Tour de Corse 2008

Petter Solberg to SWRT; We’ve tried so many things with the car on this rally with different setups, and we have improved areas. That’s the problem of not having done any testing though – we make these changes on a rally. Some changes made the car better, some worse, but that’s how it goes. I’m happy with my performance on this rally though. We had a couple of punctures, but nobody could say I didn’t try!

Petter ended fifth in Corsica. Two punctures during the day made him loose a lot of time, but he managed to keep the fifth trough out the day. The third SWRT-driver this weekend, Brice Tirabassi, had to retire on the second stage of today with technical problems.

The winner of this year’s Tour de Corse is Sebastien Loeb, and this was his fourth win on the island. Mikko Hirvonen, who started the day in second position, picked up a puncture on the opening stage today and dropped down in the overall list. But with a little help from his team-colleagues he was back in second place by the end of the day. Duval checked in early before the final stage, Latvala late, and they both received time penalty, and dropped behind of Hirvonen.

Sebastien Loeb is on top in the Drivers Standings with 106 points, Hirvonen is second with 92 points. Petter is sixth with 40 points. Next event is Rally Japan, 31. October – 2. November.

Overall classification Tour de Corse 2008

1. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen
2. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford +3.24,7
3. Francois Duval, Ford +3.31,6
4. Jari-Matti Latvala, Ford +3.37,5
5. PETTER SOLBERG, SUBARU +5.35,4
6. Chris Atkinson, Subaru +6.10,4
7. Urmo Aava, Citroen +7.25,2
8. Matthew Wilson, Ford +9.02,2
9. Mads Østberg, Subaru +9.13,3
11. Andreas Mikkelsen, Ford +13.46,0

Tour de Corse – Day 2

Petter finished the second day of Tour de Corse in fifth position, but only 22 seconds behind Latvala in fourth position. – I’m quite happy with the day’s performance, but we have not been able to match Latvala’s pace today, Petter says. – But with four long stages tomorrow, anything can happen, and we will still be fighting!

Sebastien Loeb is still leading the rally, 52 seconds ahead of Hirvonen in second. Duval is third. SWRT got all three drivers within top 8, Chris is sixth and Tirabassi is eight. Dani Sordo was not allowed to restart again today, due to damage on the cars roll cage.

While yesterday went without to many problems for the drivers, the second day has been challenging for many of them. Andreas Mikkelsen got a puncture on the first stage of the day, and lost a lot of time. And then another puncture on SS11 cost him more seconds. Chris Atkinson also suffered a puncture on SS9, and lost time. PG Andersson went off the road on SS11, and sadly he didn’t get the car back on the stage. On SS11 Henning got a puncture and also lost time. Gardemeister lost his power-steering and had to finish the last stage of the day without.

Tour de Corse continues with four long stages Sunday, the first one is the longest one of the rally. First car is on the road from 0843.

Overall classification – Day 2 Tour de Corse
1. Loeb, Citroen
2. Hirvonen, Ford +52,4
3. Duval, Ford +56,7
4. Latvala, Ford +1.50,6
5. Petter Solberg, Subaru +2.13,0
6. Atkinson, Subaru +4.06,2
7. Aava, Citroen +5.49,9
8. Brice, Subaru +7.04,8

Tour de Corse – Day 1

The first day at Corsica are over and Petter is 4th. Fantastic driving on the final stage of the day took him from 6th and up to 4th place overall, and it was a driver in a very good mood that passed the timecontrol after the stage. – This was good fun! I did something with the car before the stage and that worked. The car are getting better and better, and I really enjoyed it out there now!

Sebastien Loeb is leading the rally, ahead of Mikko Hirvonen who is 2nd and Duval who is 3rd.

Dani Sordo went of the road 700 meters after the start on SS2 and had to retire. He will restart again tomorrow under SupeRally-regulations. Andreas Mikkelsen got to a tough start of the day, arriving the first start 8 minutes late. The miscalculation cost them a 80 seconds penalty. Urmo Aava also got into trouble on SS2 and were late at the next TC due to roadsection reparing, and got 60 seconds penalty. Henning got a puncture on the final stage, that cost him a lot of time. The car fell off the jeck when they were changing the tyre. Both Henning and Cato are OK, and they are 19th.

Tour de Corse continues Saturday with 6 more stages, first car is on the road at 0848.

Overall classification, Day 1 Corsica

1. Loeb, Citroen
2. Hirvonen, Ford +32,3
3. Duval, Ford +34,1
4. Petter Solberg, Subaru +1.11,5
5. Latvala, Ford +1.12,7
6. Atkinson, Subaru +1.15,4
7. Gardemeister, Suzuki +3.16,1
8. Mikkelsen, Ford +3.18,5

Friday photos

Shakedown Corsica

Duval was fastest at todays Shakedown in Corsica. Petter ended 7th fastest on the 6,1km long stage.
Tour de Corse starts Friday mornig.
Shakedown-times
1. Duval: 3:44.9
2. Loeb: 3:45.1
3. Sordo: 3:45.6
4. Hirvonen: 3:46.5
5. Aava: 3:47.3
6. Mikkelsen: 3:47.6
7. P. Solberg: 3:48.3
8. Tirabassi: 3:49.5
9. Wilson: 3:49.8
10. H. Solberg: 3:49.9
11. Atkinson: 3:50.1
12. Latvala: 3:50.3
13. Gardemeister: 3:53.9
14. Rautenbach: 3:53.9
15. Andersson: 3:54.8
16. Ostberg: 3:55.4

Tour de Corse – Rallye de France

Spain is just finished, and we are crossing over to Corsica, a beautiful French island in the Mediterranean. Servicepark and HQ are based at the port of Ajaccio and the stages up in the mountains. This is also a tarmac-event, but very different from Spain. Spain is wide, fast and smooth, while Corsica is narrow, twisty with steep down drops on one side and towering cliffs on the other side. And the abrasive roads are really hard on the tyres.

Petter won here in 2003, while Sebastien Loeb has won this event for the past three years.

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