Monte 2003 thread!

[Vagabond_se7en]

With the new points system I guess it will be less advantageous but I wonder if Citroën is thinking about team orders when it comes down to the last stage with Sainz and McRae being the more allround drivers.
But than again it's still early in the season and aiming for one of their drivers to win the championship would be a bit premature (but hey, it's a french team so you never know )

P.S.: No offense to my french neigbours

[RallyRaider]

I expect the only team orders will be to hold position and make the finish. Peugeot are a French team and haven't used team orders, for the past two years. Besides, a French crew in a French car on a French event - PR heaven! They won't be asking Seb to move over!

[Vagabond_se7en]

Silly me, forgot Loeb is french

[RallyRaider]

Originally posted by Vagabond_se7en
Silly me, forgot Loeb is french

And his co-driver Daniel Elena is even more of a local - he's from Monaco.

I wonder what the running order for tomorrow will be? With Gronholm losing half an hour to fix his steering on stage he will be one of the first on the road. If conditions are favourable he could bag some more stage wins, just for pride's sake.

[ales]

SS12 - Markko wins it and overtakes Carlos for third

[RallyRaider]

Yikes! Ford blitzed the Citroens through SS12. If Markko can keep that up he'll catch McRae! Maybe even Loeb...

[ales]

Originally posted by RallyRaider
Yikes! Ford blitzed the Citroens through SS12. If Markko can keep that up he'll catch McRae! Maybe even Loeb...

I think Loeb is in the clear as the gap is 1:50 and Markko was 50 secs faster than Seb on 12, McRae was also 50 secs slower and the gap is 45 seconds. On the other hand SS13 is a rerun of 11, which McRae won, but then the last SS14 stage is a rerun of SS12. Hmmmm.

I think that the Citroens were just in cruise mode. Hope not, but I'm afraid so.

[RallyRaider]

Last stage of the rally and it is Markko Martin's turn to hit a wall

Luckily he has finished the stage, but fell back behind Sainz. So the Citroen 1-2-3 is a reality. Some sort of justice I suppose after last year when Loeb won on stage times but was penalised for a service mistake.

Now I just have to wait a month or so for Channel 10 in Australia to show us the highlights package!

[ales]

Carlos just showed who the boss is - sort of

So it's Loeb - McRae - Sainz - Martin - others s

[Vagabond_se7en]

I hope Citroën doesn't continue this, I don't want to make a Citroën WRC next year :cry: and let's hope that the guy who designed the Peugeot 206 hits a rock too in the near future (those cars are UGLY)

P.S.: I mean the colors, the car is cool allthough I still prefer Subbies

[freakray]

I hope Citroën doesn't continue this, I don't want to make a Citroën WRC next year

You don't have to make anything if you don't want to.

Well done to Citroen, a promising start to a new season....perhaps we will have some more racing for first this year as opposed to racing for the rest of the positions like last year.

Ray

[Guido]

YIEEEHAAAAAA!!!!

Citroën has done it!!

Now I thought they collected 24 points on this but on WRC Official Website it reads only 18 points with Ford collecting 10. How can that happen? Is Carlos not entered for the Manufacturing Championship and only running for the drivers competition. And how can Ford get these 10 points? If Carlos gets none for Citroen, Märtin takes 6 and Duval 3 oh no, Cédric Robert doesn't take any for Peugeot so Duval moves up 2 places and takes 4 points for Ford.

So it makes sense. Only Loeb and McRae socring for Citroën = 18 points and Märtin and Duval for Ford = 10. This way the Manufacturing title will remain interesting.

And yes, I do hope Tamiya will do a Xsara now. although I don't really like the Telefonica sponsoring on it. Pure Red/White with yellow band was way cooler.

Anyway, I'm a happy fan!!

Guido

[ales]

Only two cars can get manufacturers' points, AFAIK, it's the top two cars. Although whoever finishes in the top 8 gets drivers' championship points.

Well done to Citroen, though we'll see how the tarmac cars do on loose surfaces. But 1-2-3 in the first race of the full season is no mean feat by any means!

Alex

[crayzayjay]

I suppose thats what McRae is for - loose surfaces... He's the daddy as far as im concerned so im pretty happy with his start for the season

[ales]

Originally posted by crayzayjay
I suppose thats what McRae is for - loose surfaces...

You can say that again!