Blogs

WRC Pirelli driver blog - Dani Sordo

"Hello from Wales. This is a bit of an early blog - before seven in the morning - because I'm about to start the second day of our Rally GB test and I'm not sure how good the phone connection is in the forests. So this is coming direct from the Citroen team hotel before I get my breakfast.

Looking back on the Rally in Spain now it seems almost perfect. I say almost perfect because of course there was no win at the end of it, but in every other way it went like a dream. I was leading, pushing hard and I was ahead of Sebastien and Mikko. On top of that I also had a lot of confidence in the car, more than I had last year, and maybe that's why I went faster than last year.

In the end, though, it was my team-mate Sebastien who won. But he was grateful for the job that I did to support him. We'd spoken a lot during the rally, usually when we were waiting to start each stage and he thanked me before the finish. He did it again on the podium, and then again at the press conference... Yes, I would have preferred to have stayed on the top in Spain but the manufacturers' title was the priority this time. Winning a WRC rally remains a dream for me which so far hasn't arrived. It's difficult after 23 or 22 podiums not to have won yet - maybe my time will come in Wales?

After the rally finished on Sunday we went out for a team party to celebrate the one-two, and of course the manufacturers' title for Citroen. The team took over a big club in Salou and even though it came at the end of a long rally, we all had plenty of energy. So it was a big night.

The next morning was tough, though. After two hours sleep I had to get up and go to a Citroen dealership in Girona to do some filming. I wasn't looking so great but I think I did okay. Luckily the film is one for Citroen only, so I don't think it will ever be shown on television. After that I flew directly home, and stayed there for one day before flying here to South Wales on Wednesday to prepare for my two day test.

So that's about it from Spain. It was a great rally for me, even if the final result wasn't the one I wanted. Next up comes GB and a proper chance to fight for the win."

For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit: www.pirellityre.com

WRC Pirelli driver blog - Dani Sordo

Blog two: Saturday 3 October. 1900hrs.

"Hi everyone! As I'm sure you know already, the rally is going really well for us so far. From the very start, it's either been me or Sebastien [Loeb] in the lead. Seb got back in front of me this evening, and we're going to try to secure a one-two finish in that order tomorrow. This would allow Citroen to take the manufacturers' championship and it would also put Seb in a better position for the drivers' championship.

When I put together four fastest times at the start of the rally, I felt reassured. To tell the truth, I was a little nervous before the start of this event. Last year I didn't drive particularly well and Seb was all over me. I was a bit worried that it was going to be the same story again this year, but I've shown now that I can fight back. What makes it even better is the fact that I'm driving in front of my home crowd. The rally fans here aren't quite as mad as they are in Argentina, but I can really feel the support of the crowd - a bit like being a footballer in the middle of your home stadium!

Both myself and Seb have been driving quickly, although we've not been taking any unnecessary risks. But the difference between going quickly and going really quickly is a relatively small one. We've been going flat-out, but we've not been 'braking in the kitchen' as we say in Spain: or taking our brains out, as you might prefer to call it... Basically, we've not pushed to the limit in every corner; instead we've been letting the car do its own thing on each stage and that actually costs a bit of time. In fact, on a 30-kilometre stage you can probably lose up to 10 seconds if you don't go deep into every corner.

At lunchtime yesterday I was delighted to meet Alberto Contador. He's one of my heroes and I'm always really amazed at his explosive power up hills! I watched the Tour de France on TV, and I remember what he did over the Pyrenees. He said that he liked rallying and that he was impressed by what we were doing. But I'm just as impressed by him. In the evening, I also met Carlos Sainz. Without a doubt, he is the person who has done most for rallying in Spain. When I was younger, I always dreamed of following in his footsteps. So when he came over to congratulate me, it was a really special moment!

It's time for me to go now as I need to sign a few autographs before watching the videos of tomorrow's stages. See you soon!

For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com

WRC Pirelli driver blog - Dani Sordo

Blog one: Thursday 1 October. 1700hrs.

"We've had a good amount of time to prepare for this rally since the last one in Australia but with testing and training I've been kept really busy. I did two days in the C4 at our test near Barcelona but for rest of the time I've been at my home in the north of Spain.

It?s a perfect place to prepare for a tarmac rally because my family owns a karting circuit - so that's where I've spent the last few weekends, doing lap after lap after lap...

Apart from the karting I've also been working hard on my fitness; doing a lot of training in the gym but also getting outside in the fresh air too. I took part in a mountain bike race and finished 16th from 200 people - not too bad - and I've been doing a lot of jet-skiing which is a great workout.

Competing here in my home country, in front of so many Spanish spectators and fans, always gives me a special feeling - even if the roads aren't actually my favourite. It really is like a race circuit and yes, it's tarmac, but I'm not sure I like the surface as much as did earlier in my career. In the past we had slick tyres and the amount of grip and the sensation in the car was incredible because you could attack the roads so hard. Now you need to drive to the limit of the tyre and you can't attack so much - maybe that's why I prefer to drive on gravel nowadays.

So far my preparations here in Salou have gone well. I flew in on Monday, because driving would have taken about five hours, and went straight to do some promotional filming with some of the other drivers. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday Marc [Marti - co-driver] and I did the recce. Apart from the location of Shakedown everything is exactly the same as last year - so it was easy. We used last year's notes and made some small changes but not many.

Today's Shakedown was okay but it wasn't very representative of the rally. Yes, it took place on an actual stage, but the section they chose is very wide, slippery and not like the rest of the rally. I remember last year it was only in this section that my car was sliding about a lot, oversteering and understeering. I only did four passes through the stage, checked the car was okay and that was it - we were off. Like Seb we ran on the soft tyres because we want to save our hard compounds for the rally.

There are plenty of places to go out and party in Salou but I'll be giving it a miss tonight. Instead I'll follow my regular pre rally routine; I'll watch some of the on-board videos we took on the recce, then get to bed by about 10pm. At eight o'clock tomorrow morning the proper stuff starts.

I'll be back with another update on Saturday to let you know how we are getting on..."

For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com

WRC Pirelli driver blog - Mathew Wilson

Blog three: Thursday 10 September. 0900hrs.

"Well, it has only been a few days since the rally finished and we are already back on the other side of the world. In the end I was pretty pleased with my result, but I had been looking forward to having a real ding-dong battle with Henning on the last day and unfortunately it didn't work out like that.

We had a good night out on Sunday before starting the trip home on Monday afternoon. Everybody in the team works so hard during the rally that it's good to have an opportunity to let off steam and just relax, have a nice meal, go for a few drinks and then enjoy the fact that you don't have to get up at 4am the next day.

Because all of the drivers had flown in through Sydney for the PR events before the rally, Scott and I had to go back that way while the rest of the team headed out of Brisbane. But we all met up at the airport in Dubai and took the same flight back to Manchester. Despite the long journey the mood was pretty good after another strong weekend for the Ford teams.

The jetlag hasn't hit home yet, but I'm sure it will anytime now. During the rally the adrenalin of competing keeps you going, even when they days are really long and you?re not getting as much sleep as you'd like, but it does catch up with you eventually.

I really am looking forward to having a short break now, and after a bit of time at home I'll be heading down to the south of France for a few days to enjoy the sunshine and recharge the batteries.

October is going to be a really busy month for us with two rallies, including my home event, Rally GB. It is brilliant to rally in front of a home crowd, but it brings a fair bit of pressure with it too. There will be lots of important media commitments and events with our sponsors both before and during the event, but I'll also be trying to keep focused on my goals for the season. It would be great to finish on high on my home rally."

For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com

WRC Pirelli driver blog - Matthew Wilson

Blog two: Saturday 5 September. 2100hrs.

“Two days down, one to go and I have to say that I have really been enjoying Rally Australia. The stages are fun and fast and they certainly seem to be giving everyone a good test. I'm glad we had a bit of extra time to rest ahead of the rally last weekend though, because this event has been pretty exhausting.

There are so many stages and the days are extremely long, with early starts and some really big road sections. It's not often that we take part in a rally that has 35 stages and it has even caused the co-drivers a bit of a problem as their watches are only designed to go up to 30!

The Super Specials in Murwillumbah have been fantastic. So many people came out for the autograph session in the town before the rally kicked off on Thursday night and there has been a brilliant atmosphere there every night since.

Day One wasn’t great for us. We had a bit of a spin on one of the first stages, which was really disappointing because that was where I wanted to attack early as the roads really suited me. After that I found it hard to find my rhythm. When a stage is only six or eight kilometres long, as a lot of them are here, it can be over before you've had a chance to adjust to the road conditions.

I shouldn't have joked about the rainy weather back in the UK in my last blog because it's come back to haunt me today. It rained a lot here overnight which left some pretty treacherous conditions this morning.

It was my team mate Henning who really got caught out early on, crashing off on the second stage of the day. He and [co-driver] Cato got straight back on the road but, after losing his windscreen in the crash, he had to wear glasses to get through the next two stages. You can always rely on Henning to add a bit of fun to proceedings and he took it all in good spirit. I think the funniest moment was when Cato set off the windscreen washer by accident! But Henning was mostly worried about making sure that we didn't take a photo of him at the stage end with those glasses.

After feeling a bit disappointed yesterday, I have been very happy with how today has gone. I feel as if I am driving well, and now we are less than a second behind Henning it is going to be great to be involved in a real battle on the last day of the rally.

Tomorrow’s a long day though, so there’s still a lot of work to do. Fingers crossed we can get another good points finish, and hopefully edge out my team mate.”

For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com

WRC Pirelli driver blog - Matthew Wilson

Blog one: Thursday 3 September. 1400hrs.

"Well it's been a really long trip from the UK to Australia but after having a couple of days to recover I'm now raring to go and can't wait for the rally to start tonight.

The flight was really good as we came on the new Airbus A380 - that was an impressive plane. We landed on Saturday and, after catching up on some sleep, we had a great day out in Sydney on Sunday. Getting out and about in the sunshine with the other drivers was just what we needed to blow the cobwebs out and kill off the jetlag.

Sydney's a fantastic city and we crammed a lot into a short time there. Going out on the jet boat around the harbour definitely helped to wake me up and the trip to Bondi Beach for a quick game of beach volleyball with the lifeguards was mega. Me and Scott also had a sneaky dig at the Australians while we were there, wearing our England cricket caps in front of the Opera House. It's not often you get to celebrate an English victory over the Aussies in any sport!

Even though it's only spring here we've been really lucky with the weather so far. It's been warm and sunny - a bit different to what we left behind in Cumbria where the Great British summer is in full swing with rain, rain and more rain! But we're not really here for the sightseeing and the sunshine. There's been a lot of work to be done before the rally gets started and because it's taking place in a completely new location the recce has been really important for this event. We've made some good pacenotes over the last couple of days. There are some really quick sections, but some very technical parts too, so it's going to keep us all on our toes.

I took Channel 10 presenter Daryl Beattie for a run in the car during shakedown this morning. He's a real Aussie motorsport legend. He's best known as a commentator on Australian TV now, but he was a great motorcycle racer back in the 90s, mixing it with guys like Mick Doohan, Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey. It was great to share our racing experiences and show him around the rally car.

Now it's time to really focus on the event. I want to keep my points run going here. We've scored points on every event that we've finished so far this season and I don't want that to change so I'll be keeping the concentration going.

Anyway, it's time to get ready for tonight's Super Special Stages. I think there will be a really good atmosphere there and it's always fun to race in front of a big crowd so it'll be a great way to kick off the rally."

For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com

WRC Pirelli driver blog - Mikko Hirvonen

Blog three: Thursday 6 August. 0900hrs.

It's beginning to sink in now... I've just won Rally Finland. That's the dream I've had since I was a small boy and now I've done it with my father and my two boys watching me. I don't have the words to tell you how incredible that feels.

Sunday afternoon became a bit of a blur to be honest. Standing on the podium with thousands of fans, the whole team and all my friends and family watching me was quite surreal. Even sitting in the middle chair at the FIA press conference felt strange - a good strange though. A soaked-in-champagne strange actually!

I think Jyvaskyla is still recovering from the party we had on Sunday night. It was fantastic! The whole team were there to celebrate with Jarmo and I and it was a late night I can tell you! Luckily in the morning, all I had to go was drive the few kilometres back to my house and not sit on the team bus back to Helsinki!

So, next stop is Australia and I'm really looking forward to it. New events seem to suit us and because we're only three points ahead of the Frenchman we really need to win in Australia.

Thank you for supporting us last weekend, it means a lot. Keep doing that and who knows how the year might end. Fingers crossed everybody.

Kiitos.

Mikko

For more about Pirelli in the WRC visit:
www.pirellityre.com