Who woulda thought? Citroen bags a 1-2-3 in their first rally of a full season. Although, Ford's Markko Martin almost robbed Carlos Sainz's 3rd place after the Spaniard had some brake trouble in the two stages to go. Current titleholder Marcus Gronholm continued the curse of the Peugeots in Monte after damaging the steering on his 206. Even though he was able to continue, he finished a miserable 13th overall. Subaru disappointed and failed to make it past day 1, after both of their cars crashed out. The private entry of Frenchmen Cedric Robert surprised everyone with a 6th place finish. Unofficial results of the 2003 Monte Carlo Rally are as follows, with the new points system: 1-Sebastien Loeb 10 pts 2-Colin McRae 8 pts 3-Carlos Sainz 6 pts 4-Markko Martin 5 pts 5-Richard Burns 4 pts 6-Cedric Robert 3 pts 7-François Duval 2 pts 8-Armin Schwartz 1 pts Manufacturer's standings: 1-Citroen 18 pts 2-Ford 10 pts 3-Peugeot 6 pts 4-Hyundai 3 pts 5-Skoda 2 pts
If you go to www.wrc.com you can download all the video highlights plus a ton of audio interviews from the entire weekend. I am not waiting on Speed. They also have a discussion forum there and there has been a pretty interesting thread about Speed's coverage. They said their ratings were abysmal last season, and with their hourlong same-day tape delay last season, the casual viewers wouldn't religiously tune in every three nights of coverage, so they hope that the two-hour highlight show will keep the casual viewers glued to the screen for two-hours in one night, as opposed to one hour in three nights in a row.they hope that the ones who were casual viewers last season will become full-time viewers.
Interesting. I was wondering why my TiVo said there was only one show next week (plus XS and XTra) rather than the traditional three. I'll have to head over there tonight and see what goodies I can download. I can't understand why NASCAR is so popular while stuff like WRC doesn't even register on the American landscape.
Unfortunately this mastery may only last as long as they race on asphalt. Citroen say that there's still work to be done to be competitive on gravel - then of course there's the absolutely fantastic Swedish round. On average only won by Scandinavians, so Citroen's British, Spanish and French drivers may have to work extra hard! I think they should have Panizzi as a trump card. Put him in the Citroen on asphalt and there's 10 points in the bag. Gotta love the Monte Carlo rally though, even if it isn't quite so much fun as it was in years past - some of the camera shots of cars from the helicopters were stunning.
Re: Re: WRC - 2003 Monte Carlo [R] Did you know that ever since its creation in 1950, ALL winning drivers on the International Swedish Rally have been from a Scandinavian nation? Both Scandinavian rallies (Sweden and Finland) are very partial to local drivers. Harri Rovanpera grew up driving on the sweeping gravel roads outside of Jyyvaskyla, where Rally Finland is held. Although Finland treats foreigners a little better, Carlos Sainz won there in 1992 and Richard Burns led the event last year until the second SS of day 2, when his 206 landed awkwardly after a jump, damaging the intercooler in the beginning of the 26km stage. Indeed, Citroen has a lot of catching up to do on gravel, Radstrom's and Loeb's 3rd and 5th last year on the Safari were probably only possible due to the fact that only 11 cars in all classes finished the race, including all heavy-hitting favorites. Citroen's goal is to win the WRC by 2004. I think a lot will be learned from McRae's and Sainz's experience, but after working with Pirelli tires for the past few years, they'll probably take a little bit getting used to Michelin's compounds. I'm done. Don't get me started on rallying, or I'll yap your head off.
Interesting about Speedchannel's programming choice. I guess I'm a "slightly-more-than-casual" viewer in that I know the key players, teams, circuits, etc. But I know I had a real hard time finding the 3+ hours each rally weekend to watch their same-day coverage. Plus I got really po'd at them when they bumped some of their coverage (Argentina, I think) because some re-air of a NASCAR practice (or something) went too long. By the end of the season, when Gronholm and Peugeot had things wrapped up, I have to admit I started watching only the Monday recaps. If that. Ironically, I got into watching the rallies two years ago when they just ran an hour-long highlight show delayed two or three weeks! The understated British coverage was a lot more bearable and interesting for me than the Speed guy yelling at me that I better watch out for the next big bump and reiterating every 5 minutes that these guys are definitely the WORLD'S BEST DRIVERS!! So it'll be interesting to see what this 2-hour recap is like. Now that I know the results, especially. BTW, Citroen's performance in Monte Carlo doesn't really surprise me. Loeb won there pretty handily last year (well, would've if not for a technicality).
I stayed away from this thread until I watched the show and I thought Loeb was going to win from the start (considering all the tangibles in his favor), but I didn't expect the sweep 1,2,3. I was kinda hoping to see Subaru win ..........that new Impreza is mighty nice. Makes we want a WRX..... With luck, I plan on traveling to Germany to watch some Bundesliga action and I want to plan the trip around the WRC Germany calendar....