Rally Acropolis 2011: The official Citroën cancel out the advantage of Petter Solberg

 Such and how expected yesterday, the disadvantage when opening track was going to pass bill to Petter Solberg. The Norwegian started this morning with more than 50 seconds ahead of Sebastien Loeb. However, the two official Citroen drivers have succeeded in reducing the advantage to the minimum, in the case of Ogier to just five seconds.
Petter went out overnight with the idea of losing less than thirty seconds, but the thrust of his rivals and the fact of opening track made to lost more than ten seconds in the first special. Sebastien Ogier was in charge of the scratch mark and this allowed him to be in second place after beating Loeb already a Mikko Hirvonen who could do little to stop the pace of the pilots of Citroen.
Meanwhile Jari-Matti Latvala is rejoined the race after the problems of differential of yesterday. Finnish returned to show his bad luck and in the first leg was suffering from serious problems of turbo that they forced him drag the morning loop waiting to get to the Park of assistance and that can repair you the car their mechanics.

The difference between Ogier and Solberg continued falling during the second special of the day. Something that was aggravated when Petter committed a mistake and it was wrong of address at a crossroads. As a result the Norwegian lost 19.8 seconds in a single tranche with respect to their immediate rival.
The last special morning has left Ogier to just 5.4 seconds of Petter Solberg, when there are four sections to the end of the second stage of the Acropolis Rally. Young French star is currently the fastest of the test, and after scoring the three scratch of today, is trailing in 10 seconds to teammate, Sebastien Loeb.
Meanwhile Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson are in fifth and sixth position making a very irregular rally, seeing even passed on several occasions by Kimi Raikkonen, who is seventh. Highlight the good performance of Juho Hanninen which has inherited the top position in the SWRC class after a rollover of the up to this leading morning, Ott Tanak.
1 P. SOLBERG 2: 24: 09 4 0.0
2 S. OGIER 2: 24: 14 8 + 5.4
3 S. LOEB 2: 24: 24 4 + 15.0
4. M. HIRVONEN 2: 24: 33 2 + 23.8
5 H. SOLBERG 2: 26: 54 1 + 2: 44. 7
6. M. WILSON 2: 27: 35 4 + 3: 26. 0
7 K. RAIKKONEN 2: 29: 06 6 + 4: 57. 2
8 J. HANNINEN 2: 29: 44 9 + 5: 35. 5
9 B. SOUSA 2: 32: 07 0 + 7: 57. 6
10 D. KUIPERS 2: 32: 54 2 + 8: 44. 8

The week after the rally. That advantage is acuesta…

 This week I have not expected much to make the post summary of the test of world Rallye. And it is that the three days of which comprised the Rally of Argentina have had their breadcrumbs. On Friday I was surprised with the spectacular pace of Jari-Matti Latvala. The Finnish has been preparing in recent years and has reached a level of maturity and steering that many would want for themselves.
Even the asphalt, which has long been their workhorse, seems to be fairly resolved. You just have to see the special last Friday to realise this. The Finn flew over Argentine roads despite having the settings of Earth and was seen at all times fully concentrated and confident of their chances. Since then was the surprise of the rally.

In the completely opposite side we could place Sebastien Ogier. It is the second time this season that the young star of Citroen makes a mistake during the first special on Sunday when he was first. On this occasion, and difference of in Mexico, higher than the 40 second advantage allowed him the opportunity to be able to manage with his pursuers.
This time he returned to betray the nerves and after an enganchon in a curve transformed his World Rally Car in a Citroen DS3's Street. Obviously with the damage that was carrying in his car and two genuine purasangres as Hirvonen and Loeb behind was hoped the final outcome. In the case of the Alsatian performance was much more impressive after penalising a day minute after a mistake of Daniel Elena.

Also worthy of mention is that the Ford returned to suffering numerous mechanical problems. In the case of Jari-Matti Latvala a new front suspension breakage left him out of play. Another Block or Villagra accused serious problems of differential. Let us hope that the brand of the oval know solve these problems because slowly give ground on the chevrones.
As for other issues to be followed, the public is also worthy of mention. The Cordoba Argentine, and in special viewers, populated the gutters of the rally. Data have indicated that the influx had increased by fifty per cent more with with respect to the 2009 Edition, obviously the comparison with the 2010 Edition, valid for IRC, is impossible.

The television also surprised me. Especially in the case of the power stage. The live, aided by current Copilot of Dani Sordo, Carlos del Barrio, improved a lot and also the theme for a single advertising cut of two minutes helped quite. Also was a coincidence that at the time a Latvala to attack was on the stretch, but the most important thing was to continue the fight live in the head. As conclusion… A spectacular Rally of Argentina.

Jamie Whincup continues to increase his advantage at the head of the Championship

Today is Friday and have to remember what happened last weekend at Winton Raceway during the two rounds of the fifth event of the Australian V8 Supercars Championship. This time Jamie Whincup has certified its superiority with a victory and a second place so that even more placed at the head of the general classification of the category.

The first two rounds began with a nice part of career, and it wasn't until pit stops when Jamie managed to position itself at the forefront of the race. Whincup had to endure a few tentative attacks by the Holdsworth Holden could do nothing to prevent the victory of the leader of the general classification.

The second race left us the second win of the season to Jason Bright who managed to place ahead of Jamie Whincup after a smart strategy for use of their tires. A few more fresh tires allowed Bright overcome one one to their rivals, taking him to win the second round. The current advantage of Whincup on Lowndes stands at 250 points, important advantage when the Championship arrives already to his point average.

What was of... Sébastien Bourdais, the pilot that the F1 failed to take advantage of

Sebastien Bourdais is one of those drivers that Formula 1 has not taken advantage of. For Bourdais the truth is that certain factors external to the sport gathered so that he was in the top Division, but in turn brought a list of winners and a trajectory that was simply enviable. Everything was to presage that a French pilot would return to the F1 to recover old laurels, but as you all know, that was not finally.
Sebastien Bourdais was in Formula 1 in 2008 and 2009 at the controls of one of the cars of scuderia Toro rosso. During those two years he had no performances noteworthy if the career in which he debuted, with the exception of Australia. In his debut race he ranked seventeenth and, thanks in part to the errors of the other pilots would climb to fourth place. It is true that if you aren't there fails, but that Grand Prix was in particular a rather chaotic and the French managed to climb slowly up to fourth place which would know to challenging if not for the breakdown of the engine of his Toro Rosso.
Drop-outsthe 2009 season was an unbearable for Bourdais road, which saw race after race how him were ever closer to the dangerous part of the career of a pilot, that which are beginning to raise in the team if it isn't better to find another that will lead your cars. Fortunately for him, he had a second chance in 2009 thanks to a last part of the 2008 season in constant improvement of benefits. This improvement did not materialize in successful the following year: he could with his inexperienced partner Sebastian Buemi and Bourdais was definitely removed from the team to introduce the second seat at a very young Jaime Alguersuari, which debuted in the F1 in Hungary. Toro Rosso willingly paid compensation Bourdais by terminate his contract prematurely, and the French returned to look for life in other competitions.

If before entering Formula 1 Sebastien Bourdais was enshrined in United States to win the Champ Car four years in a row, breaking records, marking a more than 40% winning percentage and leading a third of the rounds during which competed in that period, his departure from formula one was a kind of step backwards. Not because its quality saw devalued (after leaving the F1 Bourdais won two of the last three races of the Superleague in the same year), but because it was not the same, not even this 2011 which has become Americans cars in the Indy Car.
Saving his performance in The 24 hours of Le Mans in 2009, where he was second teaming in Peugeot with Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin (and behind the trio of Brabham-Gene-Wurz, by the way), the rest of the Championships in which he has been registered have been francamente… no noteworthy comments. Le Mans 2010 was abandoned after 51 laps and having achieved the pole position, his adventure in the Le Mans Series took a victory at the 1000 km of Spa-Francorchamps and the Superleague did not have much continuity.
Now, in 2011, Bourdais disputed the Indy Car Series on Board of a Dale Coyne Racing. Four runs later are 25 adding two retirements and a 11 th place. It does not run in all the tests by its commitments to the Le Mans Series, but it played all the races on circuits urban and permanent (not oval). I conclude by retaking the holder and throwing the question pool: formula one failed to take advantage of the talent of Sebastien Bourdais, or really Bourdais failed to take advantage of formula one?

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