Poland wrc
- Thread starter blacktar
- Start date
wagon dec
Member Number 257
ploand is very like finland very fast rally ogier and latvala will be very hard to beat also hirvonen
here is an explanation of Poland
Route
•Based in Mikolajki, several hours north of Warsaw, in Masurian lake district.
•Three Thursday afternoon stages, including one that runs into darkness.
•Friday combines stages in Poland and Lithuania, with remote service in Lithuania at Druskininkai.
•A morning test and two evening stages in Poland sandwich four Lithuanian tests.
•Legs 2 and 3 based in Polish provinces of Warmia and Mazury, east and north-east of Mikolajki.
•Mikolajki Arena will host four super special stages, two under floodlights, with two cars at a time on track.
Challenge
•Drivers lack experience of the roads as Poland has not featured in WRC since 2009.
•All stages in Lithuania and three in Poland are totally new. The only test used in an identical format to 2009 is at the Mikolajki Arena.
•Very fast roads will see speeds approach those of Rally Finland.
•Tall grass lines many sections, limiting visibility on the approach to corners.
•Grass also hides rocks so cutting corners is a risky pastime.
Quicklinks
Itinerary
Maps
Tickets
Entrylist
Car spec
•Gravel suspension.
•Soft compound tyres are the primary option, but hard rubber will also be available.
History
•First established in 1921, Rally Poland is one of the world’s oldest rallies.
•It was included in the inaugural WRC season in 1973 when there were only three classified finishers. Four other crews completed the route but were excluded for being out of time.
•It left the calendar and became an asphalt event in the European Championship.
•It returned to WRC in 2009 when Mikko Hirvonen won, after which it was again removed.
What’s new for 2014
•Everything!
•Lithuania features on WRC itinerary for the first time – the 32nd different country to feature in the championship.
•Poland and Lithuania have different time zones but the rally will use Polish time.
Don’t miss
•Robert Kubica – a Pole competing on his home event will be HUGE!
•We can’t remember too much about the rally itself from 2009 so…….
•If you are going to watch, then stay on for a few days to enjoy the lakeland area of Masuria. The area is a prime tourist destination famous for its lakes and forests and offering activities such as sailing, kayaking, swimming, angling, walking and cycling.
here is an explanation of Poland
Route
•Based in Mikolajki, several hours north of Warsaw, in Masurian lake district.
•Three Thursday afternoon stages, including one that runs into darkness.
•Friday combines stages in Poland and Lithuania, with remote service in Lithuania at Druskininkai.
•A morning test and two evening stages in Poland sandwich four Lithuanian tests.
•Legs 2 and 3 based in Polish provinces of Warmia and Mazury, east and north-east of Mikolajki.
•Mikolajki Arena will host four super special stages, two under floodlights, with two cars at a time on track.
Challenge
•Drivers lack experience of the roads as Poland has not featured in WRC since 2009.
•All stages in Lithuania and three in Poland are totally new. The only test used in an identical format to 2009 is at the Mikolajki Arena.
•Very fast roads will see speeds approach those of Rally Finland.
•Tall grass lines many sections, limiting visibility on the approach to corners.
•Grass also hides rocks so cutting corners is a risky pastime.
Quicklinks
Itinerary
Maps
Tickets
Entrylist
Car spec
•Gravel suspension.
•Soft compound tyres are the primary option, but hard rubber will also be available.
History
•First established in 1921, Rally Poland is one of the world’s oldest rallies.
•It was included in the inaugural WRC season in 1973 when there were only three classified finishers. Four other crews completed the route but were excluded for being out of time.
•It left the calendar and became an asphalt event in the European Championship.
•It returned to WRC in 2009 when Mikko Hirvonen won, after which it was again removed.
What’s new for 2014
•Everything!
•Lithuania features on WRC itinerary for the first time – the 32nd different country to feature in the championship.
•Poland and Lithuania have different time zones but the rally will use Polish time.
Don’t miss
•Robert Kubica – a Pole competing on his home event will be HUGE!
•We can’t remember too much about the rally itself from 2009 so…….
•If you are going to watch, then stay on for a few days to enjoy the lakeland area of Masuria. The area is a prime tourist destination famous for its lakes and forests and offering activities such as sailing, kayaking, swimming, angling, walking and cycling.
wagon dec
Member Number 257
VW Motorsport’s Sebastien Ogier will take a narrow 2.8s lead into the second day of LOTOS 71st Rally Poland after a closely-fought first day on the Masurian region's fast gravel stages.
The reigning world champion continued where he left off after his spectacular win at the recent Rally Italia Sardegna – by driving aggressively and pushing as hard as possible.
Once again, it was a strategy that paid off. Ogier’ Polo R WRC was fastest on two of Thursday’s three stages to head the leaderboard after 34.28km of competitive action.
For once, running first on the road wasn’t a major handicap for Ogier. “This is good fun – really fast,” he said. “I’m happy with the start of the rally and I couldn’t do any better. Tomorrow we will have to continue at this high rhythm and I’m looking forward to
Ogier’s team-mate, Andreas Mikkelsen, filled second place at the end of the leg. He led after the first two stages by driving neatly and keeping a cool head. But he eventually lost the lead to the hard-charging Ogier on the third stage – the 2.5km run around the Mikolajki super special.
Citroen’s Kris Meeke said he liked fast and flowing stages before the rally and it showed on the first cluster of stages. He was third overall, only 4.2s behind Mikkelsen.
“The nature of these roads is fantastic, the commitment is incredible,” Meeke explained. “Paul (Nagle, Meeke’s co-driver) is calling the notes like he’s reading a Sunday paper.”
Local hero Robert Kubica had a mixed day. He was fourth after the first stage but he dropped down the order to 11th on the next test when his Ford Fiesta R WRC lightly rolled into a ditch.
His rally was saved by an army of loyal fans who were on the scene quickly and pushed him back on to the road only seconds after his car had come to rest. The incident only cost him 28.3s but he still finished the leg in 12th place.
With Kubica hitting problems, Hyundai’s Juho Hanninen grasped the opportunity with both hands. He guided his fast-improving i20 WRC to the quickest time on SS2 to move into fourth place, a place that he kept at the end of the leg.
Mads Ostberg’s Citroen DS3 WRC and Thierry Neuville’s Hyundai i20 WRC filled fifth and sixth places respectively. Ostberg was only 1.1s behind Hanninen, but Neuville found himself 12.2s adrift of his Norwegian rival. He would have been closer if the engine on his car hadn’t cut out part-way through the Mikoljaki super special.
Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon completed the day in seventh, one place ahead of VW’s Jari-Matti Latvala who endured a nightmare start to Rally Poland. He wasn’t happy with the handling of his Polo R WRC and it had dramatically affected his confidence. He was uncharacteristically 23.5s off the lead.
Two more drivers that suffered on the first day were ninth-placed Mikko Hirvonen and tenth-placed Martin Prokop. Hirvonen was lacking confidence and Prokop was nursing a sore back.
Further down the field, Stephane Lefebvre headed the race for the FIA Junior World Rally Championship honours. The Frenchman, winner at round one in Portugal, ended the day 5.1s ahead of Martin Koci. Simone Tempestini was only 0.7s further behind to set up a potentially-fierce battle for the podium places on day two.
I see the other lad is up to his old tricks again and stuck it on its roof on stage two!
Home fans got him on all 4's again to keep him going.
I can't see him being kept by ford at the end of the year with his results.
Home fans got him on all 4's again to keep him going.
I can't see him being kept by ford at the end of the year with his results.
wagon dec
Member Number 257
taken from wrc.com
Kris Meeke drove into SS5 in third place, but exited a place worse off. The Citroen driver was 6.7s slower than his team-mate Mads Ostberg in the 12.92km test and that allowed the Norwegian to steal his position with 2.9s in hand. Meeke blamed his time loss on the condition of the forest road. “The ruts were huge, it was like a full second pass,” he said. “I was going absolutely flat out into the corners but then I had to go down a gear to get out.” Ostberg’s fastest time also meant Juho Hanninen dropped a place to fifth.
A casualty on the fifth stage was privateer driver Michal Solowow in his M-Sport-prepared Ford Fiesta RS WRC. The Pole was 16th heading into the stage but an unexpected trip into a ditch cost him almost ten minutes. “I missed a corner,” he explained. “It was a ‘five left’ corner in our pace notes but it should have been a ‘three left’. We were a little bit too quick.”
VW's Jari-Matti Latvala was disappointed at the end of stage six
The rally lead changed hands once again in SS6 as Sebastien Ogier’s fastest time enabled him to leap past Andreas Mikkelsen with a cushion of 1.5s. The Frenchman said the road was damp and he felt that running first on the road was an advantage. “I didn’t take any risks but I’m happy with my time,” he said.
While Ogier was brimming with confidence, his main championship rival, Jari-Matti Latvala, was suffering a crisis of confidence. He was 4.3s slower than his team-mate on the 17.97km stage and that left him 29.4s off the lead. He was hugely deflated, despite him moving up to fourth place as those further behind him on the road dropped time in the rutted stage. “I don't have the best feeling and I don’t have the fighting spirit for the victory,” he said. “Now we have to see what we can do.”
wagon dec
Member Number 257
Our fifth update from Lotos 71st Rally Poland
Friday afternoon (SS9-10)
After a short remote service, the crews should have tackled the same loop of stages that they drove in the morning. But organisers cancelled two of them because of a dramatic road surface deterioration during the first pass. That left two stages to complete, the second run in ‘Wieliczki 2’ and the late night blast around the 2.5km Mikolajki super special.
The battle for the rally lead took another turn on SS9 as Andreas Mikkelsen fired his way past Sebastien Ogier, to take top spot. The Norwegian, who had traded times with his team-mate all morning, drove flat out to set a time that was a massive 2.5s faster than Ogier could manage through the 12.89km test. To put his second run in perspective, he was an incredible nine seconds faster than he was on the first run through the same test earlier in the day. “I honestly don’t think I could have driven any faster,” Mikkelsen said.
The end of SS9 was drama-packed for Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville. He was 32.2s off the pace at the end of the stage and it was clear that something had gone seriously wrong with the rear-left brake caliper on his i20 WRC. The fact that it caught fire while his car was jacked up to inspect the damage, illustrated the severity of the situation. The handbrake on the Belgian’s car had locked on during the stage and that caused a dramatic overheating situation. “The rear brakes are disconnected now, so we should be okay to continue,” Neuville said afterwards.
Drama also befell WRC 2 front-runner, Karl Kruuda, who rolled his Peugeot 208 T16 in SS9. The young Estonian (below) had been nestling in fourth place heading into the test but he hit trouble after the 9.5km split and his day was over. Rival Ott Tanak, who passed Kruuda at the side of the road, said: “It was a very nasty place where he was off but I saw he was okay. These things happen.”