Blogs
WRC Pirelli driver blog - Mikko Hirvonen
Blog one: Thursday 12 February. 1500hrs.
I'm so excited. I love this rally. I can't wait to get started and get out on the snow - especially now that I've dried out after such a wet week in Ireland.
It's proper winter here in Norway, the temperature was -27° C when I looked this morning and it only got up as high as -13°C this afternoon. But it's been beautiful and really clear weather. It's the perfect winter and Norway at its best. It's a pleasure to be here. You are forced to enjoy this rally because it just looks so good.
The pre-event recce was really long and busy. Jarmo and I haven't been out for dinner or done any training since we arrived on Monday night. I've not even seen this town yet. Food wise, we haven't been too adventurous with the local produce - so far all I've had is an extremely expensive burger on the road trip from Oslo on Tuesday.
Hopefully all this hard work will pay off tomorrow morning when the rally starts properly.
Shakedown went okay this morning, but it took some time for me to be able to drive on snow and ice. I was thinking about Ireland too much. I needed to work out how to drive again. I almost rolled the car on my last run. I haven't told [team principal] Malcolm Wilson about that. In the end we did three runs and it all feels really good.
I'm in the service area now. I've just had eggs and bacon on toast and soon I'm off back to the hotel to watch my recce tapes of the stages before heading down to Oslo for the Super Special stage tonight. Who said that rally drivers have a glamorous life, eh?
Let's get going. Speak to you soon and if you can get out there in the snow, it's great!
Mikko
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com/
WRC Pirelli driver blog - Chris Atkinson
Blog three: Tuesday 3 February. 1200hrs.
Finally home after what's been a pretty useful rally but the hard work is just getting started - now I have to chase up ways we can do more events in this awesome C4 WRC.
Overall the event went really well - despite a fair share of close calls - but sometimes a bit of luck goes a long way! It was great to tackle the first round of the year and to see the championship is still going strong with all the fans out there over the weekend - even though conditions weren't the best for spectating.
The team were magic all week. Yes, I'm disappointed I couldn't come through with fourth place, but the fight with Henning made it exciting for everyone. Next time I'll take that Norwegian for sure!
The boys working on my car impressed me - especially on Friday night when they brought it back to life after we smashed into the electricity pylon. It was back to 100 per cent for Saturday and I'm sure they're not so used to cars coming back to service looking the way mine did! The speed we managed to get out of the car on Saturday came at a good comfort level - and I know with more time in the C4 there is a lot of time left to shed.
Picking up the Abu Dhabi Spirit of the Rally award for this event was cool... we must have been doing something right, I guess! I think one winner of the award this year gets a holiday to Abu Dhabi which would be an interesting spot to check out... and its half way back to Australia so its win, win if I get it ;) If they had a second award to give out I'd like to nominate the pylon for keeping me on the road.
Time to go on a sponsor finding mission now so I best be leaving things here. Thanks everyone for following my blog over the rally.
Over and out
Atko
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com/
WRC Pirelli driver blog - Chris Atkinson
Blog two: Saturday 31 January. 1330hrs.
Well I just had the best steak ever! It seems good things go hand-in-hand with the Citroen team. Today has been a lot more encouraging after that massive stack yesterday which probably took down half the power in Sligo after we wiped out an electricity pylon in fifth gear!
I have to say fair play to my co-driver Stephane... I have hammered his shoulder in two big accidents but the big guy's still battling on - he's as hard as nails.
The team did an awesome job fixing our mess last night, I don't think Citroen technicians are so accustomed to cars coming back to service with holes in them but she was good as new this morning... thanks boys.
Adapting to a new car after four years in a different one will take time but my confidence with the Citroen and the times are gradually getting better and better - that's the main aim for my first event in the C4.
There is still a lot left in this car and I'm happy to take time to learn its limits but already the times are starting to come on and I'm a lot more upbeat heading into service with two top-three fastest times notched up.
We're back in a fight for fourth now and I know Henning likes a battle too so I reckon there will be some solid action for the fans this afternoon.
Well, time to battle on, in this savage weather it really is boring creeping out to the stages but its sweet once we hit stage mode... takes your mind off the cold and rain!
Keep the good times rolling...
Atko
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com/
WRC Pirelli driver blog - Chris Atkinson
Blog one: Thursday 29 January.
Bonjour, comment ça va? I guess I will be needing to polish up on my French for this rally. You would think after two years living in the south of France I'd have some idea... Nope.
Cruising over to Ireland went smoothly and I'm happy to be back here, I've got some fond memories, and had some good times, in the country; the people make it kind of like an Australia away from Australia - well, apart from the one obvious difference!
Things are different now in 2009 and at first it felt a bit odd sporting this sea of red but I think its growing on me and there's a great bunch of people in this Citroen squad which makes the transition much easier.
After four years as a factory driver it's been a bit of a battle reverting back to a 'pay-as-you-go' driver, most notably in the organisational side of things.
I have been used to having everything ready to 'arrive and drive' so to speak but now I have to remember a few of the essentials myself and I think this hit home this morning at the start of the shakedown stage - I forgot to bring a balaclava and had to borrow Seb's spare! I could have looked a bit silly rolling back to service cos I forgot it, lucky Seb had a spare... cheers, man.
Currently this is my only event for the year and I can't wait to get started. We are going to tackle it flat out! Preparation has been no different to any other event I have done, lots of training and revision of stages from previous years. We won the Group N class here in 2006 and I'm pumped to make things happen here again this weekend.
Check in with you all tomorrow,
Atko
For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com/
WRC Pirelli driver blog - P-G Andersson
Wales Rally GB blog three - Sunday:
This is really a SUNday! I have never seen so much sun during Wales Rally GB. And I am also in a sunny mood because I was able to repeat our great result from Rally Japan and finish this challenging event in fifth. Wow, what a thrill! And what a relief! I am really happy that we were able to achieve this after all those tricky events we had during our first WRC season.
This rally was definitely not the most enjoyable I have done, but probably the most difficult one. Also the last day of this event was icy and scary. But actually it was the first time I have been here since 2004 without any mistake or technical failure.
I felt sorry when Henning had to retire. He is a really nice guy and the fights with him are good fun. But for sure it was my luck. I was pushing as hard as I could in order to keep my position, but he was just flying away.
But well, we are here now and I am happy!
Ciao for now, hope to see you soon!
P-G
WRC Pirelli driver blog - P-G Andersson
Wales Rally GB blog two - Saturday:
A traditional rain dance might have helped me today. But first I'm not a very good dancer, and second the fireplace was missing. So I had to cope with today's weather. It was not too bad, you might say. Yes, from your point of view that might be right. But as Friday showed, our car seems to love proper Welsh conditions.
Loads of mud and water and occasionally some ice obviously suit us very well. These were exactly the circumstances that helped us to finish Friday in third - the best result we ever achieved during our first WRC season.
Today it many times looked like there was gravel, but it was ice underneath. In one corner you had grip, in the next you had a big moment. That made driving very difficult and - coming back to my dancing skills - quite 'unrhythmic'. We were almost reversing through quite a few of corners and had the chance to take some close looks at the Welsh forest underneath the tree branches.
But after all fortunately there were no big dramas - we are here on fifth and are looking forward to have a good fight with the Orange Norwegian who is right behind us on Sunday.
Talk to you later,
P-G
WRC Pirelli driver blog - P-G Andersson
Wales Rally GB blog one - Thursday:
Since I got home from Rally Japan I did what I always do: got to work building roads in Sweden. But although I am an asphalt specialist - in the truest sense - as the results from Rallye de Espana and Rallye de France show, I don't usually like tarmac rallies that much. So after a pretty successful Rally Japan I was really looking forward to get some proper gravel under the tyres of my SX4 WRC again. But during the recce in Wales we found a lot of snow instead!
Wales is always a very difficult event. The weather can change a lot. Usually there is mainly fog, rain and mud. But this year we found something that I haven't seen here in England before - a lot of snow and ice on the stages. In some places it looked like my home event!
When we woke up on Tuesday and went out for the recce it was snowing and I thought this would just be a short flurry. But when we got to the stages there was ice and snow all over the place. It made the recce very, very spectacular. Sometimes it was a big fight just to get through the uphill sections. But at least we managed to get through.
One thing you don't often see is Sebastien Loeb off the road. But this happened this time in a downhill stretch - on a road section - where it was very slippery and icy. On Wednesday we thought the snow and ice would have gone, but the stages were still full of it. There were cars everywhere, people sliding into each other or into the cars - just unbelievable. At least during shakedown we could drive in proper Welsh conditions with a lot of mud and water.
On Thursday evening we returned to tarmac, but just for the drive home to Swansea after the ceremonial start in Cardiff. We still don't know if any of the stages will be cancelled tomorrow, but it definitely will be an interesting day and our hopes are high.
Talk to you later,
P-G
