World Rally Championship

[Krys TOFF]

Yep, too bad for Peter Solberg, I was happy to see him back to the podium and sadly he had his electircal issue last day.
Latvalla had problems too but on saturday and so he was able to come back on sunday in super-rally mode.
Sordo's 3rd place is good for team championship : Citroen team is getting close to Ford after this rally.

Overall, I think this year we will see Loeb champion again, while Ford will be team champion again.
Sordo is slower than Hirvonen and Latvalla (except when they do mistakes like in Argentina) in general, except on paved/tar surface. If Citroen wants to be team champion, they will need to be 1 and 2 (Loeb and Sordo in this order, Loeb beeing obviously designed as number 1 in the team) for all paved roads rallies of the season, and hope that Sordo will be as regularly in points as possible for dirt roads rallies.

[Krys TOFF]

Loeb is a monster ! 7th victory in a row in German WRC rally. Awesome !

[Krys TOFF]

And now, 5th world champion title in a row ! Congrats to Loeb and Elena.

[Chulk]

I guess Loeb put France in 2nd place of countries with more WRC titles, right? Considering Finland has 14 over 32, Loeb's 5 seems quiet a good number...

[Krys TOFF]

I guess Loeb put France in 2nd place of countries with more WRC titles, right? Considering Finland has 14 over 32, Loeb's 5 seems quiet a good number...

Quite, not quiet, lol
Yes, France may be 2nd behind Finland now with 6 WRC titles (1 for Auriol, 5 for Loeb (and counting )).

[Chulk]

Subaru is out of team competition in WRC. Only Citroën and Ford still remain...

[Krys TOFF]

1st Suzuki, now Subaru.
WRC will merge with IRC in 2010 I think. Cost reduction required + switch to S2000 specifications for WRC cars in 2010 = cheaper WRC + come-back of Suzuki and Subaru + quite similar to IRC current cars => come-back of IRC teams into WRC name, but still sponsored by EuroSport (main sponsor of IRC).

Of course, IRC I talk about is Intercontinental Rally Challenge, not Indy Racing Car.

[Chulk]

Of course, IRC I talk about is Intercontinental Rally Challenge, not Indy Racing Car.

Indycar racing?

[Chulk]

Mitsubishi is out. They announced they had lost 500 million euros. Subaru, Suzuki and Mitsubishi out of WRC, Honda out of F1 and Kawasaki out of Moto GP. Japan is out!

[Krys TOFF]

Mitsubishi is out. They announced they had lost 500 million euros. Subaru, Suzuki and Mitsubishi out of WRC, Honda out of F1 and Kawasaki out of Moto GP. Japan is out!

Not fully : Honda and Yamaha will (so far) remain in MotoGP, and Toyota remains in F1 (at least until 2010).

Apart from that, Loeb kicked everybody's ass for 2009 season start in Ireland. This man is awesome.

[CTG]

Wow, Latvala survived this without serious injuries...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfeSpejcLRI#noexternalembed

[Duplode]

Wow, Latvala survived this without serious injuries...

175m, OMG! 

[Chulk]

Wow, Latvala survived this without serious injuries...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfeSpejcLRI#noexternalembed

Is he lucky or what? Just a few hours ago, my brother was walking to his job and he sprained his ankle for simply not seing a pot-hole...

[Krys TOFF]

Wow, Latvala survived this without serious injuries...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfeSpejcLRI#noexternalembed

But he won't survive long as an official pipsqueak of Ford team. Latvalla is really 1 scratch-1 crash man, just like Duval was a few years ago and then got fired from Citroen. Seems to me that 1 or 2 DNF rally for Latvalla would mean him replaced by Duval, especially for paved roads/tarmac rallies.

[CTG]

That was RALLY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20nQ8fc5Jb8#noexternalembed