7/14 - half of the 2003 season behind us

The WDC standings look like this:

Championship standings:

1. Richard BURNS 37 Pts

2. Carlos SAINZ 36 Pts

3. Marcus GRÖNHOLM 30 Pts

4. Petter SOLBERG 29 Pts

5. Sébastien LOEB 23 Pts

6. Markko MÄRTIN 23 Pts

7. Colin MCRAE 23 Pts

8. Harri ROVANPERÄ 16 Pts

9. Tommi MÄKINEN 15 Pts

For me the surprise of the season so far is Carlos. Just 1 point behind the leader is very very impressive. I actually half want him to win, to be able to tell the young drivers: "Ha! This is how it's done, cubs!" :smile: And you know what, he actually might do it!

Originally posted by Tso
plus his broken english. so it's always funny to listen to interviews with him.


Cheers

You're writing style is a good match for Carlos' broken English. From the UK?? :biggrin:

Originally posted by ales
The WDC standings look like this:

Championship standings:

1. Richard BURNS 37 Pts

2. Carlos SAINZ 36 Pts

3. Marcus GRÖNHOLM 30 Pts

4. Petter SOLBERG 29 Pts

5. Sébastien LOEB 23 Pts

6. Markko MÄRTIN 23 Pts

7. Colin MCRAE 23 Pts

8. Harri ROVANPERÄ 16 Pts

9. Tommi MÄKINEN 15 Pts

For me the surprise of the season so far is Carlos. Just 1 point behind the leader is very very impressive. I actually half want him to win, to be able to tell the young drivers: "Ha! This is how it's done, cubs!" :smile: And you know what, he actually might do it!

There's only 14 points in between the first 7 :eek: Surely no one would have expected that at the beginning of the season. Carlos should not be a surprise. Citroën can to this season very well prepared. The real surprise for me is McRae. With the same equipement as Carlos, he should be higher up in the standigs. Still all first 7 can still win it mathematically, but I bet Markus and Carlos will take it down to the UK with Markus winning it and Carlos retiring the last 200 meters. Sounds familiar no? :biggrin:

i think its funny mcrae isnt doing any better than ford:biggrin:
so far this season is shaping up great, i think the last season i liked this much was when burns won the championship

Main surprise has been the mechanical difficulties of Peugeot. Looks like they are pushing the development close to the limit in order to stay ahead of first the Xsara and now the new Focus. Even the mechanically sympathetic Rovanperra has difficulty nursing things to the finish.

Gronholm is still my pick for champion. He has been at or near the front of each event so far only to have gremlins strike. Couple that with a few uncharacteristic errors and his season is not where it should be, based on speed alone. Still he is traditionally stronger in the second half of the season on events like Finland, Oz and the RAC.

As expected the points system is rewarding those who may not be the fastest but are consistent. Didn't like it when Burns was the best performing exponent of this system but Sainz is resuming his mantle as Mr Consistency so that sits much better with me personally.

The second half of the season will be interesting especially as the FIA has skewed calendar so four of the remaining rallies are on tarmac.

I wonder where Märtin will end.
The new Focus has some weaknesses (Twice a retirement because of dust, though they said they had fixed the problem).
It would be nice if he could get some more points.

Originally posted by Tso
i really like Marco, and i think he's got quite a future in front of him.


I have to assume that you mean Markko?

For the championship as a whole, I think it is wide open right now.
I don't think it will be Burns that takes it home, as nice as that would be:rolleyes: , but there are definitely a couple of strong contenders right behind him.
I expect we will definitely see Marcus and Carlos in there fighting at the end and possible Petter and Markko depending how the new Focus is on tarmac.

Personally I don't like Colin because of the way he treats everyone when he makes an error driving, everyone makes errors but several times I have heard him blame the co-driver without hesitation even when the pace note sounded pretty darn clear to me.
I have nothing against Alister, I just wish he would have some luck.

Petter blaming people? Maybe he heard what a great driver Colin apparently is and figured to be so great you have to be prepared to point fingers at everyone else?

Petter has generally been showing stronger later in the year, so we can only hope.