Swedish Rally

RallyRaider · 02-12-2005, 06:01 PM

Anybody been following this? Very tight and exciting at the top, lots of lead changes. Final leg today with six stages to run, should be a cracker!

ales · 02-13-2005, 02:11 AM

Completely forgot about it, but luckily stumbled on the 2nd day's coverage as I was sifting through the channels yesterday.

An epic battle between Marcus and Petter with Loeb in third but with an ailing car. I missed what happened to Markko, but he's in a disapointing distant fourth, and he got even that through others having problems. Oh, and Marcus really doesn't like that long "*beeep* stage", does he?

RallyRaider · 02-13-2005, 02:34 AM

We don't get TV coverage of the rally in Australia until after everything is finished (still waiting for the Monte

), so I don't know that the beeped commentent is about, but I can imagine.

I think Markko had an oil leak yesterday that slowed him over and above the difficulties learning the new car.

RallyRaider · 02-13-2005, 03:29 AM

Bugger! Fun is over, Marcus has rolled and retired on SS16. Well done to Petter who now has the rally in the bag. Markko Martin won the stage (his first for Peugeot) and is how into third positon.

RallyRaider · 02-13-2005, 03:30 AM

At least the good news is Chris Atkinson is now only one place off a point scoring position. Not bad for his first event in a WRC and on snow.

ales · 02-13-2005, 04:48 AM

One of them was going to make a mistake, so not surprising. Too bad it was Marcus though.

RallyRaider · 02-13-2005, 07:28 AM

Yeah, but Marcus makes way too many of them lately, he just won't settle for second, even if it’s the sensible thing to do!
Chris Atkinson had a misadventure as well, dropping back 15 minutes or so. Loeb's engine finally cried enough, leaving Markko and Toni Gardemeister in the final two podium positions. Incredibly Toni will be leading the championship if things hold! Good on him.

ales · 02-13-2005, 09:24 AM

And he does! With Markko second. Very surprising. Ford leads Pug in the manufacturers' championship and Mitsubishi is in a surprising 3rd leading Citroen and Subaru.

freakray · 02-13-2005, 02:49 PM

Good to see Markko get a second for Pug but I can't help but wonder if he's going to end up like RB with a string of seconds but never a win at Pug.

ales · 02-13-2005, 02:55 PM

Hope not, but it's too early to judge. Let's not forget that Marcus, while being more impressive, also hasn't had a win this season yet.

ales · 02-13-2005, 05:16 PM

Just watched today's coverage. Solberg was so happy with this win! And let me tell you, Provera seemed pissed off! He was trying to seem and sound as diplomatic as possible, but he was not a happy man: "I understand him, but I also blame him".

On Eurosport they beeped "bloody" - got to hear it on the coverage of the local tv channel. Marcus's crash looked pretty big, and whihc time is it that he has turned the car into a 3-wheeler?

freakray · 02-13-2005, 07:40 PM

Got a link to the interview with Corrado?
I don't get any TV here so I have to rely on the web

RallyRaider · 02-14-2005, 05:31 AM

Isn't Provera out as head of Peugeot Sport some time soon? Nicolas to replace him I recall.

EDIT: Yup, just Googled it. He is retiring in March, so I guess he would have wanted to go out on a high...

1viadrft · 02-14-2005, 12:28 PM

Congrats to Petter...

I'm starting to think Gronholm (after his big crash) purposely blocked Solberg... Petter was pretty "pissed" off about that!

GiGi did surprisingly well for Mitsu too. Watch out for this guy further down the season...

ales · 02-14-2005, 05:08 PM

Sorry, Ray, can't find the quotes just yet, but I think an audio interview will be available from the Pug Sport website in the near future.

I don't think Marcus blocked anyone on purpose. first of all, he asked his team on the radio to let him know when Petter would be behind him, the road at that place was very narrow, Marcus's car had 1 less wheel and was very tricky to control in those conditions, and last, Marcus had absolutely nothing to accomplish by that. And of course he's better than that.

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