Rallye Monte Carlo 2007

Just 2 weeks before the rally season starts again (joy) with the Rallye Monte Carlo.
First time I see the C4 in action.
Also the 'return' of Mitsubishi.
I'm really looking forward to it.

Anyone have the official entrylist?

I found this provisional list.

1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WRT C4 WRC M*
2. Daniel Sordo Citroen Total WRT C4 WRC M*
3. Marcus Gronholm BP Ford Focus RS WRC 06 M*
4. Mikko Hirvonen BP Ford Focus RS WRC 06 M*
5. Manfred Stohl OMV Kronos Citroen Xsara WRC *
7. Petter Solberg Subaru WRT Impreza WRC 2006 M*
8. Chris Atkinson Subaru WRT Impreza WRC 2006 M*

Henning Solberg Stobart M-Sport Ford Focus WRC 06 M*
Jari-Matti Latvala Stobart M-Sport Ford Focus WRC 06 M*
Matthew Wilson Stobart M-Sport Ford Focus WRC 06
Khalid Al Qassimi MMSP Ltd Lancer WR05 M*
Toni Gardemeister MMSP Ltd Lancer WR05 M*

Francois Duval First Skoda Fabia WRC *
Jan Kopecky Czech RT-Skoda Kopecky Fabia WRC
Gareth MacHale Ford Focus WRC
Eamonn Boland Ford Focus WRC
Jean-Marie Cuoq Peugeot 307 WRC
Frederic Romeyer Peugeot 206 WRC
Philippe Roux Peugeot 307 WRC

---------------------------------

I also found this manufacturers 2007 entry list:

N° ENTRANT DRIVER
1 CITROËN TOTAL WRT Sébastien LOEB (F)
2 CITROËN TOTAL WRT
3 BP-FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM Marcus GRÖNHOLM (FIN)
4 BP-FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM
5 OMV KRONOS CITROËN WRT Manfred STOHL (A)
6 OMV KRONOS CITROËN WRT
7 SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM Petter SOLBERG (N)
8 SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM
9 STOBART M-SPORT FORD RALLY TEAM
10 STOBART M-SPORT FORD RALLY TEAM
11 MUNCHI’S FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM
12 MUNCHI’S FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM

Anyone know what that Munchi's Ford team is about?
They start in Sweden, but who are their drivers?

Drivers for Muchi's Ford are:
Luis Perez Companc
Juan Pablo Raies

They will be driving 2006 cars, seem to be a Ford supported privateer team kinda like Stobart are, not finding much info on them though.

Interestingly, Robert Reid has been seen with the Stobart Ford Focus team - perhaps a return to the co-driver seat for him this season?
It would be awesome to see him return to competition :)

The livery for Munchi was revealed.

http://members.chello.nl/m.kleijer/afpics/00.jpg

I think this livery looks very, very good.

I wish Markko Märtin could come back as well. We'll see.

Is that the new Ford Focus? Or is it something entirely new?

I've got to get my ass in gear and start following WRC more closely, I love it so much... stupid US, so hard to get any coverage of anything other than NASCAR.

There are 3 Ford teams this year.

When you see the manufacturer entry list of FIA I posted earlier you see several Ford teams:
3 BP-FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM Marcus GRÖNHOLM (FIN)
4 BP-FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM
9 STOBART M-SPORT FORD RALLY TEAM
10 STOBART M-SPORT FORD RALLY TEAM
11 MUNCHI’S FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM
12 MUNCHI’S FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM

The BP-Ford team livery:
http://members.chello.nl/m.kleijer/afpics/02.jpg

The Stobard team livery:
http://members.chello.nl/m.kleijer/afpics/01.jpg

And for the Munchi team livery see my last post.

You can follow WRC quite easily. There is an Estonian guy (RoadRunner) who records the Eurosport broadcasts of WRC events. See this page for more information. (in my opinion it is not illegal to post this link, but when it is, please tell me, then I'll remove it)

I would, in fact, ask you to PM that link should someone be interested.

I would, in fact, ask you to PM that link should someone be interested.

Thanks Alex, I wasn't sure but you're right, this is the best way to avoid getting in trouble.

Right, after 3 stages (2 Thursday and one Friday so far) it's all Citroen - two stage wins for Loeb and one for Sordo, and this is the order of the overall standings as well. Gronholm in third.

wrc.com has become really useless unless you want to pay up. Can't even read the news or see overall standings, and they're wondering why there's a drop in interest in WRC.

Ahh, stage four also seems to be going to the Citroen pair with Gronholm in third again. So far no one else has been in the top three.

Can you guess the top three on stage 5? If you can't, it's Sordo-Loeb-Gronholm in that order.

Impressive, most impressive.

Let's take a look at the stage times.

Stage 1: Seb's lead is 8,5 secs on Sordo.
Stage 2: Seb's lead is 14,3 secs on Grönholm
Stage 3: Sordo fights back with a staggering lead of 16,2 secs on Loeb (I don't know what happened, did Loeb spin or something?)
Stage 4: Loeb, Sordo and Grönhom finish within 3,5 secs of eachother.
Stage 5: same story, but then within 2 secs.

To sum up: The C4's are good (Sordo and Loeb are good), but the race is not over yet. (heck, they've just begun)

This is shaping up to be pretty one-sided. All kudos to Citroen, though, they're back with a bang, the new car is fantastic. Sordo and Loeb have won all of the eight stages so far, and only once was it not a 1-2. Gronholm was third on most of them, with one second and one fourth (on the last stage of Leg 1).

After today Loeb's lead is 25 seconds ahead of Sordo and a staggering 50.5 seconds ahead of Marcus. Atkinson is doing great to be in fourth, abein well over a minute off Gronholm.

Well, no surprises. Citroen got a double with with Loeb in first and Sordo in second. Marcus got third and Atkinson snatched 4th from Hirvonen at the very last super special. Solberg finished in 6th.

It may be too early to make predictions for the whole season, but the C4 seems to be a very dominant force this year, with Ford and especially Subaru left to play catch-up.

Does anyone know if Ford are planning to use their WRC06 car throughout the season or are they making a new one? What about Subaru?

No suprises indeed. But I liked the fight between Hirvonen and Atkinson. Good to see that Sordo got his confidence back.
I'm looking forward to the rally of Sweden.