Taylor less than a month after the debut of the new car in the Italian race. These means that both Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke intended to get all the juice to the Countryman to achieve the highest possible, instead of just reach the end in a position worse in the general classification in the Rally.

It is what David Lapworth always says, is more difficult to make a fast car to a reliable car. That is what we are looking for here. We want a fast car and we believe that we have one. We can work on the durability later, but we want to see the car there in Italy.