Blogs
WRC Pirelli driver blog - Henning Solberg
Blog two: Saturday 4 April. 1900hrs.
Hi everyone,
Wow, what a start I had to the Rally de Portugal winning the Super Special stage inside the Algarve Stadium on Thursday night. There was a great crowd watching us and it was really good fun to be able to put on a show for the fans. We were up against Dani Sordo on the stage and it was very close but I was delighted to win it and lead a WRC event for the first time in my career.
On Friday morning we had a few brake problems which slowed us up on the opening stage but the mechanics did a great job fixing that issue and the car has felt great ever since. We ended the first day just outside the points but that was exactly where I wanted to be to have the best road position for the tricky stages today.
There’s a lot of dust and loose gravel out there which the front runners have to clear so it is good to be starting a little further back. We have put in some really good times today and I’m in sixth place going into Sunday so I’m very pleased with the way things are going.
It was a big relief to see Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikka Anttila escape uninjured from their accident yesterday. It was a very serious crash and the fact that they only have some bruises goes to show just how strong the Ford Focus RS WRC car is.
My wife Maud and son Oscar arrived yesterday and I am really happy to have them here with me. It is good to switch off for a couple of hours in the evening and spend time with them.
There should be some great battles tomorrow as I am really close to my team mate Matthew Wilson and we’ll both be driving hard to try and finish in fifth place. At the moment I’m just one point ahead of my brother Petter in the driver standings so there will be some family rivalry tomorrow to see who can get in front in the championship. I will let you know how it all goes after the rally...
Henning
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
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WRC Pirelli driver blog - Henning Solberg
Blog one: Thursday 2 April. 1500hrs.
Hi everyone. I’m really pleased to have been asked to update Pirelli’s WRC driver blog from the Rally de Portugal. I’m excited about the rally getting underway and I’m looking forward to keeping you updated over the weekend!
It is great to be here in Portugal and we’re really enjoying the weather. When we started our journey from Norway on Monday there was still snow on the ground so it’s a nice change to be in the sunshine.
On our trip from Norway we bumped into the backer of Norwegian football team ‘I.L. Hodd’. It turns out that the team is doing warm-weather training in the Algarve at the moment so some of the squad will be coming to meet us and check out the rally tomorrow.
I think it’s going to go a lot better for me here in Portugal than at the last round of the WRC in Cyprus when I didn’t even make it to the start of the first stage. I am glad that there is no Friday the 13th during this rally!
There’s no chance of that happening here as the first stage takes place on a special course built inside the Algarve Stadium. There will be a lot of fans there to see the start of the rally and it should be a special atmosphere. But we’ll be taking extra care on the way to SS2 tomorrow morning...
With a lot of the stages being quite close together we managed to get the recce done quite quickly this week giving us a bit more time to prepare for the rally and enjoy the surroundings here. We are staying at the team hotel in Vilamoura. The hotel is right by the marina and there are a lot of great restaurants around there where we can have a bit of down time.
Shakedown went well this morning and we’ll be back at the Service Park early this afternoon for an autograph signing session where we will get to meet some of the fans who’ll be cheering us on tonight.
I’m off to the debrief before getting a couple of hours rest at the hotel but I’ll be back to update you all on our progress over the weekend.
Henning
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com/
WRC Pirelli driver blog - Dani Sordo
Blog two: Saturday 14 March. 1900hrs.
Well, the second leg of the Cyprus Rally is behind us already. And since you've no doubt been following the action on wrc.com, you will know that I am third overall this evening.
We had a good day yesterday on asphalt, but I found today's gravel stages harder going. My biggest problem was with the extremely slow, slippery corners, even though I've made some changes to my pacenote system for this rally.
I have made a special point of differentiating between the 'slow' and 'very slow' turns. A very slow hairpin means you practically need to stop the car before pulling on the handbrake. The way you set the car up for each corner is vital because the bends just follow on from each without the slightest straight in between. Overall, I am pleased with the method I used for my notes for this rally because it has tended to be consistent from one stage to the next.
To be honest, I know I won't catch Mikko Hirvonen in normal circumstances. That said, I have every intention of defending my position against Petter Solberg who really does seem to have the bit between his teeth. He was very quick this afternoon and I don't think he has any plans to ease up. But he shouldn't count on me refusing the fight. It will be tougher for him tomorrow because he will be just behind me on the road, so the conditions will be practically the same for both of us.
One thing that has marked me here this weekend is the behaviour of certain locals on the road. I've seen some incredibly bad driving and we've had to be doubly careful on the road sections. We have come across two cars on the wrong side of the road, and there was another time when a motorcyclist chose to overtake us just before a blind crest. It's exactly this sort of crazy driving that caused of Henning Solberg's retirement yesterday morning. I can't think of anything more heartbreaking for a driver than being stopped on the road section out to the very first stage!
To wrap up, I just wanted to stress that open roads are not rally stages. If you find yourself behind a rally car on a road section, it's pointless and stupid to want to try to impress the crew by doing something dangerous. If you really want to let off some steam, the best thing is to go and put in a few laps in a go-kart!
I'll be back with more news after the podium ceremony... by which time I hope my overalls will be soaked in champagne!
Dani
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com/
WRC Pirelli driver blog - Dani Sordo
Blog one: Thursday 12 March. 1400hrs.
Hi, everyone! It's a big pleasure to be responsible for updating Pirelli's WRC Drivers' Blog here in Cyprus.
To tell the truth, the worst moment of my career occurred on this event back in 2006, which is the only other time I have been to the island. I went off on the super-special which rounded off the rally, and I just hope that this year's event will enable that memory to be eclipsed by a much more successful run this time.
We travelled here via Frankfurt where I met up with Sebastien (Loeb), and we had a good opportunity to chat because our onward flight was delayed by a couple of hours. We got to Cyprus eventually and we were soon settled into our hotel. It was nice to see that I had been given a room with a great view over the sea. Following our trips to Ireland and Norway earlier in the year, the change in the weather is quite a contrast, but I'm not complaining about that in the slightest!
We had to be up at 4am for the first day of recce and I got room service to bring breakfast up to my room. It was really pleasant to enjoy a nice omelette with the sound of waves in the background. We then had a 60km drive out to the stages, and the recce itself was quite hard work because we had a plenty of new pacenotes to take. There aren't many straights on this island and Marc (Marti) filled four notebooks, instead of the usual two.
Yesterday evening, Seb took us out for dinner. I don't usually drink a drop of alcohol but my host was keen on introducing me to the art of wine-tasting and I'm glad to report that I managed to tell the difference between the two wines I was invited to sample. The wine which Seb preferred was clearly less acidic, but I wasn't bowled over by the experience; I still prefer Red Bull!
This is an important event for Citroen because the cars are running in new colours for the first time. I think they have done a great job with the new logo: it is modern and reflects the way the brand has evolved. I particularly like the touch of white they have added to the livery of our C4 WRCs. I'm having trouble getting used to my new race shoes, though. It's not because they are red, white and blue; I just find them too stiff. I will use my usual shoes for this event until I have broken in the new ones...
That's all for now, I'm afraid. The engineers are calling me in for the post-shakedown debrief. I'll be back on Saturday afternoon, by which time I'm sure I will have plenty to tell you about...
Dani
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com/
WRC Pirelli driver blog - Mikko Hirvonen
Test blog: 25 February. 1700hrs.
I love Sardinia. I love the place, the people, but more importantly I love the food! Pizza, made in Italy by Italians is the best in the world. We've been testing down near Cagliari in the south of the island and it's really beautiful there. Unfortunately, a really hard test means not enough sightseeing or eating out. But we did find a fantastic little pizza place just near our hotel and that's where we ate every evening.
So, we flew to Cagliari last Thursday for our Cyprus pre-event test and stayed at a small hotel called the 'Hinterland' - very basic but okay for a few nights.
Jarmo and I tested Friday, Saturday and Sunday with our Focus RS WRC car - Friday on asphalt and the weekend on gravel. I'm not going to tell you it was easy because it wasn't. I've never driven on asphalt with a gravel car before and it was interesting!
We had a few moments that day. On the whole it was good though. We learnt a lot and it was nice to get back into the rally car on gravel for the first time since Rally GB in December. Since then we'd seen a lot of rain, fog, snow and ice on our travels so it was nice to see the sun and it should be even warmer in Limassol.
It's going to be an interesting weekend for all of us out there driving, especially on Day 1. Hope you all have as much fun watching as we're going to have driving.
Take care and speak to you soon.
Mikko
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
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WRC Pirelli driver blog - Mikko Hirvonen
Blog three: Friday 20 February. 1200hrs.
Hi everybody. So I've been home after Rally Norway, seen my family and relaxed a bit, but I can't help still feeling disappointed.
I wanted to win that rally so much but it just wasn't meant to be. I was beaten by the best rally driver in the world! When I look at it like that, to come second to him by only 10 seconds after 360kms isn't so bad is it..
It was a tough weekend and we fought right down the last stage, but we just couldn't do it.
The whole team did a great job in supporting us all weekend and the car ran perfectly. But I won't miss those temperatures. It was so cold! Credit has to go to all the fans who braved the weather and went out there and supported all of us. They really are very determined to watch rally cars in Norway!
No rest for us though. I'm writing this in sunny Sardinia testing for Rally Cyprus. There are 20 of us out here on the test and Jari-Matti [Latvala] and Miikka [Anttila] are here too.
As day one in Cyprus this year is on asphalt, we are doing a six-day test to prepare ourselves - two days on asphalt and four on gravel. We have to get the right car set-up for driving on asphalt stages but with gravel tyres and suspension. We've never done that before so it's going to be interesting to see how it works.
Stay tuned to wrc.com and I'll let you know how it went next week.
Have a good weekend!
Mikko
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
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WRC Pirelli driver blog - Mikko Hirvonen
Blog two: Saturday 14 February. 1930hrs.
Happy Valentine's Day to all the girls out there! Since I last wrote to you we've done 230kms in what can only be described as the most perfect winter conditions here in Norway. It's been a tough two days and we've had to fight really hard with Sebastien, but it's been fantastic and I've enjoyed every minute of the driving.
The Super Special in Oslo was a good start on Thursday night - a great atmosphere. There were some guys doing stunts on bikes and skidoos around the track which looked amazing. I'd like to try that one day when I'm feeling braver.
The temperatures were really low yesterday but thankfully the heaters in my race boots worked! Today it's only been about -9ºC and because it's so sunny, it feels much warmer. There are still a lot of people out watching despite the cold.
I told you I love this rally. And I still do. But I'd love it even more if I was leading right now. I've been absolutely on my limit for two days but I just can't catch Seb. He's setting some incredible times and just when I take a few seconds off him, he gets them back off me on the next stage. But I did win SS2 which means that Jerry Williams won the media sweepstake. So, well done Jerry.
I've just been to the end of day press conference with Seb and Jari-Matti and now I'm going back to the hotel to watch my recce tapes for tomorrow. I need to remind myself what the roads look like. Then I'll call home to see how the family are and off to bed for, hopefully, a good sleep. It's another early start tomorrow morning.
I hereby promise to push hard tomorrow, win this rally and make the whole team happy!
Mikko
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
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