Mon August 6, 2007

 Kopecky crashed out pushing for points The crew Jan Kopecký-Filip Schovánek has presented itself with an excellent performance, where it was able to achieve seven top ten times in the super special stages with the Škoda Fabia WRC car....

Sun August 5, 2007

 Debut win for new Focus RS WRC BP-Ford's new Focus RS World Rally Car scored a one-two finish on its debut in Finland today as the team stretched its lead in the FIA World Rally Championship to 40 points. In winning Rally Finland for the seventh time in eight years, Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen ente...

NEWS JUST IN

 FIN end - Bosse's 7th Finn win @ 11:34 AM - Unofficial provisional end positions: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 2h57m26s1; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +24s2; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +1m09s9; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +3m02s8; 5 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +4m29s4; 6 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +7m00s5; 7 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +7m39s6; 8 - Östberg/Unnerud, Subaru, +9m31s9; 9 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +9m39s4; 10 - Wilson/Orr, Ford, +11m13s4

 FIN SS22 - penultimate but long stage @ 11:07 AM - Well, 22km, but things are happening. Kopecky retired from 10th place, Aava lost brakes, Östberg complains on his Subaru having suspension, brake and transmission problems, only FWD now. Unofficial provisional positions after SS22: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 2h53m28s3; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +22s5; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +1m08s1; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +2m58s5; 5 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +4m25s8; 6 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +6m57s2; 7 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +7m31s; 8 - Östberg/Unnerud, Subaru, +8m57s1; 9 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +9m35s5; 10 - Wilson/Orr, Ford, +10m59s

Sat August 4, 2007

 Grönholm takes charge leg 2

NEWS JUST IN

 FIN leg2 - all settled @ 05:02 PM - With only 3 short-ish stages left tomorrow, it looks like not much should be changing now. Loeb a minute down and Ford is hardly spoiling their 1-2. Also further down big gaps. Unofficial provisional positions after leg2: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 2h36m45s2; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +20s4; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +1m00s5; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +2m41s3; 5 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +3m59s1; 6 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +6m21s7; 7 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +6m41s6; 8 - Östberg/Unnerud, Subaru, +8m01s9; 9 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +8m56s9; 10 - Kopecky/Schovanek, Skoda, +9m27s

 FIN SS19 - stage win for Hirvonen @ 04:33 PM - But things seem settled for only 1 stage remains today. There's still a fight for 8th and 10th places, however Wilks struggles with transmission problems. Unofficial provisional positions after SS19: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 2h28m31s1; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +20s9; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +55s1; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +2m24s8; 5 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +3m41s8; 6 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +6m02s2; 7 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +6m22s2; 8 - Östberg/Unnerud, Subaru, +7m42s; 9 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +8m22s6; 10 - Kopecky/Schovanek, Skoda, +9m04s8

 FIN SS18 - Grönholm lucky @ 03:33 PM - Marcus Grönholm had a front puncture on this stage, but it happened at the end and the mousse worked. Damage: 0! In contrary, Loeb overshot a junction and lost a few secs. Unofficial provisional positions after SS18: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 2h21m43s1; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +21s5; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +52s8; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +2m12s7; 5 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +3m34s1; 6 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +5m45s2; 7 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +5m59s8; 8 - Östberg/Unnerud, Subaru, +7m25s; 9 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +7m45s6; 10 - Kopecky/Schovanek, Skoda, +ms

 FIN SS17 - Seemingly settling @ 02:13 PM - Clear stage win for Grönholm and no other incidents on short Ehikki stage. Unofficial provisional positions after SS17: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 2h11m33s3; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +20s5; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +44s1; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +1m59s9; 5 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +3m28s; 6 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +5m23s8; 7 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +5m29s3; 8 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +6m52s8; 9 - Östberg/Unnerud, Subaru, +7m03s; 10 - Wilson/Orr, Ford, +8m23s6

 FIN SS15 - Sordo out @ 11:26 AM - Solberg still with same problem after service. But Citroen should be worried. Loeb is clearly not quite on the pace of the Ford Finns on their home soil, now Sordo retired with an unconfirmed mechanical failure looks bad for Citroen's championship chances. Unofficial provisional positions after SS15: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 1h49m21s3; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +13s5; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +35s; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +1m30s; 5 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +3m02s; 6 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +4m26s8; 7 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +4m27s2; 8 - Solberg/Mills, Subaru, +4m29s5; 9 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +4m45s4; 10 - Perez Companc/Volta, Ford, +6m54s4

 FIN SS14 - Ouninpohja the first @ 08:41 AM - First 2 stages this morning not reported due to early (6am) start and time difference. Stohl rolled out on SS13. SS14 Ouninpohja 1 again run as one single stage of 33km (previous years split) and as expected Ouninpohja bit. Hänninen/Mitsubishi lost around 5min with an engine problem, Solberg/Subaru lost 2min with a return of his handling problems. Unofficial provisional positions after SS14: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 1h39m08s7; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +11s1; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +29s8; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +1m15s1; 5 - Sordo/Marti, Citroen, +2m10s6; 6 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +2m50s9; 7 - Solberg/Mills, Subaru, +3m14s8; 8 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +3m56s8; 9 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +3m57s3; 10 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +4m14s3

 FIN SS16 - Ouninpohja 2 @ 00:39 AM - Ouninphja is one of the last classic stages left, 33km, 130km/h average speeds with many jumps, very dangerous, very demanding - not good for an ill handling car surely and Petter Solberg parked his Subaru accordingly and never started this stage! Unofficial provisional positions after SS16: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 2h04m41s1; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +16s5; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +39s8; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +1m45s; 5 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +3m15s; 6 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +4m48s9; 7 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +5m06s; 8 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +6m11s7; 9 - Wilson/Orr, Ford, +7m52s2; 10 - Perez Companc/Volta, Ford, +8m05s1

Fri August 3, 2007

 SWRT with 2 cars in top 5 The Subaru World Rally Team has two cars in the top five after the first leg of competition on Rally Finland. The Impreza WRC2007 of Atkinson/Prevot is in fourth place, with the identical car of Solberg/Mills just behind in fifth. The pace of both cars increased as the day progre...

 A very good day for OMV Kronos

 Latvala’s early lead at home

 Citroën in combative form after break The opening leg of the 2007 Rally Finland, round nine of this year's World Rally Championship, ended this evening in Jyväskylä with Sébastien Loeb, Daniel Elena and their Citroën C4 WRC in third place and Dani Sordo/Marc Martí following in sixth spot with the second car. ...

 Grönholm leads as BP-Ford dominates BP-Ford World Rally Team's flying Finns dominated today's opening leg of Rally Finland to hold first and second positions with the new Focus RS World Rally Car. Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen and team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen enjoyed a thrilling daylong...

 OMV Kronos back in tune The OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team has rediscovered the necessary self assurance to fight for top places in the FIA World Rally Championship once again. At the “Neste Oil Rally Finland” the Austrian OMV duo Manfred Stohl and Ilka Minor lies in excellent eighth overall place ...

NEWS JUST IN

 FIN leg1 - Ford Finns looking strong @ 04:59 PM - On the last proper stage of the leg the top3 confirm their positions. Only Henning Solberg drops half a minute with a steering problem. Unofficial provisional positions after leg1: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 1h03m57s8; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +3s8; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +20s1; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +46s6; 5 - Solberg/Mills, Subaru, +56s7; 6 - Sordo/Marti, Citroen, +1m22s4; 7 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +1m30s8; 8 - Stohl/Minor, Citroen, +1m43s7; 9 - Hänninen/Markkula, Mitsubishi, +2m00s5; 10 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +2m19s3

 FIN SS9 - Grönholm pushes clearer @ 03:47 PM - Taking 2 stages together. The shortest stages are often the trickiest. However here nothing much has changed. SS8 = 10km, SS9 = 8km. Unofficial provisional positions after SS9: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 53m22s2; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +2s7; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +15s5; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +37s6; 5 - Solberg/Mills, Subaru, +42s6; 6 - Sordo/Marti, Citroen, +1m01s5; 7 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +1m02s; 8 - Stohl/Minor, Citroen, +1m23s9; 9 - Hänninen/Markkula, Mitsubishi, +1m39s3; 10 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +1m53s3

 FIN SS7 - loop of short stages ended @ 01:12 PM - Early leader Latvala retired when he went off the road again. Otherwise business as usual. Unofficial provisional positions after SS7: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 44m48s9; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +0s8; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +11s7; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +22s5; 5 - Solberg/Mills, Subaru, +31s6; 6 - Sordo/Marti, Citroen, +47s; 7 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +48s7; 8 - Stohl/Minor, Citroen, +1m08s5; 9 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +1m18s2; 10 - Hänninen/Markkula, Mitsubishi, +1m23s8

 FIN SS4 - 3rd leader in 3rd stage @ 08:24 AM - This morning's first loop of 3 stages saw 3 different Finns in Fords lead the rally! SS4 action includes Loeb and Atkinson stall and Stohl lose 30s with a mild off. Unofficial provisional positions after SS4: 1 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, 23m19s9; 2 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, +0s1; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +6s6; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +10s4; 5 - Sordo/Marti, Citroen, +26s; 6 - Solberg/Mills, Subaru, +26s8; 7 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +29s6; 8 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +40s2; 9 - Stohl/Minor, Citroen, +41s6; 10 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +42s

 FIN SS3 - Turbulent start @ 07:56 AM - SS1 was only an SSS. On the first proper stage this morning we had Kristian Sohlberg crash out and youngster Jari-Matti Latvala in the lead, only to crash on the next stage. Solberg reports handling and brake problems on his Subaru, Östberg's Subaru blew its engine... So now it looks very much like Loeb vs 2 Fords. Unofficial provisional positions after SS3: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 16m31s6; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +0s9; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +2s2; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +3s4; 5 - Stohl/Minor, Citroen, +13s; 6 - Solberg/Mills, Subaru, +14s6; 7 - Sordo/Marti, Citroen, +15s6; 8 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +23s2; 9 - Aava/Sikk, Mitsubishi, +28s4; 10 - Wilks/Pugh, Ford, +32s1

 Yle Rally Radio @ 07:39 AM - Do not forget to tune into Finland's/Yle's excellent Rally Radio once again. Many end of stage interviews (and no nonsense), first in Finnish, then English: http://akastreaming.yle.fi/vp/fiyle/no_geo/live_h.asx

 FIN SS6 - 2 Ford Finns share stage win @ 00:08 AM - A quiter stage for incidents but very rutted from the first run. Read earlier happenings in the news archive. Unofficial provisional positions after SS6: 1 - Grönholm/Rautiainen, Ford, 38m12s8; 2 - Hirvonen/Lehtinen, Ford, +0s4; 3 - Loeb/Elena, Citroen, +9s3; 4 - Atkinson/Prevot, Subaru, +17s2; 5 - Solberg/Mills, Subaru, +29s4; 6 - Sordo/Marti, Citroen, +37s8; 7 - H.Solberg/Menkerud, Ford, +58s9; 8 - Stohl/Minor, Citroen, +56s8; 9 - Pons/Amigo, Subaru, +1m05s6; 10 - Hänninen/Markkula, Mitsubishi, +1m10s3

Wed August 1, 2007

 Sebastien & Dani - Finland 2007 After an eight-week break, the 2007 World Rally Championship is about to get back into full swing. To get the second half of the season started on a high note, the action resumes with Finland's roller-coaster ride for which Citroën Sport has entered two C4 WRCs for Sebastien L...

 A New Hope for OMV Kronos Citroen The OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team is ready to take off once again following the almost two months long summer break. The “Neste Oil Rally Finland” marks the beginning of the second half of the FIA World Rally Championship. And Manfred Stohl has big plans for the remainder o...

 Companc & Villagra hit the fast stuff

 Subaru ventures to Finland with 3 cars The Subaru World Rally Team has entered three Impreza WRC2007s for the ninth round of the World Rally Championship. Petter Solberg/Phil Mills will drive car number seven, Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot will drive car number eight, while Pons/Amigo will be in car number seventeen....

 Stobart Crews Fire-up for Finnish Action fter a well earned summer break the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford team head to Finland next week for the Neste Oil Rally Finland, round nine of the FIA World Rally Championship. The team is currently fourth in the Manufacturers’ Championship with Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud sixth in ...