End of leg 2 Rally Monte Carlo

Leg 2 of Rally Monte Carlo is finished with 8 of 15 stages completed. Again the focus has been on the tyres – this time tyres with to much grip. Tarmac were never Pirellis strongest side, and Petter is used to drive a car with less grip. The new tyres from BF Goodrich got much more grip, and with only two days of testing it is hard to find the rythm with the tyres. “It’s 6 stages to go tomorrow, and we are aming for 4th place” Petter said when he was coming in to service. The cars leave the servicepark at 6am tomorrow morning, and first car starts on stage 9 at 0731.

During all the chaos with the spectators last night, Ford was in trouble. The Ford-team is situated on the backside of Citroen and Subaru, and yesterday a lot of spectators managed to get inside the barriers and were walking between the cars, tools and mechanics. 

 

Overall classification leg 2: 

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Photos from todays service

 

It is now very quiet at the servicepark, and almost no people there. The cars are running the stages, reporters are writing in the mediaroom, all the mechanics has a vell deserved break and it seems the spectators have all taken a little siesta. Yesterday it was a complete caos around the teams. The spectators moved the fences, and they actually blocked the road, forcing Chris and Petter do drive another route into the service. Today there a lot more marshalls, and the fences are back.

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Kl 0340 i dag tidlig var det to karer som forlot Valence med en hvit Subaru Impreza med kurs for St Pierreville. Bruno Berglund og Terry Kaby kjører det som nå kalles Safety Car under asfaltløp, tidligere het dette grusnotebil. Kl 0625 setter vi oss i bilen for å være med på overlevereringen. Det er helt mørkt, 3 grader, men mye trafikk allerede. Bobiler med guttegjenger på tur, og små franske biler med max antall personer om bord. Alle kjører i sneglefart oppover de kjempesmale, svingete veien oppover mot start på SS3. I hver eneste lille landsby vi kjører gjennom står det folk langs veiene og venter på rallybilene – gamle som unge. Så – på en liten rett veistrekning før et veidele ser vi dem stå og vente, Bruno og Terry. Bruno godt innpakket i Rally Norway parkas, med de nye notene under armen og speidende etter den blå subaruaen. Terry småpratende med andre teams grusnoteførere. SWRT og Ford er av de teamene som mener at personlig overlevering sammen med muntlig info er den beste måten å gjøre dette på. Andre team, for eksempel Citroen tar dette elektronisk og via radio.

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Petter is 8 after SS5

We met up with a smiling Petter Solberg at the start of SS3 this morning. It was still dark, and quite cold. But with dry roadconditions. “I had a good nights sleep and is ready to start driving with maximum attack” he said to us, while codriver Phil received the latest info about the stages from safety-crew Bruno Berglund and Terry Kaby. But Petters time on Stage 3 was not what he or we hoped for. After the stage he said his tyres where to hard, and propably they would be better for the next two stages. Petter came 12, 1.06,6 after winner Loeb on this 46km long stage. Chris came in with a much better time, and he was driving on tyres with a much more soft compound.

On the next two stages, Petters showed us that the tyres were perfect for these conditions, and ended up 4 on both stages. Loeb with the best time on SS4 and surprisingly Sordo set the best time on stage 5.

The cars are heading back to the servicepark in Valence now, before they return to St Pierreville for the second run the same stages this afternoon. First car starts SS6 at 1517.

Overallresult after SS5: 

 

 

Two stages of Rally Monte Carlo are done

And we are back in business again. The season has started, with the 75th Rally Monte Carlo. After the cancellation of Shakedown this morning, we were all very excited about how the actual stage was going to be. The reason Shakedown was cancelled were that both spectators and marshalls were standing on dangerous places. Some of them with all the family gathered around a portable coffetable and a fire. It was really scary. Rallyfans are flying in from all over Europe, and the number of spectators are always skyhigh. In 2006 FIA had to cancel the three first stages of Rally Monte Carlo due to too many people, and today was the first time in history they had to cancel shakedown. Up on the stages this night there were lot of spectators, but the police were present with flashlights and made sure they were all on a safe place.

On the FIA pressconference earlier today Petter said that his goal for these years 3 first rallies was to achieve 20 points. The team is now focusing on the new car that will be ready for Mexico, the seasons 4th event. With the tyrechange from Pirelli to BF Goodrich there is still much to learn, and they have to relay on BF Goodrichs representative in making the correct tyrechoice.

This evening they have run two stages, in the dark, which is no problem according to Petter. The slippery conditions are much more of challenge. The rain on the stages earlier today had made the stages very slippery.

Results leg 1 – Rally Monte Carlo.

 

 

Shakedown cancelled

 

Todays shakedown were cancelled due to too many spectators. After having inspected the shakedown area from the helicopter, Mr. Bartoz from FIA decided that this was too dangerous and cancelled it. With too much spectators and most of them on dangerous places, there was nothing else to do.

Most of the drivers managed to go through a couple of times. Petter did three runs, but all times are cancelled.

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The new helmet

A big applause to Stian Paulsen who has painted the new helmet in rallyspeed. He was given the helmet on Monday morning, and already Tuesday night it was ready to be delivered and to start its journey to Valence. Tuesday night was spent on a kitchentable, it needed the air, and early Wednesday morning it flew from Gardermoen/ Oslo to Nice via Copenhagen. Then the 4 hours drive up to Valence started, before it finally was delivered to its excited owner.

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New helmet

This is Stian Paulsen (19), a norwegian racingtalent who also designs helmets. Here he is working with Petters new helmet. This year he has designed and painted both Petters and brother Hennings helmet. The new helmet will be revealed when Rally Monte Carlo starts, but we think there will be a preview here before that!

 

You can read more about Stian on his website http://www.stianpaulsen.com/

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